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Tag: craft beer

London Trip – Day 1

Published on 27th January 2023

Waterloo & West London H3

The last time I was in London for more than a couple of hours, is almost four years ago! About time to visit it again, so today I finally found myself once again on a Eurostar under the English Channel. Lots of queueing—the train was full—but at least the biometric gates now worked with my Belgian comic strip passport.

Since I didn’t have time for a coffee before my departure in Brussels, and because I had a bit of time to kill before I could check-in in my hotel, my first stop in London was at Redemption Roasters for some—apparently—prison-roasted coffee, and a piece of banana bread.

My hotel for this trip is again the very conveniently located—right next to the station—hub by Premier Inn King’s Cross. I’ve stayed there once before, returning from one of my Scotland trips. A swift check-in, change into my kilt, and it was time to hit the town!

First up was Mother Kelly’s Bottle Shop & Taproom in Vauxhall. Their taprooms had been on my to-do list for years, but somehow I never made it… This one has 33 beers on tap, so it wasn’t hard to find some beers I liked! The music I didn’t like that much, so after two beers I moved on.

The second stop was the Waterloo Tap. The bar is part of the same family as the Euston Tap, my usual last stop before boarding the Caledonian Sleeper, so I kind of knew what to expect: a nice selection of keg and cask beers. I wasn’t wrong about that, but the venue itself was so much more open than the Euston Tap: it was basically a rather narrow railway arch with windows put in on both sides!

Then it was time to visit BrewDog Waterloo. At that moment it was still the newest London BrewDog bar, but that would soon, very soon, change… I’ve visited BrewDog bars of all sizes, but this one is just ridiculously large: apart from the bar space itself—with 60 taps—and a micro-brewery like we’ve seen in other Outposts, this location also has a separate coffee bar, an indoor ice cream van, a hidden cocktail bar, a podcast recording studio, duckpin bowling, and a slide! My stomach was still on Belgian time, so I seized the opportunity to give the Vegan Allstars menu a try, and had a portion of Loaded Skins.

I didn’t want to eat too much, because the next activity on the schedule was a run, with the West London Hash House Harriers. In The Old Star pub I quickly changed into my running kilt and shoes, and off we went! As usual when hashing, I met a lot of nice people, and as luck would have it, it turned out to be a very tourist friendly trail!

The last stop of the evening was BrewDog Wandsworth, for its Equity Punk (pre-opening) night, that just happened to be during my visit to London. So yes, from now on until the next one opens, that is the newest BrewDog bar in London! I managed to chat to some people I’ve been reading on the EFP forum for years, and some I had met before. It was a really nice way to end my first evening in London.

Yuletide Trip to Breda

Published on 28th December 2022

After a largely failed attempt to enjoy Breda’s craft beer scene in 2020, I had more success this year! A train cancellation just before I was about to set off, didn’t bode well, but when I eventually got to Breda, all the bars I intended to visit where open, and serving a fine selection of local and not-so-local beers!

The coffee places were quite full, in this strange period between Christmas and New Year, so I decided to forgo coffee all together, and went straight for beer! On the itinerary for the afternoon were Zeezicht, Café Sam Sam, and Mr. Barley—which, in despite of its lack of bar, is not a self service bar!

Even though I had a decent brunch that morning, it was about time to line the stomach again before continuing with some more, quite strong beers. Being the peanut sauce fan I am, I picked out a satay place in the Foodhall Breda: Minang Kabau. It turned out to be an excellent choice!

The evening was then spend tasting many beers—one even straight from the tank!—in Brouwcafé Frontaal. It was quite empty when I sat down at the bar, but it filled up quite nicely behind me!

Then it was time to take the last train back to Brussels. It was quite a bit emptier than the train I had taken to get to Breda—train cancellations tend to have that effect on the next trains—so the journey home was pleasant enough, and uneventful.

24 Hours in Amsterdam

Published on 11th October 2022

For an exam I might tell you more about in another post, I needed to be in Amsterdam last Friday morning. To avoid getting up very, very early to be there in time, I decided to already travel to the Dutch capital the day before, and spend the night there.

So after I fulfilled my work obligations in Brussels, I packed my bag, and headed to Brussels-South railway station, to catch my Thalys to Amsterdam. After arrival, and waiting thirty minutes for a tram that was supposed to come every six minutes, I could finally check into my hostel, CityHub. As you can see, the ‘rooms’ are quite special!

