Day 18 - Amsterdam

Dec 31st - Happy New Year's Eve! Our plan for the day is to leisurely 'pub crawl' our way around Amsterdam to hit some places we had on our list, with some good walking in between. We're planning an early train ride in the morning, so we may make it to midnight or we may not :)

De Wildeman

Flying Dog?

The city is certainly in a festive mood today! Everywhere we walk we hear fireworks going off (yes, even during daylight hours!). Our first stop for the day was at a small beer bar called De Wildeman - what a gem of a spot! They had a 'In De Wildeman Farmhouse IPA' on the board, so thought I would give that a try. We thought it very odd that it came to me served in a Flying Dog glass (a brewery in Maryland) since everywhere we have been, the beers are served in the brewery specific glass - regardless, this farmhouse ale was a delight. We got to chatting with the bartender, and asking about who brewed it for them, and he told us it was indeed Flying Dog. He said he was a friend of someone from Flying Dog, and they decided to brew a beer specifically for De Wildeman...collaborating with them on what they were looking for. It took them a while back & forth tasting and recipe tweaking to get to this beer. The bartender was very interested in hearing about our trip, where we were going to next, and our interest in beer. He gave us suggestions of places we must visit in our upcoming cities, and then a sample of another interesting collaboration - a Mikkeller/Brew Dog brew called I Hardcore You (an Imperial IPA). Rob was amazed with this one, so we stuck around for one more. We hated to leave, but sadly couldn't spend all day in one spot :)

After a pit stop for lunch, next up was a walk to De Beiaard - a bigger spot, but also found a friendly bartender when we sat down (we are pretty sure everyone in this city is friendly!), sampled a couple, and then onto our next to next stop for the day - Het Elfde Geboud. This place was getting into the Chinatown area that our B&B owner told us was a good spot for seeing some fireworks. It was just getting to be about dusk at this point, and there were definitely fireworks going off...we never were quite sure where they were going to go off from next...as they just seem to set them off right in the street, some being very close. I'd be shocked if there were no firework related injuries here!

Our Happy Homebrewer Bartenders :)

Our last stop for the day/night was to a newer place in Amsterdam called the Bier Temple - it's owned by the same folks as t'Arendsnest, and we were almost hesitant to go there as it specializes in American craft beer (which we can get at home). But we were able to find a seat, and on New Year's Eve here that seemed to be a bonus. Once again, we ended up with a very friendly & interesting bartender. Even though the majority of what they had here were American beers (even Maine Brewing Company and Smuttynose were on the board here), and a great selection of American craft beer indeed...but there were definitely plenty of more local options available. Our excellent bartender (who is also a homebrewer) pointed out a special offering on the menu that was going to be available at midnight - it was called "Occupy Your Mother" and was a homebrew made by him and two other of the staff members at Bier Temple. Being fellow appreciative homebrewers, he was happy not to make us wait til midnight to order one though - and it was a great Dutch-American IPA. Once again, even though we didn't want to leave...we had to make our way back to the B&B since it's an early train in the morning.

It wasn't quite midnight yet, but you could tell it was definitely getting closer to that hour since the quantity of the fireworks exploding all over the city was intensifying. We made it back to our room just before midnight & opened up the windows as we had a spectacular view of the brilliant displays. Though definitely not choreographed like most of the New Year's/July 4th fireworks we are used to seeing, just the sheer amount of them going off from every angle was awesome. Happy 2012 everyone!!

New Beers for the day: In De Wildeman Farmhouse IPA (brewed by Flying Dog), De Ranke Pere Noel, Mikkeller/Brew Dog I Hardcore You, Emelisse Double IPA, Westmalle Dubbel, De Manke Monnik (local to Beiaard), Jopen Ongelouinge Thomas, Le trappe Quad, Boon Framboise, Hoegaarden Grand Cru, Dutchess De Bourgone, Hoegaarden De Verboden Vrught (forbidden fruit), Kolval (Belgian Pale Ale), Kuhnhenn Rice Double IPA, Occupy Your Mother (Dutch homebrewed IPA), Temple Bier (Dutch IPA)