A Day Trip to Brouwerij de Molen

While we were staying in Amsterdam, on good advice from @BrightJon, we took a day trip to the small town of Bodegraven, about 60 kms south of Amsterdam. A short walk from the Bodegraven train station is the wonderful Brouwerij de Molen. We took a train from Amsterdam and changed at Utrecht, but you can also go through Leiden. Britt and I talked Ryan, who was staying at the same place in Amsterdam into coming with us. It took just over an hour and was well worth the trip!

Ryan and I in the beer garden

The brewery and restaurant are in the building beneath an old windmill (de molen is dutch for 'the mill'). It was a beautiful sunny day and the beer garden was almost empty when we arrived at about 1pm, so we sat outside and enjoyed some beers and lunch.

The bar and restaurant

They had six beers on tap, ranging from a generously hopped bitter, Op & Top at 4.5% ABV to Hemel & Aarde (Heaven & Earth), an extremely complex and delicious peated imperial stout aged in Bruichladdich barrels.

The tap list

After trying all the beers on tap, Ryan and I split a large bottle of Premiant Hopburst, a single hop IPA made with the Czeck hop Premiant. I've never had anything made with Premiant before, and it was a very tasty IPA with some fruity hop notes.

Next up was the Ruig & Rood (Red & Raw), a triple Irish Red Ale. This was also very well made, like all the other beers, and made a good contrast to the hopburst IPA. At 9.5% the alcohol was definitely noticeable, but balanced nicely with the massive malt sweetness.

We couldn't leave without trying the best beer in the Netherlands (according to Ratebeer); the Wild Turkey barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout Hel & Verdoemenis (Hell & Damnation). There were three different versions available on the bottle menu: the normal Hel & Verdoemenis, one aged in bordeaux barrels (and stronger at 13% ABV), and the Wild Turkey barrel version. Of course we decided to try all three!

Now these are seriously awesome beers. They all pour with almost nonexistant carbonation and are pitch black. Lots of alcohol on the nose but nicely balanced by the dark malts. While the normal version was superb, the barrel aged versions definitely had some extra complexity. I actually preferred the bordeaux barrel aged version. The oak added a beautiful vanilla note to the beer that I preferred to the sweetness in the Wild Turkey barrel aged version.

Hel & Verdoemenis

While we were there I had a quick look around the brewery. It's a pretty simple set up, and very small. They are in the process of breaking in a new, bigger brewery that they have built nearby, but it's still in the testing stages. They buried the first bottle of their latest Wild Turkey barrel aged Hel & Verdoemenis in the concrete slab of the new brewery, pretty cool!

Fermentation vessels in the brewery

As we were leaving we had a quick look in the bottle shop and picked up some bottles to take home. I got a tripel, belgian dark strong, a bitter aged with brett, a certain Belgian Trappist 12 that is notoriously hard to get, and a cherry stout aged with brett. We were also luck enough for the head brewer to open a special cabinet in the restaurant that they use to display aged bottles of all of their best beers. He must have liked us because Ryan scored a Wild Turkey aged Hel & Verdoemenis and I got a Misto barrel aged version! They also had a lot of other good European and US craft beers in stock.

My haul from the de Molen shop. How much will make it home to Sydney?

We all agreed that it was a well spent afternoon and I highly recommend anyone visiting Amsterdam to make the trip!