Oranjeboom

Heineken wasn't the only large brewery in Rotterdam. There was one far older concern: Oranjeboom Though the two breweries were connected.

Most of the information below comes from the Biernet site.

Founded as Brouwerij d'Orangienboom in 1670, its original home was in the city centre on the Nieuwe Haven. Though this site was only active until 1682, when production was concentrated at their other brewery on Coolvest.

Oranjeboom went through various owners before coming into the hands of the Baartz family in 1828. After Heineken's success with Lager, Oranjeboom considered building a new Lager plant in 1871. This was headed off by Heineken, who were about to build their own Lager plant in the city. Willem Baartz took shares in the newly-established Heinekens Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij. The plan was that Heineken's Rotterdam brewery would produce only Lagers, while Oranjeboomstuck with top-fermenting beers.

Things turned sour in 1884, when Heineken got wind of Oranjeboom's plan to buy a Linde ice machine, which they thought was meant for producing Lager. They went ahead and in 1885 opened a new brewery on the south side of the Maas, which was capable of brewing both top- and bottom-fermenting beers. 

 As you can see from the photo, it was a substantial affair.

Interestingly, for the first couple of decades after completing the new premises, Oranjeboom stuck to mostly top-fermenting"

The last topic was an introduction to the visit to the Brewery and Ice Factory "d'Oranjeboom". In connection with the fact that only about two years ago Heineken's brewery in Amsterdam had been discussed in more detail, now only a few technical details of "d'Oranjeboom" have been pointed out. As far as the brewing process is concerned, it should be noted that this brewery for both types of fermentation is just as completely set up, yet it has remained by far for the most part faithful to the top fermentation. After the meeting many people took part in the visit.
Het Vaderland 06-02-1903 

They brewed a lot of beer by Dutch standards - in 1896 more than 200,000 hl.

Here's what they were brewing between the wars:

Oranjeboom beers in 1933
Beer	Style	OG Plato	FG Plato	ABV	App. Attenua-tion	kg hops/ 100 kg	hops kg/hl
G (Gerste)	Dark Lager	8.33	4.30	2.15	49.21%	1.15	0.13
GL (Gerste Licht)	Pale Lager	8.47	2.50	3.16	71.18%	1.21	0.14
P	Pilsner	11.52	3.50	4.31	70.57%	1.15	0.18
M	Münchener	11.98	5.90	3.31	51.92%	0.80	0.13
St	Stout	16.10	6.90	5.10	58.66%	1.87	0.41
Bk	Bock	16.60	7.80	4.90	54.60%	0.93	0.22
Source:
Oranjeboom brewing record.

In 1961 Oranjeboom merged with Werthabrouwerij (Weert), Phoenix Bierbrouwerij (Amersfoort), Keizer Barbarossa (Groningen) and Zuid Hollandse Bierbrouwerij (Den Haag). Not much later Oranjeboom theselves fell to the UKs Allied Breweries in 1967. A year layer they were bundled together with De Drie Hoefijzers from Breda.

Here are some postwar beers. Given the low ABV, they must have been brewed specifically for the UK market

Oranjeboom beers 1957 - 1967
Year	Beer	Style	Price (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1957	Dutch Lager	Lager		1035.4	1007.5	3.62	78.81%	10
1957	Dutch Pilsener	Pils	42	1033.3	1007.8	3.31	76.58%	9
1961	Dutch Pilsner	Pils	36	1031.1	1006.9	3.02	77.81%	9.5
1963	Pilsner Lager	Pils	42	1031.6	1005.9	3.21	81.33%	7.5
1967	Pilsner Lager	Pils	35	1031	1006	3.13	80.65%	8.5
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

In a disastrous move, Allied insisted that all their beer in Holland be branded as Skol. Something that didn't help sales at all. I can remember many cafes being branded Skol when I lived in Rotterdam in 1987. Though a little earlier they had reintroduced the Oranjeboom name at pubs were gradually reverting to that livery.

All a little too late to save the brewery, which closed in 1989.