TOPIC:

On my family holiday to the Netherlands this month I had great expectations of the availability of good beer, but it wasn't until 5 days in I finally got my hands on some good beer. The first few days I survived on bottles of Boon Kriek (cherry), cans of Palm which I enjoyed and a special 5 pack of Hertog Jan bottles from 5-10%abv.
On the 5th day we headed off on our one and qtr. hour single journey by bike, bus and train to the "Brouwerij de Molen". We arrived just as the doors were opened. The brewery looks great from outside as its in guess... a Windmill. I started with a Hop Sladek type of IPA, which was pretty good, and from a bottle. We planned on staying for food but the menu was expensive and it catered little for anything we thought our 2 year old would eat. Change of plan, head to another cafe for lunch and get him asleep for his nap and then leg it back to the brewery. Worked a treat.
Two hours later we were backand i asked for an IPA style, Vuur and Vlam was recommended, so he brought it to our table and explained all the hops that were used in it. I really liked this so I had two small glasses, at 2 euro each which was good. The wife had a Flying Dog and a coffee. After that it was time to visit their shop, where the selection was something else!! On the way I noticed an article on the wall saying "De Molen" was number 1 brewpub in the world, I think? The shop had loads of my favourite and rare Americans, Danish and plenty of De Molen's own. Had a good chat with the guy that runs everything except the brewing. Decided to stick mostly to this brewery's beer(lge. Vuur and Vlam, 2 Hop Sladek, and an Amerikaans P ale), but also an Amager IPA which I couldn't find in Copenhagen a few weeks previous. Finally some good beers. He did not know De Molen was available in Ireland, which he was happy to hear.
A couple of days later after my father joined us we set off to my old hometown of Haarlem. I know I mentioned this here b4 somewhere but you just have to visit "Melgers Drankenhandel" just off the Botermarkt. I think he said they had over 700 bottles!! Probably all Dutch breweries included, most beers are listed on their website. Here I picked up 2 from "Brouwerij Emelisse" a Double IPA 9% and a TIPA 10%, Mikkeller Stateside IPA 7%, Rames Bier Hop(De 3 Horne) 7% IPA - nice, another from De Eem?(not so good) and finally a Barrevoet IPA (brewed by Jopen Haarlem with the guy in the shops recipe), this was very good.
If only I drove there instead. Also I picked up a KNob Creek Bourbon formy brother because it was nearly 22euro cheaper for 70cl! We went to my old local on the canal "De witte zwaan" and had a couple of Texelse Skumkoppe, a dark wheat, very nice too. Didn't get to Amsterdam this year but all in all had a good beer experience and took back a nice haul in the end after a slow start.
Aaron

Thanks for posting this. In 4 weeks I'll find myself back in Rotterdam and Amsterdam for 2-3 weeks and I'd really like to make a trip out to somewhere else to find some beers. (Almost had time to make it to De Molen last time but not quite.)

It's good to have a list of places in Haarlem.


Adam

I have just returned from a few days in Amsterdam and I spent Saturday in [b:1dpxpjh3]Haarlem [/b:1dpxpjh3](15 minutes on the train and only €7.40 for a day return ticket). I spent a fair bit of day in the Jopenkerk which is a great spot. So now the Jopen beers are brewed in Haarlem rather than being brewed elsewhere. I had a fair number of their brews but the standout for me was Jopen Johannieter Dubbel bok on tap; dangerously drinkable but 9% ABV.

In Amsterdam, I had a couple of hours in Brouwerij 't Ij (their tasting rooms open from 3pm and close at 8pm). There was a very nice atmosphere in this place (also a Windmill) with people enjoying a few beers.

I also visited some of the usual haunts I had visited before and almost all were good though we were driven out of Elfde Gebod with the cigarette smoke (some owners/managers choose to ignore the smoking ban). A new place for me was Geneugtnen on Kerkstraat (near Leidseplein) that had a great selection and also In de Olofspoort (near Zeedijk) for jenever.

The other standout beer of the few days for me was Great Divide oak-aged Yeti Imperial stout - a cracker. This was in the American BeerTemple on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal.

Happy Days!

