{"id":2033,"date":"2016-08-16T10:12:48","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T14:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/?p=2033"},"modified":"2023-07-24T10:58:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T14:58:30","slug":"beer-notebook-a-dutch-trio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/2016\/08\/16\/beer-notebook-a-dutch-trio\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer Notebook: A Dutch Trio"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent trip to the Netherlands allowed me the opportunity to, well, buy Brooklyn Brewery<\/a> products on the shelf of a local Amsterdam grocery store. But I didn’t do that. Whenever possible on trips, I try to quaff the local suds, three of which, all India Pale Ales, are presented here.<\/p>\n

\"Jopen's<\/p>\n

Jopen’s Mooie Nel IPA<\/a>, sitting at an agreeable 6.5% ABV, surprised me with a decent level of hops bitterness (70 IBU) and a very long, and pleasant, finish on the palate. There were hints of floral and citrus flavor, but only hints, and that was just fine.<\/p>\n

I like my beer hoppy, and any more citrus would have overwhelmed the beer. The head kept its shape for a while, and on the whole, I enjoyed this beer quite a bit, particularly with the fine Indian food we brought to the hotel room from our Amsterdam stand-by, Koh-i-Noor<\/a>. Any future trips to the Netherlands will see this beer take a spot in the fridge.<\/p>\n

\"Brand's<\/p>\n

Less satisfactory was the IPA from Brand Bierbrouwerij<\/a>. Though an IPA is not solely determined by bitterness, this beer sits on the low end of the scale, at 45 IBU, and I was searching to find the hops amidst a flavor profile that is not unlike that of a Duvel or similar Belgian ale. There was just no bitterness at all.<\/p>\n

Certainly, this is not a bad beer by any stretch of the imagination, just not what I was expecting when I plucked a bottle labeled “IPA” off the shelf, and as the priciest of the beers I bought, I was hoping for something a bit different.<\/p>\n

\"Kees'<\/p>\n

The real surprise came when I spied a session IPA on the shelf. I’ve become quite fond of these low-alcohol session beers of late, but I’ve found that they can be all over the place in terms of delivering a satisfyingly bitter yet drinkable experience. There’s no point in a session beer if you don’t want more than one, after all. The Session IPA from Brouwerij Kees<\/a> came through in spades, with an astringent hoppiness rare to find in a 3.5% ABV beer. Like Jopen’s offering, this IPA only hints at floral and citrus notes, allowing the hops to shine through. A very solid, and very drinkable, find amidst a shelf filled with Heineken.<\/p>\n

Again, these beers were all plucked from the shelves of a Dutch supermarket, not procured from a specialty beer store, and I was very impressed with the breadth of offerings from local breweries. There are many reasons to visit the Netherlands, and the beer must surely be included amongst them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent trip to the Netherlands allowed me the opportunity to, well, buy Brooklyn Brewery products on the shelf of a local Amsterdam grocery store. But I didn’t do that. Whenever possible on trips, I try to quaff the local suds, three of which, all India Pale Ales, are presented here. Jopen’s Mooie Nel IPA, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,148],"tags":[152,201,217,171,218],"class_list":["post-2033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-travel","tag-beer","tag-beer-notebook","tag-ipa","tag-netherlands","tag-session-ipa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pedXm-wN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2033"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5868,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033\/revisions\/5868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}