The Rise of German Beer

It is October and that means German beer festivals. Half liter glasses of helles paired pretzels and sausage, you know what I mean. Sometimes in lederhosen and dirndls. It is more for the excitement of the event than the actual beer. Too bad, because German beer deserves more praise than just the fuel for drinking parties.

Luckily I am not the only one who believes this. Lately we have been seeing more German beer have appeared on beermenus all over Amsterdam.

The Advantages

German beer has some advantages. Advantages for both bar and consumer. German beer will never be very high in percentage so you can consume more of it, and the bar can sell more of it. Another advantage is that because of very low taxes on beer in Germany, it is very cheap, even when imported. For some a low price means that it is not very good. But for the well informed drinker this means more good beer that is you don’t have to pay too much for. And making a good pilsner is not easy, you can’t cover up a mistake with some extra hops.

It makes it the perfect antidote to all the Orange Maple Frappacino Blueberry Sour Russian Stouts and New England IPA’s that have been gaining ground in recent years.

The Third Wave

The rise of German beer is not new. It started 700 years ago when German hopped beer from came to these shores and completely changed the course of Dutch history. It made Amsterdam from a small town into a world leading metropole just two centuries later.

The second wave hit in the 19^th century when thanks to the trains Bavarian style beers came to these shores. Better cooling equipment meant it was possible to recreate the exact same circumstances here as in Bavaria for the brewing of these refreshing beers. When mister Heineken noticed everyone liked golden bottom fermenting beers instead of his darker top fermenting ales, he switched to brewing the style Heineken is now famous for.

And even though we love our IPA’s and sours, Heineken’s pilsners and similar ones from similar breweries still rule the world of beer. Specialty beer still makes up a fraction compares to pilsners.

But let’s focus our attention to Amsterdam, site of what could be the third wave of German beer in Holland

Amsterdam

There are three places worth going to that are all conveniently close to the Noord-Zuid subway line. Later I will add some more places.

TAVERNO WILLI BECHER

Started by one of the founders of Oedipus but quite some ways from the plentiful hopped beers from them. This place serves mostly German beers. I was there when they held an Alt v. Kölsch festival outside for example. It has a very Berlin vibe to eat with simple outdoor seating in an otherwise nondescript plot of grass. Kölsch won by the way. With the cold months coming outdoor seating might not seem that enticing, but not to worry, the indoor seating is roomy as well. You can even dock your boat behind it.

The beers rotate so it is always worth coming back here for some Alt or Grätzer. And bring your non-German beer drinking friends too. For them there are other beers as well to enjoy. In just a year TWB has become a unique little city oasis across the IJ river in the north and well worth a visit.

Taverno Willi Becher Website.

IN DE WILDEMAN

This iconic bar holds a German beer festival every year. Manager Simon often vacations near Bamberg too and has become quite aware of what is going on there. When they started organizing 4 yearly events at In De Wildeman there was no doubt the German Beer Days would be one of them. Lately more and more German beers have been put on the menu. I for one now sometimes order a bottled German beer instead of a tapped beer. But there are usually one or two German beers on tap as well besides the ever present Jever pilsner. And like with all things here it is sold because of a love for German beer and not a commercial move to attract more people.

In De Wildeman website

CAFÉ BRECHT

A slice of Berlin on the edge of the old city. Joris and his mother 14 years ago decided to start a bar and they made it look like a Berlin living room café that Joris went to often while living in Berlin.

During corona Brecht, like many other bars, decided to start a small beershop and deliver their beers all over the city. This became a huge success. Mostly because Brecht has a truly unique number of German beers. Every week they drive to Germany to pick up beer, usually in the Franconia area around Nürnberg and Bamberg. And directly from the source too. Small breweries that sell only to their local community and hardly ever across the borders of the town, let alone the country. But Joris can often get a couple of cases of beer for the bar, but also for other bars and shops in Amsterdam. In de Wildeman included. The direct contact with the brewers makes it worthwhile. Kegs however are hard to come by because of the limited amount of them, something they also need to keep in their own brewery and taphouses. But if you want a unique Helles or Zwickels make your way over to the Weteringeschans.

Café Brecht Website

There are more interesting places to go to in Amsterdam and we might return to those at a later time. Oh, and when in Utrecht check out Boot122, another place with excellent German beers.

Oproer: Rising from the Ashes

For several years the CAB building next to the Zuilen trainstation in Utrecht was a destination for (vegan) beer lovers. It was here that Oproer had their brewpub and vegan restaurant, doubling as a brewery in the first two years. A quick history lesson for those who don’t know: Oproer started as the combination of breweries Rooie Dop and Ruig. Since this fusion it has steadily been building a name for itself. The vegan restaurant won an award for best vegan restaurant in the country. When they started sending in beers to competitions, the beers also started winning prizes. Since a few years they started a sour program as well with great success. A kriek winning awards twice in a row at the Dutch Beer Challenge for example. But their Session IPA and Double Oatmeal Stout won as well, showing the wide range of what they can make.

