In 1811, Jan M. Cornelissen founded Brouwerij Sint-Jozef as a local farm brewery in the early 1800’s in a small village called ‘Gerdingen’.

In 1859, Jan Cornelissen moved the brewery to the city of Opitter, our current home. It’s here that the second generation was born, eldest son Jozef Cornelissen, future owner and brewer. It was during this period when the family began a water and lemonade factory next to the brewery. Jozef Cornelissen grew up to fight in, and survive, World War 1.

Jaak Cornelissen takes over the business from his father and merges the lemonade & water factory with the brewery.  A talented brew master, he creates PAX Pils in 1918 to mark the end of World War 1.

Mr. Jan Cornelissen, son of Jaak Cornelissen, takes over and grows the brewery, water, and lemonade businesses. The Sint-Jozef brewery became well known in the Limburg area of Belgium and in Germany. He also began a contract brewing business, brewing beer for other breweries.

Mr. Jozef Cornelissen took over the brewery due to the sudden death of his father Jan in 1979. He was educated as a brewmaster and invested in modernizing the brewery, including the filtration & fermentation process, and more. His brewmaster talents led him to create new brands including Bosbier and Limburgse Witte.

In 2014 Jef Cornelissen took over the brewery from his father Josef. Under his leadership the brewery was renamed for his ancestors as ‘Brouwerij Cornelissen’, and all of our beers have had their brands refreshed.  In 2015 Mr. Cornelissen launched our brewery's export sales business. For the first time in 208 years, our beers began to be exported beyond our home region. Mr. Cornelissen's strategy has seen Brouwerij Cornelissen expand it's business to over 20 new countries. And now we're in America.