Bag dropped, I headed to a nearby Indonesian restaurant, Café Amoi. Boy, do I miss ‘Dutch’ Indonesian food in Brussels! I had the satay ayam, with some nasi goreng and a krupuk mix. And extra peanut sauce, of course!

After dinner I went straight back to the hostel to study a bit more, and get rested for the next day. I even resisted the temptation to have a local beer from the self-service tap in the hostel!

Friday started with my pre-booked hostel breakfast at The Breakfast Club. The exam itself only took about an hour and a half, so soon after I was looking for coffee already, which I found at Monks Coffee Roasters.

Then it was time for one of those Dutch staples, a ‘broodje kroket’. Although you can get them ‘from the wall’—yes, like a huge vending machine for hot snacks—one of the best places to have one remains Eetsalon Van Dobben. Since I thought it was still a bit too early to start dinking beer, I then played tourist for a bit, and bought ‘some’ liquorice to take home…

Although I was actually on my way to another coffee place, when I passed Het Lagerhuys, I couldn’t resist, and already had a first beer there. I did manage to get to Hummingbird for that coffee afterwards, though!

By then it was was—in my opinion at least—late enough to taste some more beer! The first stop was at Foeders, since that bar was the furthest from the centre. I love peeling and eating the peanuts there! You can usually tell by the amount of peanut shells on the floor how busy it has been so far, but that day, I was obviously the first to have had a crack at it.

From there I went to the Beer Temple—where I also had some ‘bitterballen’—Proeflokaal Arendsnest—with some ‘borrelnootjes’—and Bierproeflokaal In de Wildeman.

After all those classic bars—not much seems to have changed in the Amsterdam beer scene—it was already time to slowly make my way back to the station. However, I still had time for a final Surinamese dinner at Kam Yin!

Wien, Bayern & Berlin Reise – 9

Published on 3rd October 2022

DDR & Döner

Last full day of my trip, better make it count, right? Well it did!

The day started with a breakfast at Zeit Für Brot again, after which I went to the DDR Museum. It was very crowded, on the eve of Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day), and as far as I could tell, most of the other visitors were people that grew up in communist Eastern Germany, telling their children about how they actually know everything on display from first-hand experience!

After a coffee in what must be The Barn with the most impressive view, it was time for a visit to the Helmut Newton Stiftung. Hungry after looking at all the photos, I had some Leber Berliner Art at the Dicke Wirtin.

Beer o’clock? Beer o’clock! First, the Schneeeule Salon, for some Berliner Weisses. Then—after being unable to find it last time I was in Berlin—the Vagabund Kesselhaus. It was definitely better signposted this time, although the fact that is was still light might also have aided in finding it this time…

No visit to Berlin is complete without a döner kebab, so a quick stop at Kebap 63 before heading to the next beer destination was a must.

That next beer destination was Bar Amélie, a cocktail and beer bar I initially even didn’t remember of why I put it on the list. Looking at the tap list, however, it became immediately clear: this was the taproom of some excellent new brewers going by the name of Unverhopft. It turned out to be a very cool place, with enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff!

Last stop of the evening was at Mikkeller, since it’s right around the corner from my hotel.

Wien, Bayern & Berlin Reise – 8

Published on 2nd October 2022

DogTap Day

Saturday started with a grilled cheese sandwich at AERA, which was in the area. After that there was still time for some coffee at the new neighbourhood The Barn, but then it was time for the long trek I always make when in Berlin, to Mariendorf.

I was booked for the 13:00 brewery tour of BrewDog Deutschland, as it’s now officially called, which would of course included a little tasting as well…

Matt gave a great tour, and since all participants already knew BrewDog quite well, he deviated from the usual headliner tasting, and gave us some of the locally brewed specials to taste..

After spending quite some time at DogTap, and enjoying some spareribs, it was time to get back to the centre for a coffee at Five Elephant.

A short stop at Birra, and a visit to the Bräugier Brewpub, it was time to eat something

Much to my delight, there was a kitchen takeover at Manifest, and there were some really nice sandwiches by +Kitchen. The Rodeo I ordered was absolutely great!

The last stop of the night was at BrewDog Mitte, for a stamp, and a last couple of beers, of course.