No business plan, no investors. Aart van Bergen was just a musician who started brewing beer at home in a soup pot and simply could not stop. Ten years later, Brouwerij Walhalla in Amsterdam is at its strongest point ever, with a brand new brewhouse, a sunny tasting room and ten new beers to celebrate the anniversary. Aart’s story is one of creativity, perseverance and genuine Amsterdam pride.
From music to malt
Aart was a full-time musician when he discovered that brewing beer gave him at least as much as making music. “A huge fascination for ingredients, recipes and flavours awoke in me very quickly. It was precisely the creative side that stirred something in me.” After a lot of experimenting at home, he decided to take the leap: leaving music as a profession and focusing entirely on brewing.
He brewed his first beers at Sallandse Brouwerij in Overijssel, as he did not yet have a professional brewery of his own. “Those beers were an immediate hit, and I found shops and hospitality venues willing to stock them fairly easily.” That was the moment the ambition arose to set up his own brewery in Amsterdam — complete with a tasting room. That became Brouwerij Walhalla.
A year at a standstill
Not everything went smoothly. At the end of 2024, Walhalla was forced to relocate, with major consequences. “It ultimately took a year before we could brew again. We had to invest heavily and very little money was coming in — that gives you a very suffocating feeling.”
Ten years, ten beers
Many breweries that started ten years ago have long since called it a day. Walhalla has not. “We are now at our strongest point ever,” says Aart. The anniversary is being celebrated with ten new beers — from fruity IPA to smooth wheat beer and robust stout — and a new tasting room in Amsterdam Noord with more atmosphere, more capacity and a terrace right outside the door.
Truly Amsterdam
Walhalla puts the Amsterdam Made quality mark on every can. Not as a marketing stunt, but as a statement. “A lot of beer on the market looks Amsterdams, but is actually brewed in Belgium. Our beer is genuinely made in Amsterdam, by a core team of six people who keep the brewery running together.”
Aart keeps the overview, comes up with the new beers and, in his own words: “tries to keep the chaos at bay. Very challenging, haha.” That combination of craftsmanship and self-deprecating humour is what makes Walhalla what it is: an authentic Amsterdam brand with a big heart.
Want to know more about Brouwerij Walhalla? Visit the website.
