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The Brewgrimage began on June 13 with a long crossing of the Atlantic to a magical, mystical place.
Stop One: Amsterdam (June 14 - 16)
I. The Vangeloff / Vangesterdam
The trip started off with meeting my fellow StX bomber Mark Vangeloff at the Amsterdam airport, a task that didn't prove to be easy. Apparently there are three Starbucks in the airport terminal, knowledge that would have helped us avoid our first argument of the trip — where the f*** are you? |
| too good to exclude |
Anyways, soon enough we found him and got started.
II. The Beer
Although not renowned for its beer culture on the same level as our next destination, we found plenty of opportunities to drink the local brews (non-Juplier category) and to get ready for Belgium.
Brouwerij 'Tij
So the first stop was Brouwerij 't IJ, a small brewery in Amsterdam based in a former bath house located beneath the "De Gooyer" windmill. The "IJ" of it all? Apparently it is named for the IJ waterbody positioned directly across the street from the windmill and brewery.
In an effort to count and record every beer consumed on the trip (a mission that soon went south really quickly -- almost like this blog), we tried the Plzen (a hoppy blond pilsener), the Zatte (a gold take on the tripel style), the Columbus (a hoppy amber), and the IPA (because thank god I didn't have to go a month without one). Vange's favourite (heh..) was the Pilsener although mine was probably the Columbus. However, the bottle for the 't IJ IPA (seen in the middle below) was without contest the best.
The Heineken Experience
Originally we had tried to work some Heidelberg contacts to get a sneak peek at the actual Heineken brewery located about forty minutes outside of the city. However, for once that didn't work so we were "forced" to go on the Heineken Experience located in the heart of Amsterdam. In fact, I believe this past year marked 150 years of brewing in Amsterdam for the green-bottled giant.
Anyways, the facility was beautiful and I will admit it had some interactive features you will get at no other brewery tour. Besides taking you through the fermentation rooms, Heineken offers a live experience similar to the DNA-sequencing scene of Jurassic Park where you personally are turned into a beer from start to finish. It's complete with heat lamps, moving platforms, and bubbles.
Finally, most importantly, we were tested on our Heineken pouring abilities with another Virtual Reality machine. And of course I was proclaimed a "Beer Pouring Hero" within my first attempt, although it took our friend Mark 2-3 attempts to get his beer up to snuff.
De Bierkoning
Next, we stopped at De Bierkoning ("the Beer king"), a top-notch bottle shop with 1500+ specialty brews from across the world. Now, as someone who went to a lot of bottle shops the last few weeks, I can verify that this place is pretty fantastic. They have almost everything from Belgium including the best sours, lambics, and trappist beers — even Westvleteren 12, a trappist quadruple (more on this in a future post) often regarded as one of the best and most scarcely found beers in the world.
In De Wildeman
Our final notable beer location is In De Wildeman, a bottle shop and cafe that was host to the first of many shared cheese plates between Mark and myself over the next few cities. It was here that I sampled two beers that we would eventually get to try on-location at their main breweries: Cantillon's Lambic Gueze and Rodenbach's Grand Cru. If you aren't acquainted with sour, spontaneously fermenting, and mixed fermentation beers, just take it from us that you can't go wrong starting off with these two. Ps, the cheese was great.
III. The Coffee
Finally, there are apparently a lot of coffee shops in Amsterdam. Now, I don't personally drink coffee besides when I need Starbucks' wifi, but apparently there are other appetizers and activities to do at these locales that you can't do (everywhere) in the states. At first we started at some places close to our hostel like Babaa Coffeshop, but we then trekked to a proclaimed favorite of Nathaniel Winter (someone who was supposed to join the trip) at the Dampkring. Now, don't get me wrong, the place had a great atmosphere, good music, fair prices, and a wide selection of coffees and the like. However, there is one and only one reason why Nate likes this place and he knows it: Ocean's 12.
For those of you who remember the movie, this is the location of the fantastic scene where Matt Damon quotes Kazmir while trying to fit in with his fellow crew.
Anyways, just wanted to let you know I am on to you Nate.
IV The NBA Finals
Okay, so now we are getting into the wild stuff. Watching games 5 and 6 of the NBA Finals in Amsterdam was essentially a fool's errand — bars only stay open until 2 or 3 a.m. and the games all started around 3 A.M. out here. Well, for Game 5 had heard a rumor that a small bar called Satellite Sports Cafe would typically play US Sports so we went that way around 2AM only to discover that the bar was closed. BUT WAIT.
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| And we couldnt even order a burger... |
As we rounded the corner, we found that there was an unthinkably tiny television with no sound still turned on outside of the bar. BUT IT HAD THE GAME. Anyways, we proceeded to watch Game 5 with no sound in the middle of an Amsterdam alley until 5 AM as more and more Americans started to gather outside. By the fourth quarter, it was actually split 50-50 between Cleveland and Golden State fans, although I will admit that a strange Cleveland-native who stopped by to watch was by far the most annoying member of our new crew.
Anyways, we proceeded to go back for Game 6, although I swear I can't remember much of that at all for some reason.
Finally, for anyone who knows me too well, they are usually aware that I will forget at least one thing anytime I leave a place. Well, when I left the United States, I forgot a nail clipper. For some people, this may be a small inconvenience. For me, it was tragic as my priorities in traveling go Wallet->iPhone->nail clippers->underwear->earplugs (more on those in a later post), in that order.
Once I arrived in Amsterdam, I looked everywhere...EVERYWHERE... for a set of clippers but found nothing even suitable. I honestly must have done like 3 individual scouting trips where I left our hostel with a number of possible outlets, only to come up short.
VI. Next, on Brewthright 2015
Does Albert ever find the nail clippers? What is the best beer in Belgium? Are there more funny pictures of Vangeloff standing next to things? What is actually sold at coffee shops in Amsterdam?
Tune in tomorrow...
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| Oh, we also found adorable meerkats at the zoo |
