Funny time of year

It's a funny time of year. Christmas has gone. New Year is next week. Everyone else is rushing round the sales. I nipped into the Stadsarchief Amsterdam.

Today it was the turn of Amstel. To be honest, it was a bit disappointing. Only one of the books really had much in terms of useful information.

I was surprised how long they'd been brewing Amstel Gold. Back to the mid-1950's at least. The records covering the 1970's didn't have hardly any information at all. Except that in 1974 about half the brews were Heineken Pils. And that Heineken Pils was boiled for two hours, Amstel Pils just an hour and a half. That's the most interesting bits. Don't ask me about the rest.

I did look at some Heineken records from the late 1950's, too. In 1959, they were producing three different versions of Pils. One at 12º Plato for the Dutch market, one at 11º Plato for the USA, and one of just 8º Plato for the UK. Oh, and for some reason the US version had no sugar in it.

Oh yes, Amstel were still brewing Stout in the mid-1970's. Both Amstel and Heineken were still producing a Münchner in the early 1960's.

Fascinating stuff, eh?