Wilhelm Cürten and his wife, around 1870

The ‘uerige Willem’ (or ‘grumpy William’), who on principle never left the house – except on Sundays, when he went to church – immediately installed a brewery in the cellar and the rear buildings and was soon serving excellent top-fermented beer in the ground floor of his house.

After his death in 1886, his son Max took over the brewery. Towards the turn of the century, he modernized the business with a noisy ice machine and a brewing pan with a preheater, which at the time were the height of modern technology.

Max Kürten, around 1900