Heading Down to Heineken

Today, we had the opportunity to tour Heineken Ireland Headquarters in Cork. Through a presentation, we learned about Heineken’s role in the beer industry worldwide and specifically in Ireland. Heineken currently employs over 800,000 people and own more than 170 production facilities. The beer company is known as the number one lager in Ireland and has a brewery right behind their headquarters. We were given a chance to look around.

To maintain safety in the facilities, we were instructed to wear orange and yellow vests like the employees. I admired how the company emphasized on safety; using signs, they alerted people to stay in certain areas, wear proper clothing and masks, and posted sayings like "No job is so urgent or important it cannot be done safely." Our tour guide also stated that they have become eco-friendlier be reusing CO2, which is very impressive. In addition to their machinery, we got a look at some of their ingredients.

I was intrigued to see that Heineken beer shared the same ingredients as the Guinness beer, which are barley, hops, wheat, and water. Below is a picture of the amount of barley in each Heineken beer bottle.