For the Gram

From Zwolle, we set off further westwards on Saturday morning for Gramsbergen, a small town about 3km from the border with Germany. G-berg, as nobody calls it, is home to the Mommeriete brewery, set in a rustic canalside inn, all oak beams and porcelain fireplaces. We missed getting to see it as its normal cosy self since they were gearing up for a beer festival: one organised to celebrate 20 years of the Dutch beer consumers' organisation PINT, onto which was tacked the official 30th birthday bash for EBCU. It was a modest affair, beginning in the the afternoon and finishing at 7pm, and only three guest breweries were in attendance.

But it was only good manners to begin with the house beers and my first was Vrouwe Van Gramsbergh, Mommeriete's quadrupel. It's a rich brown colour and 10% ABV, all of which suggested something big and wholesome, but perhaps because it was cold on draught it actually proved quite light; refreshing, even. There's a fun and fruity flavour profile showing plump raisins and meadow flowers, finishing on a pinch of grassy bitterness. The base is all easy-going milk chocolate. Perhaps it's just as well that the first beer of the day wasn't a palate-thumper. I appreciate this kind of gentler approach to quadrupel.

De Vrouwe's husband, an imperial stout, was not on the roster, but I did get to try the tripel: Scheerse. This is another easy-going take on a strong style. It's the full 9% ABV and a proper pale golden shade. There's lots of rich honey in the flavour, if not in the mouthfeel, and a minimal but present amount of spicing. I'm always wary of big and flabby esters in microbrewed tripel but this neatly avoided all the usual pitfalls. I love the idea of popping in to your neighbourhood café and being able to enjoy tasty and accessible tripel or quadrupel, brewed on site, like these.

The day's first bock was a smoked one: De Vaandrig. Maybe because it only gets a limited run at a specific time of the year this one didn't seem quite dialled in to me. Though 6.7% ABV it's rather thin, missing the weighty caramel that makes Dutch autumn bock well suited to the season, especially when drinking it outdoors. The smoke, then, is unsubtle -- a raw sort of kippery effect that covers any nuance there may be. It's not a bad beer and was perfectly drinkable, but if it were mine I would be making tweaks to create something richer and more warming.

It didn't seem like the sort of place that would have a New England IPA in production but we live in strange times. Mommeriete's is called Het Varel and is a not-to-style clear amber colour. Told you it wasn't the right sort of place. Or am I being too hasty? It does taste properly juicy, with a hit of lemon rind for balance on the end. Unfortunately, after the initial thrill it starts to unravel, introducing a savoury character which I thought might be phenolic and tasted of burnt plastic to Reuben. By the end, the glass offered a mix of sweet fruit cordial and caramelised onions, which is not a happy time. Another recipe that needs work, I think, although abandoning it in favour of a clean and sharp west-coaster would be my actual recommendation.

Finally for Mommeriete, I came late to their strong blonde ale Jonkvrouwe. I seem to have had good luck with blonde ales all weekend because this was another cracker. Though only 7% ABV it has a lovely honey thickness, feeling richer than one might expect. This weighty Belgian-style malt character is balanced by a clean and zingy lemon sherbet. No bells and whistles, nothing fancy, just an extremely well designed and executed blonde ale. With everything else on offer I suspect that this may have been overlooked by many festival-goers but I'm glad I caught it.

Our friend from yesterday, Stanislaus Brewskovitch, he of the strawberry/basil IPA fame, also had a stand. I only tried one from it, a "coffee milk oatmeal stout" called Cappu dei Capi. The first surprise here was the full-on black grain aroma -- almost burnt -- not what one would expect from a lactose-infused stout. It turned out to be not very sweet but with a pleasant light, creamy texture. The flavour really isn't as complex as the title suggests, the coffee flavours staying on a low key and tokenistic chocolate or caramel. This puts in the minimum work to meet the spec, but no more than that.

The stand next door was Avereest from the neighbouring town of Dedemsvaart. I couldn't pass up a uniquely Dutch historical style when on offer, so started here with Klungel, a kuitbier: 50% oat grist and given a retro-modern twist by using a Scandinavian kveik yeast. Hazy orange in the glass, it has a fresh-squeezed orange and lemon aroma. That becomes dry and slightly astringent grapefruit on tasting, balanced by softer sherbet zing. Though it looks murky it tastes clean and precise, and at only 5% ABV is very drinkable. This fits neatly into an IPA-shaped slot without having any IPA ancestry.

It was back on the quadrupel next, with Avereest's ominously-named PK21, another 10% ABV job. This was much more to style than the one above, albeit not necessarily in a good way. It's extremely heavy and boozy, with hot caramel and fruitcake giving way to chocolate and rum, finishing up on a solvent marker-pen burn. It's definitely a sipper, and a slow one at that. I think perhaps in other circumstances, ie sitting down indoors, this would be an interesting one to savour. Standing out in the cold while eyeing the menu for what to have next is not really its ideal environment.

Gooische attracted the most attention and, of the guests, had the biggest range on offer. One of them was a grape ale, so I was straight in for one of those: Grape Ale III. This being a less than cosmopolitan part of the world, my server took great pains to explain to me what I was getting into. It seems this wasn't to everyone's taste. For me, it tasted like a work in progress. It's a dark red colour and very wine flavoured -- sweet and spicy with ruby port qualities and hints of raspberry and cherry. The finish is dry but before that it's sugar all the way and that's where it differed from the best grape ales: it needs more attenuation, more maturing time. What's there now is uncomplex, approachable and pleasant, with no off flavours or anything jarring. But I could taste its potential too. I think the brewery is going to a good place if they stick with it.

Another of my favourite styles? Oh go on then. Zwart looks like a proper schwarzbier but I started to suspect it wasn't going to be exactly my sort of thing when the ABV proved to be 7%. A gently roasted aroma lures the drinker in, to then be hit by a huge tarry bitterness. This only subsides to allow a similarly harsh burnt aspect enter the picture. Usually I can forgive very strongly flavoured beers for just being themselves; this one was too extreme for me, however. Dial it back. Dial it all back.

It must be bock time again. I only had a taster of Gooische Bock and found it a weighty one. Though a perfectly normal 7% ABV it's loaded with hot banana esters alongside the caramel, and missing any of the balancing herbal qualities. This is bock exactly as I don't like it. I'm glad I didn't buy one.

Bock also featured in the special beer of the festival. To wish PINT a happy birthday, Gooische blended their autumn bock with a winter bock to create PINT-Robijn, a rich red beer of 9% ABV. It doesn't stray too far from the bock basics though was much more drinkable than the autumn bock on its own -- I suspect that a bit of maturation has been going on and has helped with that. I got a slightly astringent raspberry tartness in with the caramel that balanced it nicely. It wasn't madly complex so I guess worked well as a conversation beer for all the old hands of PINT gathering in the brewery garden.

And with that one chugged it was time to head back west, where the bright lights of the big city beckoned.