Borefts Festival 2012

The start was ultra-early even by my standards - catching the N15 night bus at 4:30am (and standing room only!) so that I would be in good time for the 6:50am Eurostar to Brussels.  At St Pancras I met fellow beer hound, Chris, one of the London Millers, for a trip to the Low Countries in search of some beer excellence.

Despite the time of day the train is pretty full, mainly with business folk, and the journey passes smoothly with the weather gradually improving as we move eastward.

We arrive in Brussels at 10:10am - two hours before our connection to Utrecht - but thankfully the local Cantillon brewery opens at 9am and off we headed.


Warning to motorists - beware
festival drinkers!

 Famous for lambic beers - which have a very distinctive sour taste and a style that nearly died out until people such as Michael Jackson started to write about the style - it is a popular destination and we weren't the first people in.

After trying out the kriek (cherry), standard gueze and finally the Mamouche (elderflow) gueze, we headed back to the station where we met Jackie and Simon who seemingly spend most of their weekends chasing beers in Europe (when not doing so in London).

On arrival Chris and I checked into our hotel, had a quick brush-up and  headed back into the town centre. As with most of the Netherlands' major cities, it is undergoing major refurbishments which made navigation rather problematic.

We finally located the Utrecht FC club shop so Chris could get a few souvenirs and then located our first port of call, Kafee Belgie. Here we had a few beers and also met Mark, a friend of Jackie and Simon and also a fellow Yorkshireman and East End neighbour.

Cafe de Rat was the next stop - a great little pub with an excellent atmosphere - the place was full of Norwegian beery types who'd come to Holland for the same reason as us.

Erik the landlord was a smashing chap, charming his customers and digging out a miscellany of rare lambic beers to keep us happy (the rarity of one carrying a price tag of €55!).

We were also joined along the way by Des de Moor who is well known for his articles in CAMRA magazines for many years and who also has an excellent beer blog. Check it out.

De Molen brewery - home
to the Borefts festival

Next morning we had breakfast at Utrecht CS before meeting Jackie, Simon and Mark.  We take one of those excellent double-decker trains - a shame we can't have them over here - and head off to Bodegraven and the wonderful Borefts festival.

The festival is in it's fourth year and is held at the two sites of De Molen, the most exciting brewery in the Netherlands.

The festival features their beers as well as offerings from other breweries representing the cream of the European crop. 

Joining us in the queue were a large number of people from the UK and various parts of Europe and a decent number from the US.
The beer was served in small (15cl) portions which meant that you were constantly getting up and getting a refill but even after being there nine hours, we weren't drunk.  There were far too many good beers to mention but it was a superb day spent with loads of friendly beer fiends (not all hairy men either) - I hope to return next year.

Whilst Simon, Jackie and Mark returned for a second visit to Borefts on Saturday, Chris and I took the train into Amsterdam, a city where I really feel at home.

We had a couple of steady openers at de Wildeman which for many years was the number-one-do-not-miss bar in the city.  These days though there are plenty of other good bars but for us de Wildeman has the main advantage of opening at noon.

Next stop was the new-ish de Prael bar - complete with brewery out the back - which has a stable of excellent beers.  In the early days, the brewery employed psychiatric patients as part of their rehabiliation.

The beers are all named after Dutch singers from the 50s, 60s and 70s - typical schmaltzy middle-of-the-road stuff and includes a tasty milk stout - Zwarte Riek - named after a 50s singer.

The surprising thing in here was the number of (all Dutch) hen parties - all with a male guide seeing them safely from venue to venue - and some of the elderly Dutch women looked well scary.  I'd hate to see what they were like by the end of the day.

De Prael bar, Amsterdam

From here we move to the Beer Temple which mainly specialises in US beers but also stocks others from leading European brewers such as Mikkeller. 

For a short while we were joined by a stag-do from Blackburn who were astonished at the prices charged for the US imports.  Friendly lads though.

On the way to our final destination, Arendsnest, we pop into the Bierkoning (beer shop) to search a few bottles from the latest Dutch breweries.  I've never seen it so busy and have to queue for ten minutes with my purchases.

The Arendsnest is packed and we do well to nab the last couple of spare bar stools.  We met the owner, Peter, at Borefts yesterday and he said he was out on a stag-do himself today.

This used to be a popular Belgian beer bar when we first visited about 15 years ago but now it showcases Dutch beers only and it was good to taste some old favourites such as SNAB Pale Ale.