"DrJohn":kegu4svm wrote: I have just returned from a few days in Amsterdam and I spent Saturday in [b:kegu4svm]Haarlem [/b:kegu4svm](15 minutes on the train and only €7.40 for a day return ticket). I spent a fair bit of day in the Jopenkerk which is a great spot. So now the Jopen beers are brewed in Haarlem rather than being brewed elsewhere. I had a fair number of their brews but the standout for me was Jopen Johannieter Dubbel bok on tap; dangerously drinkable but 9% ABV.

In Amsterdam, I had a couple of hours in Brouwerij 't Ij (their tasting rooms open from 3pm and close at 8pm). There was a very nice atmosphere in this place (also a Windmill) with people enjoying a few beers.

I also visited some of the usual haunts I had visited before and almost all were good though we were driven out of Elfde Gebod with the cigarette smoke (some owners/managers choose to ignore the smoking ban). A new place for me was Geneugtnen on Kerkstraat (near Leidseplein) that had a great selection and also In de Olofspoort (near Zeedijk) for jenever.

The other standout beer of the few days for me was Great Divide oak-aged Yeti Imperial stout - a cracker. This was in the American BeerTemple on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal.

Happy Days![/quote:kegu4svm]

I LOVE 't Ij; their "Columbus" beer is great and they have pretty good prices for Amsterdam. (I just wish they'd use a little less bleach to clean up inside because the smell of bleach can be overpowering in there on the wrong day.)

The Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout is one of my top 3 favorite beers of all time! (I've got a 14 month barrel aged version that I've been holding back for almost 3 years now.) -My sister-in-law just moved to Denver so I'm trying to convince her to bring me a bottle or two of the Chocolate and Cayenne chili version of the oak-aged.


Did you end up walking by the Cracked Kettle and Golem around the corner from the BeerTemple? (I'm curious if Golem #1 ended up reopening or not.)

-You two have definitely convinced me to try and escape Rotterdam one evening early and head to Haarlem; I'd LOVE to get to DeMolen this time, too but my in-laws are going to be in Dublin then so I'm probably not going to be able to stay in the Netherlands over any weekends...


Adam

T' Arendsnest is another great Amsterdam beer bar; they seem to wave the proverbial flag for craft beer from Netherlands more than most and I'm quite partial to it I think also because "Arend" (eagle) is the Dutch version of my German last name.

-Loads and loads of beer from the Netherlands available there and they have quite a few taps, too.

If you want to try every trappist beer on the planet (not that there's that many), I'd say Amsterdam is one of the easiest places to do it. T' Arendsnest makes getting all of the harder-to-find La Trappe beers simple and the Beer Konig off license will help you find the other difficult-to-find ones (Westvlettern). -You'll pay for them, and you'll pay even more if you go to the Cracked Kettle down the street, but if you're on a quest to have every trappist beer (except for the special low-strength beers reserved for the monks obviously) you can accomplish it within an area of a few square kilometers in Amsterdam no problem.

[Edit] I realized that it's not called "Beer Konig"$$ it's called the Dutch version of "Konig", which I can't remember, but if you ask for the Beer Konig in the general area of Gollem and the Cracked Kettle and the Beer Temple, you'll get directed to the right place.

-Beer Konig is a great place to pick up some aged beers to take home, too (considerably cheaper than the Cracked Kettle, IMO); the Westvlettern is budget destroying but you can get 3-6 year old Rochefort bottles just by digging through a wicker basket fairly reasonable and the complexity is AMAZING. They DO know what they have and they charge more as the beer gets older. Do your homework and learn how to read the labels to determine year if you really want make sure you're getting a particular age, but the Beer Konig folks know their stuff.

If you get an old one home and find a bit of rust under the cap just wipe it off, apply a bit of vodka with a paper towel to the neck and set it on fire for a few seconds and you should be good-to-go, but as always drink aged beers at your own risk.

There might not be any better city for beer drinkers than Amsterdam; there's just so much to offer in such a short area. I get super excited every time! (But Rotterdam is pretty lame and you really have to know where to look.)


Adam

Random question: Has anyone been able to get their Irish chip and pin debit cards to work on the stupid Netherlands public transit system ticket machines?

(I've NEVER made it work for some reason; incredibly frustrating.)


Adam