A proper gander

Leiden is my usual base for the Borefts beer festival at De Molen in nearby Bodegraven. I usually stay by the station for ease of departure and haven't really done a proper beer tour of the city. Or hadn't, until I arrived a day early for the 2022 festival so had some time to explore.

One of the local breweries is the delightfully named Pronck. I found a couple of their wares at the Stadscafé van der Werff. I picked the Citra Rye Ale to begin, a hazy orange 5%-er. From the name I expected bitterness in spades but it's actually light and fruity, with fresh mandarin and mango instead of grapefruit and grass. The rye's contribution is a kind of aftershave-like spice, but nothing more severe than that. Overall, this is a delightfully juicy fellow, very much in the modern New England style and done very well.

For herself, Pronck Imperial Porter, a whopper at 11% ABV. It poured deep brown with lots of unpleasant-looking floaty bits and no head after the initial crackle of fizz. Despite the strength it's not hot, though has a thick and satisfying mouthfeel. Chocolate and cinnamon in the aroma becomes spiced Nutella in the flavour. Again, the bitterness is lower than expected, but again that's not really a problem. It's a little rough around the edges but still a delight to sip.

Stadsbrowhuis is a poky little brewpub by a canal with a very good selection of guest beers but I thought it only proper to have one of their own. That was Batch #3, which sounds a bit ephemeral but they've been making it for several years. It's a pale ale of 5% ABV and a hazy dark yellow. There's not much by way of aroma and a sadly low-key flavour, offering a little lemon and biscuit but not much else. It's drinkable; there are no off flavours, but it's thoroughly unexciting and I'm actually a little surprised that they keep making it. I guess there's an audience who want something safe and unfussy.

Next stop was the bustling sports bar Vi-Kings, a place which has a fun, down-at-heel lived-in character while also well maintained and perfectly clean. I spotted a barley wine of interest on the menu, from another local operation, IF. It's called Moscatel Mania, and indeed there are grapes in it, well, raisins. It's 9.1% ABV and a murky brown colour. It certainly smells vinous and has a certain tangy sourness in the flavour. Aside from that it's a well-made barley wine, dark and rich with lots of warming fruitcake. The gimmick didn't quite work as I expected it, but I have no complaints.

And across the table, a porter from De Molen I hadn't tried before: Hamer & Sikkel. At 8.2% ABV it's a strong one and goes all in on the roast, with an aroma of severely burnt toast. The flavour is softer and smoother, offering hazelnuts and creamy latte or mocha. The usual De Molen finesse when it comes to strong and dark beers is very apparent.

Lemmy's Beer and Whiskycafé was next, an unpretentious corner bar with plenty of interest on the taps. My eye was immediately caught by the 2017 vintage of Gulpener Winter IJsbock which was pouring. This freeze-distilled beer is dark brown and 10.5% ABV with a smooth texture and a surprisingly light body. There's a big dose of diacetyl in the aroma, the caramelised butterscotch mixing with star anise and cardamom. I got a sense of fortified wine from the flavour: nothing jarring or dramatic, but a mellow dark fruit character. It's perhaps not as characterful as the aroma suggested it would be, but was still very enjoyable, and impressive for a large brewery like Gulpener.

The Sisters Brewery in Utrecht makes an imperial stout called Pchela, and Lemmy's was pouring Pchela Special, a slightly stronger version with vanilla. Even at 11.5% ABV it's a dense beastie, apprent immediately from the huge caramel, chocolate and honeycomb aroma. The opening flavour is pure caramelised sugar, tasting exactly like one of those lattices that were fashionable on desserts some years back. There's a sprinkle of cinnamon, some floral topnotes, then a vegetable bitterness leading to a hard ristretto finish. Quite a workout, but fascinating and invigorating. They weren't lying when they called it Special.

In 2020 Heineken moved its corporate headquarters from the big brewery in Zoeterwoude to a new purpose-built office beside Leiden station. In one corner of the ground floor they've installed a chic restaurant and cocktail bar called, of course, Freddy*s (why the asterisk?) and have added a small brewkit to produce beers in-house. They don't seem to pay much attention to it: information about the beers is sparse and the staff weren't at all knowledgeable about what was available. I still managed to coax two out of them.

First up, Freddy*s West Coast IPA. This is 6.5% ABV and a strangely dark amber colour. It turns out it's one of the spicy and savoury sort of IPAs, straight out of the 1990s craft beer playbook. In place of grapefruit I got black pepper and basil, on top of a lot of crystal malt. It works, and the result has more than a passing resemblance to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and its contemporaries: beers which straddle the old and new worlds, taking elements from both.

Just tapped was Freddy*s Antwerp Pale Ale, described as an answer to De Koninck's. This is 7% ABV and the appropriate shade of red with an aroma of fresh peach and apricot. The flavour is all tea and strawberries with a little dry farmyard funk but none of the horrific buttery diacetyl of the beer it's trying to copy. As such, I thought it was rather an improvement.

It seems they're capable of making good beer at Freddy*s; it's a shame that the beer doesn't seem to be valued by the venue's management.

I enjoyed getting a look at what Leiden has to offer beerwise, and several of these are places I'll make the time to return to when I'm next in town.