These TU alumni are making their own craft beer

We met the founders of the Frankendael Brouwerij brewery in De Hangout, the grand café on campus where they recently started selling their beer. They are amazed by what they see. “The campus has totally changed,” says Lei. “We didn’t have a hip café like this on campus in our time,” agrees Frank. “Boy, do we sound old!” he adds, laughing. They were both once students at TU Delft. She studied science communication and he studied industrial design. The one had a stronger connection to beer than the other. “I was discovering the joys of beer in every way possible,” jokes Frank. In contrast, she was not the party animal. “I was the stereotypical Asian girl. I didn’t drink beer at all when I was a student.”

Nerdy

“It started on impulse – let’s make our own beer,” explains Lei. They had no idea about beer brewing at all. “But these days you can learn anything from the internet. That’s a skill that TU students can be proud of.” They tried everything and gave the beer that they made to friends. “They loved it. After a couple of months we thought that we should take it seriously. We then started to talk to banks and investors.” Jeroen Canton, chief designer at Frankendael Brouwerij, is the third of the trio of founders. He studied industrial design at TU Delft too and is responsible for the art work. “He designs the labels,” says Frank. “These are pop art style. They stand out and are a little nerdy. We’re TU Delft students after all!”

Craft beer breweries are sprouting up all over the place. “It is a hype, not only in the Netherlands, but around the world,” says Frank. The start-up costs are low, making it appealing to start-ups. “You can start with just EUR 5,000 starting capital,” he explains. There are now about 600 beer breweries in the Netherlands. “When we started, there was half this number. We belong to the early adapters.”

Frankendael’s beers with the pop art style labels. (Photo: Marjolein van der Veldt)

Beer mat

The couple advises students who are thinking about entrepreneurship not to have any doubts. Frank assures them saying “Just try it. Don’t underestimate the ideas that you write down on a beer mat in a drunken stupor. They could be great ideas. And bear in mind that most start-ups fail. You never hear of these as people only want to talk about the success stories.”

Frank and Lei work closely with a large group of friends that they still know from their TU Delft days. “We call them our ‘groupies’. They help us at festivals and test our new flavours. We have a separate WhatsApp group that goes nuts if we have a new beer and we are looking for a good name.”

‘It’s a 24 hour job’

Even international students should dare take the step to setting up their own business, says Lei. “There is a perception that all Asian students do is study hard in the UB, never go out and once they’ve finished their studies, return home. But I see loads of examples of international students who are making careers.”

Addictive

And are there any misunderstandings about entrepreneurship? “It’s much harder work than I ever imagined,” says Frank. “It’s a 24 hour job,” Lei confirms. “You are always working on the business. I often lie in bed thinking about all the things that need to be done.” At the end of the interview, they point to the students behind us. Sure enough, we look at them and see three bottles with the recognisable Frankendael label on the table. The proud brewers smile. “These are the best moments,” says Frank. “People drinking our beer. This is the ultimate compliment.”

Mirjam van der Ploeg / Stagiaire