When most people think of Amsterdam, beer is not the first thing that comes to mind. Famed - even notorious - as a city of many pleasures, beer in Amsterdam is usually thought to be synonymous with Heineken. But as the recent 24th Annual Bokbierfestival showed, there is a hidden layer of Dutch beer culture that begs investigation.
Dutch bokbiers, as opposed to their German namesakes, are not necessarily bottom-fermented. In fact, traditionally they are more likely to be ales rather than lagers, with the larger breweries like Heineken and Grolsch turning out lagers and the smaller ones concentrating on ales. As far as taste characteristics go, however, they will share a sweetness and elevated strength, usually around 6.5% alcohol by volume but occasionally as high as 7.5% or even 8 or 9%.
One of Europe's oldest beer festival - second only to the Great British Beer Festival - this year's Bokbierfestival featured 46 Dutch bokbiers and three visiting brews, one from Belgium's Brasserie d'Achouffe and two classics from Einbecker of Germany. While I didn't have the chance to taste them all, I was able to get to some of the highlights.
Two of my first bokbiers were also two of the best I would taste over the course of the weekend, and both came from a consortium of beer aficionados who develop recipes and contract breweries to make the beers, called the Stichting Noordhollandse Alternatieve Bierbrouwers, or S.N.A.B. Their Ezelenbok is a lightly spicy, firmly structured ale with a note of roast on the aroma and flavours of apple, nutmeg and roasted walnut in the body. Concentrated via the traditional 'eisbock' process, that 7.5% alcohol brew becomes the 9% Ijsbok, which I felt lost aromatics in the process and held less depth of flavour than did the original.
The Budels brewery furnished what was by far the best bottom-fermented bok in the form of their Budels Bok, a 6.5% delight with lots of spice on the nose (cinnamon) and notes of chocolate in the wonderfully balanced body. A somewhat surprising runner-up in the lager department was Heineken's Amstel Bock, a dryish beer with a reserved, tobacco-y aroma and well-developed flavour holding notes of toffee, light roast, well-grilled toast and mild alcohol.
Amsterdam's own Brouwerij 't Ij brewery came through with a rust-coloured, herbal Ij Bock with honey-ish notes in the body and a touch of elderberry on the finish. It was tasted at the brewery tap, along with their firm, floral Plzen, which I am told is rumoured to actually be a k”lsch.
Back at the fest, I had a chance to sample the dark chocolaty Utrechts Bok from Ledig erf, the Hoeksche waarde brewery's toffee-ish, lightly tannic Hoeksche Bokbier, and the fruity-nutty Volenbok from Brouwerij 't Volen, all of which I very much enjoyed. Less delightful, I thought, was the cloyingly sweet Herfstbok from Grolsch, which I sampled in a northern Dutch bar a day later because kegs of the beer apparently never made it to the fest.
All in all, I'd recommend the Bokierfestival as a necessary addition to the calendar of any beer aficionado. Perhaps best of all, it's a reason to visit the beautiful city of Amsterdam that won't have your friends raising their eyebrows and nudging you in the ribs.
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