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A wild streak
It seems they've been having some biochemical fun at Rascals, with a slew of early autumn beers making use of out-of-the-ordinary yeasts and cultures. Let's see what we've got here.Early September saw...
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Top to bottom
Groningen is a tightly-packed and bustling little city in the north of the Netherlands. It's home to a university so, in mid-September at least, is packed with students in a way that gives the place a...
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Frontaal assault
It's not that long ago that I gave some beers from Frontaal a once-over. I didn't know then that I would soon be wandering around a desolate industrial estate on the outskirts of Breda on a Sunday...
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The other north
I mentioned on Monday that Groningen didn't have much to offer on the beer front, and I was expecting even less of its smaller neighbour Leeuwarden. So I was surprised how much of interest there was...
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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...
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HEMA, check this out!
HEMA is a ubiquitous chain store in the Netherlands, selling an odd combination of cosmetics, accessories, stationery, homewares, snacks and drinks. I know it best for the rookworst, a heavily smoked...
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Back with a bang
Despite the two-year absence it all seemed very business-as-usual at the 2022 Borefts beer festival. Once again the De Molen brewery in Bodegraven hosted a hand-picked selection of local and...
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Mate!
It's post two from the 2022 Borefts Beer Festival and today's breweries are all from the English-speaking world, inasmuch as it was represented. There was just one visitor from the UK, namely...
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Berlin and beyond
Continuing my way through the 2022 Borefts Beer Festival, and today the map pins land on Germany and Croatia.I've had a couple of beers from Berlin's Schneeeule at Hagstravaganza in recent years, but...
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Latin lessons
The Borefts Beer Festival tends to be a good place to get a cross section of brewing in Spain and Italy, and many of the leading lights from both countries have featured over the years. Two breweries...
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B.A.R.B.S.
Belgium, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria and Sweden are the remaining countries whose Borefts 2022 beers I haven't covered yet.Alvinne are stalwarts of the festival, and most of the beers of theirs that...
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Belgian sandwich
Here's something really scary for Halloween: Heineken Silver. I drank it on the train out of the Netherlands and into Belgium on my holidays this year. I bought it because the beer selection on the...
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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...
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Slake it all over
Today's beers are various odds and sods picked up on my way through the Netherlands and Belgium last month.The first was a gift from Eoghan Walsh, a Vienna Lager created by Brasserie Mule in Brussels...
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Two sides and three barrels
The busy beavers of Bluebell, Third Barrel, provide today's septet of beers. They're a prolific lot with the specials and one-offs, though I notice something of theme among these: a bit of tinkering...
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'80s bedspreads
They're a colourful pair, the new ones from Lineman. Always a brewery for flipping between the beer styles, these are both hop-forward but quite different.The first is a 4.6% ABV session IPA called...
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Not saying much
With alcohol-free beer as the market sector that big breweries are falling over themselves to get a piece of, it was perhaps inevitable that Ireland would get a brewery, or at least a brand, that did...
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Pull the other one
Late October brought the JD Wetherspoon Autumn Beer Festival, as usual. And as usual the Dublin branches didn't launch straight into the specials on day one so I got to do a little preliminary...
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Not shy
I have a huge collection of backlogged Irish beer posts sitting waiting to be tidied up and slotted into the schedule. To buy myself some time it's just one today: Coco Buzz, a stout from Trouble...
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Fully on board
A couple of recent-ish releases from Hopfully today, both featuring the brewery's signature eye-catching artwork on the cans.With a beer called Ár gCairde the Brazilians have gone fully native. This...
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