Princessebier

When Gerard Heineken bought De Hooiberg in 1864, he didn't just buy a building; he bought the Princessebier. This was a beer of high-society and high-stakes adventure. A spiced, top-fermented luxury ale, it was uniquely engineered with coriander and orange peel to survive the sweltering, months-long sea voyages to the East and West Indies. It was the first Dutch beer to achieve global fame, served in the royal courts of Europe and the distant trading posts of the colonies. It was the prestige of Princessebier that gave the young Gerard the international 'street cred' to eventually experiment with the science of lagers. It is the royal ancestor that taught Heineken how to export.

It was named to honor the Princess of Orange and was so famous that "Princessebier" became a generic term for premium beer in the Dutch colonies, much like "Pilsner" is today.

Phased out in the early 1900s, its role as the premier top-fermented specialty brew was eventually succeeded by the legendary Tarwebok in the 1920s.