Sunday’s ad is for Postel Abdij-Bier, from maybe the 1930s to the 1950s, but I’m really not sure. From the late 1800s until the 1980s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. I’ve been posting vintage European posters all last year and will continue to do so in 2020. This brand is now part of the Affligem Brewery, and Affligem is located in a municipality located some 12 miles west-north-west of Brussels in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. But the history, and when the sign was created, was different. “The name of the beer refers to the Abbey of Postel, located in Postel, a part of Mol. The Norbertine Postel already brewed beer in 1611. During the French Revolution, the canons were expelled from their monastery in 1797 and had to stop the brewing business necessity. After an absence of 50 years, the monks were able to return, but the brewing of beer was not restarted. It was not until 1953 that the Campina brewery in Dessel concluded an agreement with the Norbertines to produce the beer back and market it as an abbey beer. In 1988 the brewery was largely taken over by Brouwerij Alken-Maes. From then on, the Postel beers were produced by De Smedt Brewery in Opwijk. In 2000, this brewery was in turn taken over by Heineken.” I don’t know who the artist is who created this sign.
