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A late-September long weekend in the Netherlands began with a short visit to Amsterdam. Delayed flights and cancelled trains meant I was more than ready for a beer on stepping out of Centraal. First stop, as is becoming something of a tradition, was Beer Temple. I was intrigued to see them pouring an American take on the kvass beer style. It's a long time since I last drank kvass, the low-alcohol bread-based sort-of-beer popular in Russia and equivalent to ice tea as a hot-day thirst-quencher. Jester King's Kvass, then, was not true to style. For one thing it was 4.4% ABV which is about twice as strong as it needed to be. Further marks off for being clear yellow instead of murky brown, and I gave up on style comparisons when I discovered it was sour. What we have here is a fairly basic Berliner weisse -- tangy and sharp -- with some cream-ale sweetcorn crispness. It was fine, I guess, but I thought I was getting a kvass, so disappointment was inevitable.

Amazingly it's over ten years since the opening of Beer Temple, an evening I remember more for drinking Affumicator in Wildeman with Barry and Ron than the event itself. A tenth anniversary triple IPA had been created for the occasion, pouring alongside what I assume is a rebrew of the 5th anniversary one. So...

L: Big Fat 5; R: Big Fat 10

Big Fat 5 was brewed by Uiltje and is a double IPA of 8% ABV. From the hazy yellow glassful comes a super-juicy aroma of mango and passionfruit. Dankness is the first flavour to arrive, offering a jolt of bitterness ahead of the tropical flood. There's maybe a small twang of yeast grit but there's no booze heat and the whole thing adds up to a gorgeous symphony in American hops. This is one of the most impressive double IPAs I have ever tasted. I can see why they brought it back and hope there are plans for it to hang around.

Its successor, Big Fat 10, came from the same brewery and raises the ABV to a numerically significant 10%. This is slightly darker, and clearer too, with a milder aroma. The flavour is a straightforward mix of mandarins with hard alcohol, and maybe some cantaloupe if you squint. On top of any subtleties there's the clean vodka-like burn I get from pretty much every TIPA. It's OK, but a bit samey and absolutely not a patch on its older sibling.

The next stop was Arendsnest where the round brought Bøcketlist, not a bock but a session New England IPA from local brewer Heaps of Hops. Their gimmick is that nothing they make is stronger than 3.5% ABV and this is right on the limit. The finish is a little watery, but only a little; otherwise it delivers what one would expect: fresh and juicy stonefruit and a sweeter heavier vanilla. A spritz of lavender was an unexpected bonus. This is very well made and barely compromised at all. Perhaps the secret is... heaps of hops.

Beside that, a sample of Moersleutel Motorolie, a 12% ABV imperial stout. Dark chocolate and cocoa powder; liquorice bitterness and diesel heat. It combines these well and rounds them out into something surprisingly easy to drink given the spec. This is well put-together, but it's difficult to see what separates it from dozens of other superb Dutch imperial stouts. That's not really a complaint, of course. If you see this, get it.

But since it had run out, the helpful waiter recommended another Moersleutel imperial stout, Smoke Screen. This one is only 8% ABV, and smoked, obviously. The smoke is well integrated here, starting out on a heady aroma of dark chocolate and fine cigars. The flavour turns that to barbecued meats, doubling down on the richness with a lovely creamy texture. There's no alcohol heat interfering with any of the wonderful taste, proving you don't need to go into double figures for a powerful, complex and satisfying stout. Moersleutel is very much on my watchlist now.

My eye was caught by the listing of Vandenbroek Platte Lambik on the board at Arendsnest. Sure there are numerous Dutch examples of high-end barrel-aged sour beer, but they don't usually call them "lambik". Also, the traditional flat style is not something you see much outside Brussels. This walks the walk, however. It's a beautiful clear rose-gold colour, smelling churchy: of dust and old wax. A somewhat vomity acidic foretaste begins it, softening only slightly as it goes. As you get used to that, a more frivolous lime-and-salt margarita effect kicks in. It's good overall, just a little on the harsh side. Its brewer is definitely on the way to creating lambic to rival the Belgians. Good on 'em.

Another Vandenbroek came my way via Bierkoning where there was a selection of bottles. Deciding to buy one I picked Brut Olasz, a spontaneously fermented blend which is part beer and part grape must. It's the medium hazy yellow of a cloudy cider but doesn't taste very grapey or cidery. The aroma has the oak spices of proper lambic with the promise of Bretty funk behind it. The flavour is plainer. There's a woody cinnamon effect and a brush of pear, but not much else. It's very pleasant, and very much in the geueze style, but without the same complexity: the flavours don't spark in the same way. I can't not like it, but it left me wanting more. So that's Vandenbroek on the list now too.

I impulse-bought some More Beer beers from Arendsnest. Eastern Farm Eagle was first opened, a saison at 5.5% ABV. It's a properly saisony saison: apricot skin bitterness, white pepper spice, a lighter honeydew fruit. Once I realised there was nothing new or distinctive about it I found myself enjoying it more. Maybe this is what beer is like for normal people. It's complex without being difficult; refreshing without being simplistic. Great work.

That boded well for Dutch Eagle pale ale. 5.5% ABV again and a deep orange colour. It smells of concentrated orange oil with a touch of oaky wood, even though none was involved in production. That suggests a certain thickness but it's actually quite light, and the flavour suffers because of it. There's a fun fruit-chew sweetness, gentle hop resins and a black tea dryness. It's fine, but not as on point for an IPA like the saison was for saison. There's a certain cold hollowness, something missing in the finish. Or maybe IPA just isn't as nice as saison. Who knew?

Later at De Molen I picked up a can of this from Romanian superstars Hop Hooligans. It's called Salty Sourpuss and purports to be a gose with cucumber. It pours a cheery pale yellow colour giving off a spicy and tart aroma. In the flavour that base tartness is overlaid heavily by the fruit. The cucumber does taste of cucumber, though much sweeter, perhaps more like a prickly pear. Despite that major fruit contribution, it manages to stay clean and refreshing, the fizz doing a great job of scrubbing the aftertaste. It's only 4% ABV too, so I could see drinking another one straight after.

The final beer on the way through Schiphol was Falcon Ale from van Vollenhoeven, the brand best known for its resurrected stout. Falcon is similarly old-fashioned, in style of a strong English bitter, at 4.5% ABV. It's a clear amber colour and smells of toffee and very English hops: a hard and leafy metallic buzz. So it goes on tasting too -- old-fashionedly dry and bitter, packed with tannins and orange pith. It tastes like a bigger sterner beer than the strength suggests, and enjoyable for that. It's good that we have deliberately retro beers available as beer fashion continues to get sillier.

But back to De Molen. The main reason I was over was their annual festival at the brewery, and I went the following day...