Amsterdam, proud host of this year’s EBBC, is a city bustling with beer. It has been so since the past five centuries but what has happened in the last five years puts all its beer history to small change. Boasting 45 breweries registered in the city (of which eleven actually have the hardware), Amsterdam hosts 10% of the total Dutch brewery’s list of today. Moreover: it’s all about creativity.
As the widely acclaimed beer writer Tim Webb predicted some three years ago, The Netherlands have quickly grown to be one of Europe’s leading and most innovative beer nations. The creativity is partly due to the nation’s trading heritage: we’ve always been pretty good at identifying an opportunity, then adopt, adept and improve it. The Dutch brewing scene gained a reputation some ten years ago by brewers like Menno Olivier (De Molen), Kees Bubberman (then Emelisse, now Kees) and Michel Ordeman (Jopen). Some breweries already had their name: ‘t IJ in Amsterdam, Texel (on the namesake island) and La Trappe boast decades of brewing experience, and great beer. Today beer is again everywhere: Zundert Trappist, Oersoep (Nijmegen, sour beers), Maximus (Utrecht, classics), De Prael (Amsterdam, modern classics) and Oedipus (Amsterdam, neo-classic innovation) are but a few examples.
Spending two days in Amsterdam will offer you awesome and ample opportunities to see with your own eyes, and taste with your own taste buds, what the state of Holland as a Beer nation is like, and ditto for its Beer Capital, Amsterdam. Bier&cO, as a proud sponsor, will offer two events to illustrate it all. Firstly, on the final – Saturday – night of the Convention, it will host a ‘free for all’ at Amsterdam’s most illustrious beer parlor, In de Wildeman. Come meet and greet your fellow bloggers for a final couple of rounds of drinks as these will be on our bill. Starting 22:00, we’ll host you all good-bye hospitality with the best beers in town.
Secondly, during EBBC, we’ll host ‘Live Beer Blogging’– a session in which brewery representatives, in most instances the brewer’s themselves, will pour you their favorite beer and tell you all about it.
Expect this line-up of breweries and brewers:
- Brouwerij ‘ t IJ – brewer Fred de Bruijne @BrouwerijtlJ
- Brouwerij De Prael – brew master and co-founder Fer Kok @deprael
- Brouwerij Maximus – brew master and co-founder Marcel Snater @MaximusBier
- Brouwerij Oedipus – brew master and co-founder Sander Nederveen @OedipusBrewing
- Brouwerij Bax – brew master and co-founder Jeroen Bax @BaxBier
- Brouwerij Kees – Piet Tuinema @KeesBubberman
- Brouwerij Emelisse – CEO Tom ter Horst @Rest_emelisse
- Brouwerij Oersoep – brew master Do Bongers @oersoepnijmegen
- Brouwerij Kompaan – brew master and co-founder Jasper Langbroek @KompaanBier
- Brouwerij Duits & Lauret – co-founder Marco Lauret. @DuitsLauret
To top it off we’ll send you away with a small goodie bag, holding all details, pictures and information on the breweries present. What else is in the bag should be, well, a goodie.
We can’t wait to see you in our home town and share, explore and cheer the beers of Amsterdam and The Netherlands. Cheers to you!
Damn, I just moved from Western Germany to Goslar, the home of Gose beer. I would have otherwise participated as the program sounds very interesting. You make a point about the Netherlands, Robyn. Dutch beer is alwalys worthwhile enjoying! Cheers and have fun! Lisa