Stella Artois

Stella Artois is Belgium's most exported pale lager and one of AB InBev's global flagship brands, brewed in the university city of Leuven. The name pairs a star — "stella" in Latin, from its debut as a Christmas beer — with the surname of an eighteenth-century brewing family, and the brand leans hard on that heritage, down to its nine-step "pouring ritual" and chalice glassware.

The roots run deep: Leuven's Den Hoorn brewery appears in city excise records as far back as 1366. Sébastien Artois apprenticed there from 1708 and bought the brewery in 1717, giving it his name. Stella itself arrived much later — launched in 1926 as a special Christmas brew for the people of Leuven, it proved too popular to remain seasonal.

Through the twentieth century Artois grew by merger into Interbrew, the Belgian giant that eventually became Anheuser-Busch InBev, today the world's largest brewer. Stella Artois became the group's international premium lager, brewed under license in several countries, though Leuven remains its home and the historic brewery quarter still shapes the city's identity.

Light-bodied and crisp, with a softly sweet pale malt base and a mild herbal-spicy hop note. It finishes dry and clean, built for refreshment rather than complexity.