Just back from my family holiday to the Netherlands. Got some things on my list ticked off but as usual not as many as I'd have liked.
What a coincidence it happened to be Netherlands Beer Week. They had a whole newspaper (in Dutch) about it, so I will translate some of the facts.
There are now 274 breweries in Holland including 66 new ones in 2014, and up to end April this year another 12.
Grolsch celebrates its 400 birthday on the 11th May.
For summer drinkers, the top 3 Dutch Wit/weizen beers are 1.Brand Weizen, joint 2nd Budels witte parel and Grolsch puur weizen, and joint 3rd Texels Wit and Gulpener Korenwolf.
The following were some gold medal winners in the 1st Dutch Beer Challenge in Rotterdam in March.
Pils - Gulpener Chateau Neubourg
Pale Ale - SNAB Pale Ale
Amber/IPA - Jopen Mooie Nel
Double IPA - Uiltje's Big Fat 5 IPA
Stout - Visioen by Brouwerij de 7de Hemel
The 10 most beautiful breweries(cos near something interesting i think) in the Netherlands
1 De Prael, Amsterdam (near canals)
2 Brouwerij 't Ij, Amsterdam (near canals)
3 Maximus, Utretcht, (Big Tower)
4 Oersoep, Nijmegen (A bridge)
5 Mongozo, Venray (Church)
6 Lindeboom, Neer, (Church)
7 Budels, Budel (Fancy House)
8 Brouwerij Kees, Middleburg (Church)
9 Brouwerij Emelisse, Kamperland (Oosterschelde sea defence)
10 Kompaan, Den Haag (fancy house)
So my first outing took me to Den Haag and my first visit to De Paas Biercafe. Very nice smallish bar, with outdoor seating on the canal and on the canal (barge with seats and tables) Barman very friendly and engaging, good selection of beers, but no De Molen or Het Uiltje, he said they were too expensive to get in. He shared a bottle of "Salty Dick" he was trying out, WOW, salty like drinking Scheveningen sea water. Also tried Brown Paper Bag Project / Kompaan Black Coffee IPA, onlt realised it was half Irish after i read the bottle, and only realised it was 10EURO when i got the bill, but it was nice. Will definitely be back here.
Next up was my regular trip to Haarlem. Uiltje's new craft beer bar was on my list, but alas i had to walk past it this time. Melger's which I mentioned before just gets better, the selection of beers is unbelievable. So last time I was here I picked up a copy of the Dutch PINT magazine, which was explained to me was just for Dutch members, but I said I was buying lots of beers and I could speak Dutch so he let me have one. This time I was ready for them, I had my copy of Beoir 1st Mag to trade, so he gladly traded this time. I explained to him I was a member of the Irish equivalant, and he could learn about our stuff.
Well low and behold when I got back to the mobile, browsing through the February edition of PINT and what should I see in it only a write up about Irish beer and the EBCU meeting in Dublin. There in the pics were our friends The Beernut and Saruman, don't know if yee saw it yet, but i'll bring it along next time. There was also a pic of the Beoir mag I just traded him, saying we released our first mag...
Last but not least was my adventurous trip to De Molen. I don't do smartfones so I printed off a cycling routefinder, and cycled the 35km on a one speed bike to Bodegraven. What a thirst, I was this close to getting drunk in 30mins, but sense prevailed. Spent a few hours here enjoying their beers, headed into their bottle shop to pick up some for home (Ireland), and got the train back to Leiden, where I hit my local (once a year) Lemmys Biercafe for another 3, before another short train ride and short cycle home. Excellant day out.
Took home De Molen Mout and Mocca, Jopen limited jubeljoop 4 double black ipa, Het Uiltje Joost mag het weten IIIPA, Amager Wookie IPA.
Don't know if yee heard of "Beercycling" tours of breweries in Holland and Belgium, but I have plans to do something similar next summer - a bike/brewery tour of Holland starting in Uiltje Bar Haarlem.
Tot ziens,
Aaron
