Castles, cafés and conversions

The alarm went at 3.45am on Thursday and the weekend was under way. I had booked a manageable 10.30am flight but the wags at Aer Lingus decided it would be more fun to send me off at stupid o'clock, so at stupid-minus-one I met Reuben at the airport and we filed onto the the pre-dawn flight to Schiphol.

It was the first in-person meeting of the European Beer Consumers Union in two years and our hosts had something of an odyssey in store for us, but the starting point was Utrecht. Opening time is noon and the first stop was Olivier, a grande café in a former church. I opened my account with their house beer, Olivier Tripel, brewed by De Leckere. That's a generally a reliable brewery but there was something a little off about this. The acidic, vinegary aroma was the beginning of it, and then a nasty tasted-perfume bitterness in the flavour. Mixing it in there was some hard candy as well as honey in its rawest, roughest and waxiest form. There was very little of what I come to tripel for: no smoothness, no spice, no warmth, and definitely no chill, just hard work. After many hours of journeying I felt I deserved better.

Better I got by switching to Oedipus next, and their blend of pale ale and Berliner weisse called Poly Amorie. This is pale yellow in colour, and headless like its sour component normally is. A smell of burnt rubber had me on alert but the flavour instantly set me at ease. It's fanstically fresh and juicy, with a sweet Starburst tropicality leading on to more realistic apricot and mango. There's no more than a tiny squeak of tartness and otherwise it's a clean and tasty blonde pale ale. It proved exceedingly drinkable and I was getting serious and delightful Jarl vibes by the end.

We moved on, the next stop being Kafé België, a slightly rough-round-the-edges pub with a brown café feel but also a superb international beer list. That included Pühaste's Mosaiik Vienna IPA, very much an old-school west-coaster. It's 6.9% ABV and a deep shade of orange. Both aroma and flavour go big on dank and funky resins, pairing them with heavy caramel malt and a sizeable smack of bitterness. The complexity goes no further than that, but it doesn't need to. This is one of those beers I would have found tough drinking a decade ago but is now all retro charm.

On Reuben's recommendation I chose the East Cost Porter from Dutch brewer Brothers in Law next. This is a 7.7% ABV whopper with a magnificent creamy texture. The flavour begins on chocolate and remains centred there, while along the way it introduces a drier herbal bitterness including a dash of aniseed, and some burnt caramel too. The balance between the elements is expertly maintained throughout and the end result is a damn near perfect porter. Were it not for the well-concealed strength, this is a beer I could drink in quantity very easily.

Obviously I had to squeeze in a visit to Utrecht's finest establishment, De Rat, and on Thursday evening we found the little corner pub bustling and extremely convivial, something I haven't felt since The Unpleasantness began. Perched at the bar I selected the Oud Beersel Winter Lambiek from the draft selection. This is the latest in their range of oddly-infused beers and has had pine... juice? sap? extract?... added to it. Despite this, and the big 6.8% ABV, it retains its classic lambic quality: flinty sharp yet maturely smooth with a gorgeous softness. The twist is a bite of freshly-mopped floor which doesn't exactly complement the base beer but doesn't detract from it either. It's not especially wintery but I was enjoying it far too much to care.

Reuben's choice was an interesting one: Cuvée La Calavera, a vermouth barrel-aged sour job by Alvinne. It's a clear golden colour and has a slight grapes and herbs complexity, as one would expect from vermouth, but is otherwise rather plain, its sharp acidity leaning towards vinegar. Alvinne's beers can be quite rough and unsubtle, and this is an example of that. Anyone expecting a civilised cocktail party feel would be disappointed.

The final engagement of the evening was at the grand brewpub Stadskasteel Oudaen, sited in a converted medieval mansionhouse. I doggedly worked through the range when I was here in 2017 and things haven't changed much. But it was bock season and, as will be made clear in this week's posts, bock is a big thing in the Netherlands in autumn. The requirements of the style are usually followed precisely and Oudaen Herfstbock is no exception. 7% ABV, it's the correct shade of chestnut red and has all the usual notes of caramel and red liquorice, doing nothing especially interesting with them. You would have to be a serious bock purist to get a thrill from it. I thought it was as passable as they normally are, and in keeping with Oudaen's general mediocrity in brewing.

Friday was another dark and early start, setting off by bus to Fort Everdingen. This grand brick-built compound was constructed in the mid-19th century as part of the New Dutch Waterline string of fortifications, one which was never actually required for defensive purposes. In 2014 the military moved out and it was acquired by the Duits & Lauret brewery which has a small production facility on site, a brewery tap and a campsite. With the day's EBCU business concluded, our host took us through some of the beers they make.

The perfect after-work thirst-quencher is, of course, schwarzbier, and the Duits & Lauret one is called Swarte Kray. 5.5% ABV is a little high, I thought, but it's still light and crisp and quaffable so entirely fit for purpose. There's plenty of complexity to explore as well, beginning on orthodox coffee and liquorice with a gentle dark chocolate bitterness, but also injecting a dose of fun with a sherbet lemon buzz. Textbook stuff which leaves nothing wanting.

Everdingen's thick walls provide perfect cellaring conditions, and indeed some of the ample space is leased to a Champagne importer. Every year since they moved in, Duits & Laurent has brewed a ruby-coloured Bière de Garde Brune so now has a run of vintages back to 2015. The fresh version has an aroma of plum and fig, much more like a dubbel than bière de garde which is typically dry. The only dryness here is of a roasted grain quality, part of an overall boozy fruitcake character with a mild hop bitterness. It's 7.5% ABV, so again fitting the dubbel specifications perfectly while managing to present as something a little stronger and more complex.

That was merely a prologue to the presentation of the 2015 vintage, where the aroma has turned to prunes and slivovich and the flavour to warming cream sherry. Flatter and smoother, it's still quite sweet, and there's a note of milk chocolate which I didn't notice in the fresh one. As is often the case with vintage beers, the aged one isn't necessarily better but does provide an interestingly different experience.

At the same strength the brewery also has a wood-aged smoked dopplebock called, of course, Houtgerijpte Rook Dubbelbock. It's an ochre colour and the beech-smoked malt gives it a familiar bacony aroma. It's a very clean lager base on which there's lots of smoke and a strange but welcome chocolate cake sweetness. The wood gives it a little bit of dry sawdust which I think is unnecessary but not unpleasant. The overall picture is of a hearty and warming winter lager and perfect fodder for smoked beer fans like me.

There's a shop on site where the wares are extremely keenly priced, including the fancy large-format vintage ones. I only came away with two for hotelroom drinking.

Duits & Lauret Stout is 6.5% ABV but sadly quite thin on that. This actually reminded me more of schwarzbier than big stout, with its aniseed flavour and sharp carbonic bite. The initial bitterness is offset a little later on when a more stout-like creamy vanilla side emerges, alongside a spicy red cabbage complexity. Once I was used it not being the beer I expected, I found myself quite enjoying what it has to offer. It's decent, unfussy and well made. Proper flagship material.

We'll go out where we came in, with De Leckere and a beer they collaborated on with Duits & Lauret. Black Emperor is described as an imperial schwarzbier and is 8.5% ABV. This one is as heavy as might be expected, and more, smelling of roast and caramel. More aniseed mixes with treacle bread and fresh green basil and thyme. There's all the richness of a big stout here but it still has a discernible cleanness and precision which marks it as a lager. The perfect nightcap and an appropriate finisher for today's post.

The bus from Fort Everdingen had not brought us back to Utrecht, however. We were now in the eastern city of Zwolle. What and where we drank there follows next.