Stella Artois: Most Popular Pils Beer in Belgium... and in the World

Stella Artois is part of the world’s largest brewery concern, AB InBev, and is still firmly rooted in its home base of Leuven.

Artois Brewery was a Leuven brewery, best known for its Stella Artois lager. The brewery grew into the multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev. The brewery existed under the name Artois since 1717 when Sébastien Artois (1680-1727) bought the old Leuven brewery Den Hoorn.

In 1926, Brouwerij Artois launched Stella as a Christmas beer. Because it was so bright it was given the name Stella.  Production was halted for a period when operations were suspended during World War II. By 1960, about 100 million liters of Stella Artois were being produced annually.

Stella Artois became one of the most popular pilsner beers in Belgium and in the late 20th century also began to make headway abroad. Leuven also presents an image of beer town extraordinary and allows its visitors to savor its joys to the full. 

Lately, the company has decided to replace the name of its home base on the green Stella Artois bottles with Belgium, to give the beer a more international image worldwide. Leuvenaars is not happy !!

( Compiling from multiple sources) , Photo by Aslı Tezcan