A family day out

Only kidding, it's Heineken time again. Lots and lots of tedious details that no-one gives a toss about. So much fun we'll be having. Just like me and the family yesterday.

Dolores had got her hands on four free tickets for the Maritime Museum. Off were trolled at 2 PM. Which is usually before Andrew's getting up time. He got up early, especially. Both the kids are interested in history.

The museum is a bit of  walk from the suggested bus stop. Just as we got off, it started raining. Lovely. We kicked off outside, where there's a reconstruction of a VOC ship parked. It's not a 100% accurate copy. They've made some of the decks higher.

I won't bore you with all the details. Stuff about the Ditch genocide on the Banda islands was particularly refreshing.

Museuming done, our next destination was de Prael. Deciding ti walk, we passed through a bit of Amsterdam new to me. East of the Geldersekade. Streets mostly still lined with the typical tall, narrow houses of the 17th century. Rather a lot of them.Very scenic, very quiet.

It's very residential. Few shops and not many pubs. Not a part of town I've had the need to visit.

Our route took is through the Red Light district. Though any route to de Prael would, as it's smack in the middle of it. It was noticeably quieter than usual. But not totally dead. Some tourists have slipped in. The bastards.

"The last I ate out was last September with the Germany. We sat on that table there." Dolores remarked.

"For me it's much longer. March 2020 in Bangkok with Mikey." 

Wow. It was that long ago. I rarely visit restaurants in Amsterdam. They're mostly poor value for money. Quite a lot of dosh for mediocre food. But in a normal year, I'd spend four or five weeks travelling. Mostly the US. Then I dine out every day.

Two burgers, beef stew and a portion of chip. In the highly unlikely case that you're interested. Not bad and not too ridiculously expensive.

Beer-wise, I went for a Quadrupel. A big one. As I've said before, I don't do halves. Not even of Imperial Stout.

Damn. I was supposed to be telling you all sorts of fascinating* Heineken details. And I've just been rattling on about a rainy day out. Time is ticking on. It's almost beer o'clock. Saturday 16:30 at Butcher's Tears. I hope the rain holds off.

No time for me to do justice to Heineken and cook myself a decent lunch.  No contest. My stomach is always going to win. That's why I'm such a fat git. Heineken will just have to wait. I hope tou're not too disappointed.

* Fascinating to me and three others.

Brouwerij De Prael
Oudezijds Armsteeg 26,
1012 GP Amsterdam
https://www.deprael.nl/


Het Scheepvaartmuseum
Kattenburgerplein 1,
1018 KK Amsterdam.
https://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl/

Prince song

I'm sure this is significant. Not a sign of hitting the mainstream or anything as extreme as that.But still a sign.

I found two white-label style beers from De Prael in Ton Overmars on Saturday. One was an IPA:

The other a vaguely Stout-like beer:

Until now, De Prael had stuck with the Belgiany-ish sort of stuff Dutch small brewers have made for the last 30 years.

The IPA isn't bad. None of that grapefruit shit I hate, just a pleasant, straightforward bitterness. I wasn't as convinced by the Zwaart Reek: a bit muddy both in appearance and flavour.

I hope the Dutch beer world isn't going to end up all IPA's and Imperial Stouts like some other countries. They have their place, but if that becomes all you get everywhere in Europe, I don't see that as an enrichment of beer culture. There are plenty of geeks all over Europe who wish, beer-wise, that they lived in the USA. I hope it doesn't become reality. Because that's my nightmare.

Sad that I'm reduced to drinking from a cheapo Koniginnendag Leffe glass. My butter fingers dropped my lovely St. Bernardus glass into the sink a few weeks ago. Haven't got around to buying a new one yet.

Bayerische Anstich

"Are you going?" Mike asked. "Going where?" I had no clue what he was on about. "Wildeman. You really should get on their mailing list. There's Bayerische Anstich tonight. A Prael beer."

Mike's right. I ought to get myself on Wildeman's mailing list. I could easily have missed the Bayerische Anstich. Oh well. As long as he's on it, things work out pretty well.

For those of you who've never heard the phrase, Bayerische Anstich is just the German way of saying "gravity served". You know, where they whack a brass tap in with a dirty great mallet. (One of my favourite sounds.) You can see the full set to the right: barrel, hammer, brass tap.

We'd already seen the barrel. It had been parked in a corner of the former no-smoking room. I'd wondered if it was just a themed table or decoration. No, as it turned out. It was full of beer.

It's one of the things they do semi-regularly at Wildeman. Bayerische Anstich on a Friday evening. Usually it's something Bavarian. Often dead yummy. Like Schlenkerla Fastenbier. Or something from Beck. Life is good in Amsterdam.

The barrel was due to be tapped at six. Not wanting to miss out, I was there a quarter to. Fortunately, they had other beers to keep my thirst at bay until the tapping. Löwenbräu Oktoberfest, for example. Not quite as nice as the Hacker I had at the festival, but not bad. And true to style: a proper Oktberfest Helles Märzen.

Mike showed up at five to six. As the barrel hadn't been tapped, time for a second Oktberfest. We'd barely taken our seats when the delightful sound of wood on brass drifted in from the bar. Time for two-handed drinking.

De Prael Johnny was in the barrel. A Kölsch, supposedly. It was cloudy almost to the point of sludginess. Just the two counts it fails on for being officially a Kölsch then. I'd show you how sludgy it was. But I prefer the snap of Löwenbräu in a Beck Brau glass. Johnny tasted pretty decent, despite all the sludge.

De Prael should be opening their own taproom sometime in the next year. A thought has struck me: will it feature Bayerische Anstich? That could explain why they've gone to the expense of getting a wooden cask. I do hope so.