Eventually we'd had our fill - back on larger capacity glasses was having an affect - and we called it a day.  As we left for our train back to Utrecht, we checked the scores - Darlington beating Newcastle Benfield 5-2 whilst the Millers beat lowly Oxford United 3-1. Great news all round!

On Sunday we were up relatively early for a hearty breakfast in the hotel before catching the train back to Brussels.  We arrived at 1pm which gave us a few hours to spare - what else to do but head to another of Brussels' finest bars, Chez Moeder Lambic Fontainas?

A long modern-style bar, it has a superb range of draught and bottled beers from all over Europe although on this occasion I found some of my favourite draught saisons not up to (my high exacting) standard.  Nevertheless it was a perfect place to finish our grand tour.

DAFTS Go Dutch

As we have done for several years now, Liz and I went for our summer break to Amsterdam recently and on this trip we were joined by DAFTSmiester, Steve Duffy, and his other half Cath.

A nice early start from London City - a great little no-nonsense airport and just ten minutes from home - meant we were on our houseboat in the east of Amsterdam shortly after midday. Steve and Cath weren't too far behind us and without losing too much time unpacking, we headed out to our first port of call.

The Ij brewery (or Brouwerij 't Ij to give it it's proper name) is basically a brewery with a tasting room (or Proeflokaal) attached - both housed within one of Amsterdam's few remaining windmills.

(left) Ij brewery

Liz and I have been coming here since the mid-1990s after first reading about it in Hugh Shipman's Serious Drinkers Guide to Amsterdam and it remains my favourite bar in Amsterdam.

It's such a simple set-up - just their range of beers plus wine (red or white house only), soft drinks and a few basic snacks - which all means there is minimal fuss and bother.

The brewery tap is extremely basic in decor although the bar has been extended in recent years and there is now an extensive outside terrace - for those that like such things - but we're content to sit indoors and enjoy a few beers, some pindas (peanuts) and the occasional hard-boiled egg.

The beers are fairly varied from the lighter, refreshing taste of the Pilzen and Ijwit at 5% each through to the heavier, sipping flavours of the Columbus and Struis, both hitting the scales at 9%.

(above) Steve and Cath enjoy the Pilzen

Although this bar is outside the immediate city centre, it has the advantage of keeping prices an euro or so cheaper than more central bars, especially for off-sales (12 bottles for 14 euros - a bargain!).

The opening hours are quite limited too - from 3pm to 8pm - but that serves to focus the mind so that you concentrate on the beers. If you can manage a five hour session here, you're doing very well.

Although we visit the Ij three times during our stay, we do find time to sneak in a couple of visits to another of Amsterdam's finest bars - the Arendsnest.

This is another bar we've been visiting for many years and we've seen it change from a good bar serving mainly Belgian brews to a great bar serving Dutch-only beers.

This latter manifestation took place under the guidance of Peter van der Arend who will be shortly opening Amsterdam's first American beer bar - should be interesting.

(right) Arendsnest

The Arendsnest can be found on the gentile banks of the Herengracht on the edge of the trendy and slightly bohemian Jordaan area - well away from the red-light area and those bars with pictures of Bob Marley (whatever that means!).

The bar has an impressive 30 beers on tap which along with a multitude of bottled beers means there is something for everyone here.

The third bar we frequented during our stay was the Engelbawarder - the Guardian Angel - an unassuming looking pub on the edge of the Red Light area but mercifully free of the usual stag-night numpties and dope tourists which dominate some nearby bars.

This place used to be a literary cafe about 30 years ago but now concentrates on beer and food.

What raises it above most other bars in the area for me is the draught Rodenbach - a beautiful sour red beer from Belgium. Very tart and surprisingly refreshing.

(left) Engelbawarder sign points to earlier orientation

There is an odd old bloke we keep seeing here - he always seems to sit in the same seat in the window each day, reading his papers and mumbling away incoherently to himself (or that could be just Dutch). Woe betide anyone sat in his seat.

He was here last year when we dropped in and he's here again on both of our visits this year.

I don't know whether that's a sad or wonderful life - depends on your point of view I suppose. I don't think I'd complain about visiting this place every day.

Steve loves the bars here and is now wanting to extend the DAFTS away guide to include Amsterdam and the rest of Europe. I'm not certain when Darlo will make it worth our while...

If you're considering a trip to Amsterdam, you can't do better than check out the Amsterdam Pub Guide produced by Ron Patterson. He'll keep you right.