Tap Handle #178: Haacht - Rince Cochon

My friend Kelly's parents, Barney and Diane, wanted to buy me a tap for my birthday this year. This is the one I selected. Rince Cochon means "Rinsed Pig" in French. It's a beauty, isn't it?

The Haacht brewery traces its origins back to 1898, when Eugène De Ro brewed his first top-fermented beer. Four years later he also ventured into brewing bottom-fermented beer. This type of beer was so successful that the "Brouwerij en Melkerij van Haecht" was at the top of the Belgian brewing world in 1913. In 1929 the brewery expanded production into other types of beer: Bock, Export, Pilsner and Stout Ale. 1937 was a record year for the brewery, selling over 50 million litres of beer. In 1951, De Ro's son-in-law Alfred van der Kelen took over management of the brewery. Haacht Brewery began buying out smaller breweries to expand production and distribution.

Alfred van der Kelen died unexpectedly in 1968 and was succeeded by his son Frédéric. Between the 1970s and the 1990s Frédéric dramatically expanded the company's property portfolio. In 1990 the company started updating all of their production equipment. Today Haacht Brewery is the largest subsidiary of the public limited company Brouwerij Handelsmaatschappij nv (the third-largest brewer in Belgium), with its headquarters in Brussels and its administrative headquarters in Boortmeerbeek. Frédéric van der Kelen is still at the helm.

Rince Cochon is a Belgian Strong Ale that was previously contract brewed for French distributor Difcom at the Roman, Huyghe and SBA (Annoeullin) breweries, but is now brewed at Haacht under contract, though Haacht does not list the beer on its website.

Haacht Brewery Official English Website