Duvel was founded in 1871 by Jan-Leonard Moortgat, who was descended from a family of brewers that lived in Steenhuffel, Belgium.^[1]

In the 1950s, the third generation of Moortgats took control of the brewery.

In the early 1970s, when the company was struggling financially, Moortgat bottled and distributed the Danish beer, Tuborg. This arrangement resulted in a continuous traffic of the large Danish trucks (carrying the beer in bulk) through the small town of Breendonk. A major disagreement between the two companies ended this arrangement in the early 1980s, but it did save the brewery who, by then, had managed to also set up massive distribution channels for their flagship beer, Duvel

In June 1999, Duvel Moortgat NV went public on Euronext Brussels.

Duvel Moortgat was an original investor in the Brewery Ommegang craft brewery founded in Cooperstown, NY, in the late 1990s. More recently, the Belgian company took over complete control of the brewery and founded a stateside sales organization Duvel USA to handle both Ommegang and Duvel Moortgat brands and others (including Rodenbach).

In September 2006 Duvel Moortgat bought fellow Belgian brewery Brasserie d'Achouffe.^[2]

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