Amstel Beer is brewed and bottled by Amstel Brouwerij in Amsterdam/Netherlands and has an alcohol content of 5% vol. According to the Amstel website, Amstel beer is pure-filtered which creates a full-strength beer without the calories and carbohydrates. The beer is brewed primarily from light-colored pilsner malt and has a pleasant flavour with a mild bitter taste after the gulp. One pint of regular Amstel Lager contains 227 calories. The light version is called Amstel Light.
History[]
Amstel Beer is made in Amsterdam, Holland. The Amstel brewery opened on June 11, 1870. The beer was named after the Amstel River, which the brewery used as a refrigeration source to keep the beers cold. Two years after opening, Amstel beer production had increased and grew out of being able to use the Amstel River. The brewery had to start putting ice from the canals into double-walled cellars to keep the beer cold.
While Amstel was mostly an Amsterdam beer, in 1883 Amstel started exporting their lager to Great Britain and Indonesia. With their massive growth, Amstel opened the Amstel Bavarian beer brewery as a joint stock company in 1892. By the time 1926 rolled around, Amstel beer was a third of all of Dutch beer exports.
In 1941, Amstel joined forces with Heineken and purchased another brewery. Unfortunately that brewery was not as successful as the first two and shut down in 1961. Amstel was first to export Dutch beer in the can. From there on, Amstel opened more and more breweries: Jordon, the Antillean brewery in Curaçao, then Puerto Rico and Greece. Heineken bought Amstel in 1968. Four years later, the original Amstel Brewery in Amsterdam shut down. Production was moved to Zoeterwoude where the main Heineken plant is. The original brewery was torn down, but the administration building was saved. It has since become apart of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, the largest hogeschool in Amsterdam.