I had a great, albeit exceptionally short trip to Amsterdam. (One day for a little "beercation" and one day for work.)
Visited Bourwerij't IJ; a very small microbrewery that operates inside of a functional windmill. Tried their WONDERFUL "Columbus" strong ale (9.4%), their Dubbel, and their Wit beer. Columbus was amazing and their Dubbel was great as well; at 2.40€ per beer it was a truly amazing value. The place had an incredibly authentic feel with locals popping in for a quick drink and then getting on their way again within a couple of minute. The paint on the wall was chipping and appeared to be doing so for a long, LONG time.
Also had the pleasure of visiting the Cracked Kettle retail store and the teeny, tiny "Gollem" "brown cafe", which caters to the craft brew drinker.
I finally got my first test of Westvlettern 12 and I really thought that I was going to be disapointing but truly thought that it lived up to the hype. -Insane levels of "fermenting fig" flavours are what now comes immediately to mind when I think back on it.
My haul included:
1. Westvlettern 12
2. Mikkeller Black Hole
3. Port Brewing Hop 15 (had to)
4. Hertog Jan Imperial Pilsner -Netherlands(6.5%; so half way between a normal pilsner and a double pilsner)
5. De Lekere - Bok Special (standard bock; Netherlands)
6. De Keyser -Double Saison (never even heard of a double saison; crazy Dutch!)
The REAL part of the haul included beers from "Brouwerij De Molen" (yes, another Windmill Brewery). I had never heard of this brewery before but thier really plain white, printed labels with tons of information and their focus on "extreme beers" really pulled me in. (And the fact that the guy working in what was easily one of the best beer off-licenses I've ever seen gave the brewery's products his highest recommendation.) I went away with their Rasputin RIS (bottle number 365 in a batch of 372): OG: 1.102, 199.7 EBCs of color, and 81.7 IBUs. I also grabbed a "Heil & Zegen" highly hopped barley wine; 92.6 IBUs, hopped with Amarillo and Saaz, and then dry hopped with Amarillo.
This brewery truely impresses me with their offerings; they have the whole gamut of Imerial Stouts, and Double IPAs, but they have a really interesting set of variations on each style. They have several Double IPAs that are single hopped with only a single hop variety; one that is hopped with only American hops; one with only English hops. A horizontal tasting of each of these would be so much fun, but I'm going to have to save that for my next trip as my luggage can only hold so much beer without being overweight.
At some point I might get around to posting pics somewhere and providing links...
Adam[/list]
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