Dam nation

My travels are coming to an end and today's post concerns the last couple of days of holiday, an early October weekend in Amsterdam. Nothing too ambitious was on the cards.

Beer Temple is frankly too easy, with its central location and sensible opening hours. In we went, first thing on Saturday afternoon, to see what delights from the USA were available. I started with one from Benchtop in Virginia, their Foeder-Aged Friar Storm. Why you would want to oak up a Vienna lager is beyond me, but oak it up they have. What you get is still quite a normal lager: golden with a lovely thick layer of froth on top. The aroma is pleasantly meadowy, the floral hops continuing into the flavour. There it's seasoned with a light oaky spice with a touch of vanilla, but not so much that it interferes with the hops or the Vienna malt richness. I suspect that the base beer is very well made and that no amount of dicking around with it can harm its fundamental decency. This one certainly doesn't come across as gimmicky, though I still wonder what the point of the foeder was.

That's an imperial stout next to it: Black Betty by Nebraska Brewing. This 10.6%-er has aromas of coconut and liquorice and a strongly boozy herbal bitterness with overtones of Fernet Stock or Jägermeister. There's a sweetness to be found beyond this, making the whole picture into something like a Turkish coffee, with sugar, roast and all manner of odd additions. It's still a little bit serious, bordering on harsh, but I liked the punch it packs. You know you're drinking a big beer.

I went with a triple IPA from Maryland next: Biggest Cush by Cushwa. It looks an innocent hazy yellow but is a whopping 10% ABV. There's a fun pith and juice aroma with a touch of melon, while the flavour is very sweet, Juicy Fruit gum hitting more savoury poppyseed breadcrust. That's it, however: no heat, no subtleties, and nothing to really justify the enormous ABV. Were it a double IPA at a few points weaker I might nod it through but I expected much more than the flavour delivered.

Herself chose something local, namely Uiltje's Sgt. Night Vision. This imperial stout is 10.5% ABV and very smoky, smelling of burnt wood and tasting of sweetly glazed ham. The brewery's description tells me peated malt was used, and I definitely get that turf vibe, and it's also barrel aged, hence the oak. Beers like this can be quite extreme and difficult to drink; this one isn't subtle but it's not overdone either and the flavours are perfectly integrated into each other. You do need to like peat smoke in your drinks, and it's a great example of how to do that well.

The next unimaginative step was across the canals to Beer Temple's sister pub Arendsnest. This had the latest in Beer Temple's series of birthday IPAs: Big Fat 13, brewed by Uiltje. It's another triple IPA, claiming 10.13% ABV. Sure, guys. It's a mostly-clear pale orange colour and tastes of concentrated grapefruit pith plus an extra crispness, like desiccated orange peel. A hot but clean afterburn finishes it on a flourish. It's uncomplicated, but unlike the Cushwa one it provides enough flavour intensity to back up the sizeable strength. Big Fat 5 double IPA remains the stand-out of these, but I'll keep looking.

A Dutch take on Altbier next: Gooische Haring, a collaboration, of course, between Gooische and De Kromme Haring where it was brewed. It's difficult to imagine what sort of creative input went into the collaboration because this is very much down the line, from the clear red-brown appearance, through the biscuit aroma to the crisp flavour showing notes of brown bread and black tea. This is absolutely what an Altbier ought to be; no messing, no silliness, nothing that would be out of place in Düsseldorf. As such, I loved it, but did it really need two brewers to create it?

I said goodbye to Arendsnest with Koud Vuur, a smoked porter by Baxbier. It has a black IPA aroma, all spiced red cabbage and Parma Violets. The flavour is rather plainer, however, being mostly dry charcoal and little else. You get no smoky phenols, which was disappointing, just a savoury umami finish on a medium sweet body. It's inoffensive but I expected much more from something billed as a smoked porter and with a substantial ABV of 6.5%.

On Sunday we went for a dander through the Jordaan, the neighbourhood to the immediate west of the centre. We stopped for a noontime straightener at Café t'Monumentje which for me was the Coffee IPA from Dutch client brewer K.E.G.S. It looked more like weak milky tea than coffee, a hazy pale amber. In keeping with the haze, and 6.1% ABV, the body is soft and full. Coffee strikes the palate immediately on tasting, in the form of dry grounds in particular. The hops then bring a bouquet of floral flavours which feels like it should be central but is shouted down by the foreign addition. I don't think it quite works. The coffee feels rather tacked-on and gimmicky.

Beside it, in keeping with the autumnal setting, is van Vollenhoven Bok, one of the traditional Dutch autumn beers I've never tried. It's properly red and properly 6.5% ABV. The aroma is proper too, redolent of raspberries and red liquorice. It is, however, sweeter than most of this sort, showing ripe strawberries, fruitcake and glacé cherries. That's not a criticism, as it still brings all the comforting smoothness and warmth that Dutch herfstbok does so well when it's good. And this is good.

Amsterdam brewer Troost has a brewery out this way, in a converted redbrick industrial building in the Westerpark. There's a small production brewery and a small taproom where it's not clear which beers are brewed on site and which elsewhere.

I'm guessing the Raspberry Stout isn't from here because it arrived canned. This is 7.7% ABV and has a lovely mix of very sweet raspberryade or fondant cream candy with cocoa and milk chocolate: exactly what you might think a raspberry stout should be. It's not subtle and is more than a little gimmicky, but the gimmick works and it's all rather fun. I liked the silliness.

Beer of the moment, so presumably brewed here, was Troost IPL. It looks properly lagery, being clear and golden, while the flavour of fresh lemon very much represents the "India pale" side of the equation. It turns more ale-like on tasting, being sweet and a little heavy at only 4.5% ABV. The flavours are still bright and fresh -- lime and vanilla -- and by starting to think of it as a pale ale I enjoyed it more. It's rare to find an India pale lager that shows both elements equally well, and this isn't one of them.

I wrapped up with Extra Wit, and again appearances were spot on: pale yellow and hazy this time. There's lots of herb in it: coriander of course, but also a sweeter and oilier addition, suggesting rosemary and wintergreen to me. A dry grainy crispness balances those sweet oils, and also the growing bubblegum taste which creeps in as it warms. Overall, it's a good effort. It's more savoury than, say, Hoegaarden, but still hits all of the important style points square on.

From there it was out to Schiphol and home again. We're not quite done with the trip, however, and Friday's post will mop up a few more bottles and cans I picked up along the way.