Tag Archives: dutch beer news

In 2006 my father turned 50. As a present I gave him a big box filled with all kinds of bottles of beer. I also added the book Beer for Dummies and made sure that the styles in the box were mentioned in the book. Before I closed the box however I read the book myself. 10 years ago I knew a little, but was more a Dummy than I am now. Two years a ...

With all the new breweries and contract brewers starting in Amsterdam in the last two years you would almost think that the center of Dutch Craft beer has shifted to the capital. I also spent more time writing about that scene than the one in Utrecht. But does this mean that nothing happened in Utrecht? Hell no! The beer scene in Utrecht is sti ...

Every revolution has its artists, visualizing the ideas of those with the new and unique ideas. Storm Thorgerson designed the iconic Dark Side of the Moon album cover by Pink Floyd, The Who’s Who’s Next and well into this century with covers for Muse, Biffy Clyro and the Mars Volta. Closer to my generation Spike Jonze directed the i ...

I went to three editions of this festival and though the location inside the Martini church is awesome it was lacking in some areas. Reasons that made me skip the festival last year. The entry fee was steep and the brewers not the kind you wanted to make the long and expensive journey for. Most of them were at other festivals nearby anyway and ...

Specialty / Craft beer in the supermarket. A topic that lately has led to a discussion between those are for and against it here in the Netherlands. Does it lead to the end of the liquor store? Will it lead to the end of small breweries or will it only give the revolution a new boost? An short overview of the most overheard (overread?) statemen ...

Molen “De Ster” around which the Utrechts Beerfestival is held. In Part 1 a couple of weeks ago I wrote about Hommeles, the brewing branch of the Houtens Brouw Collectief. Part 2 today is about another successful venture: organizing the Utrechts Beerbrewers Festival, which this year will be held for the 5th time. I myself have remar ...

Here it is, for the very first time, a post with just beer reviews! If you want to contribute with some reviews of Dutch beers let me know. I am not looking for dry descriptions. The first ten. Vandestreek Hop Art. Confusing, a Hop Art without a number. This is apparently a different version of #2 and #5. As always the artwork is great. Lots of ...

Craft beer has been going against the trend of economic demise. Shops all over the country are closing, either because of the economy or the growing online market. Older, monumental, buildings have trouble finding new investors and purposes. Brewers have made use of this demise and are bucking the trend. New breweries are starting and in the pr ...

Frequent readers of the blog will know that I consider Utrecht to be the Oregon of the Netherlands: a small part of the country with some of the best brewers in the nation. The home of a vibrant craft beer culture with great brewers and pubs. Today’s article will be the first about the Houtens Brouw Collectief, the Houten Brewing Collecti ...

Last year on this very site I published a piece on Groningen and it’s beer stores and specialty beer café’s. Last weekend I was back in my hometown and made another visit to the stores again to see how much things changed since last year. What I encountered in the shops is another sign that the revolution is still going stron ...