Things were going fine until the disasters.

First that one disaster that affected all of us. Oproer, like all bars and restaurants, had to close its doors after corona hit. They frantically set up a webshop to try and sell at least some bottles. And with great success, sales were better than expected. Over the summer the bar could open again. But with the regulations they could never be at full capacity.

Then the number of covid cases rose rapidly and they had to close. Again. And this time this also meant letting go of the entire staff.

And then another disaster hit.

On a Monday night in January a fire broke out in a wooden floor storage at the other side of the building. The fire was huge and the smoke went under the roof and ended up in the Oproer brewpub. Though nothing was burned or broken the smoke damage was so extensive that everything was useless, covered under a layer of poisonous soot. It was clear that it would be a very long time before anything could start here again.

But having their own place to serve these beers to the public is what they wanted the most. So the search commenced to find a new place. And they found one on the ground floor of a completely new structure in Utrecht Overvecht.

The new space is going to be vast, twice the size of the old pub and that was already roomy. Beer is supposed to flow out of 20 taps. Above them are hundreds of apartments are planned. Downtown Utrecht is only about 10/15 minutes away. The Overvecht Trainstation is also relatively close.

They have been socially and environmentally conscious from the start. This will come back in the beercafé. Most of the construction materials inside will be from recycled materials. And because the room has several areas different designers can make something.

It has to be more of a beercafé than the old place ever was. A big bar in the middle of the room and a lot of sitting and standing places to enjoy a cool Refuse/Resist or sour Kriek. Different sections will have different looks, as to not make it too much of a colossal space but with things to explore.

It is a completely new and bare structure. Even the electricity cables and watermains have to be installed. Because they don’t have a few hundred thousand euros lying around and insurance only covers a small part after the fire, they opted to try the often used method of crowdfunding. On October 6th the reached the goal of € 300.000 for the new bar. They are now looking for an additional € 75.000 to improve and expand the brewery. So if you want to help out with the Oproer resurrection go to their page at CrowdAboutNow.

The plan now is that they will get the key to the new place in October. With any luck the bar can open around February 2022.

Oproer needs to continue being the presence that they were in the Utrecht beer scene, and the new beercafé is just that. I myself can’t wait to see what it will be like in 2022.

Leeuwarden Beer Festival: Back To Normal

It is one of the things to most look forward to on the beer calendar: festivals. And in the last two years that calendar has been eerily empty. The only festivals that were held were of the sit-down kind where you order at your table and they bring it to you. Not exactly how they were meant to be.

August and September is supposed to be the month of Van Mollfest, Brewda and Borefts but they were all, logically so, cancelled. The only ‘real’ festival that was still on, was the Leeuwarden Beerfestival. This festival had gone through the same phases as most with it being postponed a number of times. The last scheduled date was on September 25 and that luckily turned out to be the day that many of the corona rules were relaxed or completely given up. Gone is the 1,5 meter distance between each other for example. But you can only get into a bar or restaurant with a QR code. This code has let to a lot of resistance with bar and restaurant owners, but for this festival it worked fine.

My first beer festival in two years however was not as a visitor, but as part of the Oproer team that was invited to pour that day. It had been a while since I had done something like this but it was a good to do something again where corona was not the first thing on your mind.

The festival was held at De Eenhoorn, an entertainment venue that is big enough to hold all the brewers and the over 800 people attending, without ever feeling too crowded. There were three seperate rooms for the brewers. The attending breweries were a mix of good local and national brewers like De Moersleutel, Grutte Pier, De Natte Gijt and Duits & Lauret, with some international ones like Lupulus, Dochter van de Korenaar and Lagunitas. At the same time two tap takeover were held at the adjacent café De Markies by De Ranke and Wild Beer. This also meant a nice variety of different beer styles. De Markies was also the organizer and subject of an earlier piece I wrote about Leeuwarden. Besides being a great café they show to be able to organize a great festival as well.

As a ‘brewer’ you usually don’t have a lot of time to walk around the other stands and talk and sample their beers. Especially not at this festival, it was busy all the time. I feel bad for the brewers who were there alone. But a busy festival means a successful one!

I for one was happy to be back into the action without any hassle and rules to strictly adhere too. I would not mind returning next year as a guest and sample all the fine beers on offer.

With all the complaining by some that all our freedoms are being taken away it was good to be at a festival that for the most part was back to normal. It’s good to be back, and thanks De Markies en Leeuwarden for making that possible.