Beering in Amsterdam: First few hours

Yes, THAT Amsterdam. The Amsterdam with the grandiose castles, beautiful blond women, and decent beer. The Amsterdam that after you visit it with the guys, you may as well budget to buy your wife some jewelry and block out some time to clean the house, take care of all the yardwork, etc.





So our plane takes off





and eventually lands in AMS. We are TIRED as all get out as we drag our bags from the Centraal Station to the Bulldog Hostel (a good 0.5 mile walk). We check in, drop off our bags, and I ask the lady at the table at the hostel where some good beer is. She looks at me and says in a dutch accent that "I don't know the beer, I just smoke weed." Both ladies at the front desk light up some blunts and I know that they are NOT going to be any help. Moving on...

We make our way to the Cafe Majestic right at the Dam Square and I order the English Breakfast and the Moreeke Beer (brewed by Beer Brewery de Koningshoeven the only Trappist Brewery in the Netherlands).


Beer Log: Sept 27, 2009
State: Groggy, been up over 24 hours, still ready to hit the mean streets of AMS

Moreeke
Ha ha, the menu only calls it "Dark Beer"
Nose is yeasty and fruity. Amber and clear wtih 2 finger head. Light wheat beer character on the nose wtih a slight bitterness. Low 3 Star. I had this beer a LOT while I was here, so I recall when I later had it with fries and bread, I got a slight toasty breadiness to it, very pleasant and made for a nice breakfast beer. 3 Star.

At some point I had some Weickse Wheat, but found it be a basic wheat beer.

Beer Log: Sept 28, 2009
State: Sitting at a different cafe on the square in the morning, the rest of the boys are asleep.
I take my book and sit in the cafe on this early morning. Unless I have a very long night, I can rarely sleep late, so I left a note for the crew and figured I'd scare up some breakfast and people-watch on the square. In Paris, I did the same thing but at a much smaller cafe to talk politics with the locals. But here people aren't quite as chatty, so I'll be introverted with my paperback and whatnot. I orders up a Dutch Apple Pie and some Weickse.

Weickse Rose by De Ridder
A nice chill in the air combined with a warming sun makes me wish I'd never leave. ROse color beer with pink head, brilliantly clear. Nose is cherry, raspberry, and rose water. High-moderate carbonation with a nice sweet cherry, but not tart at all. Thereer some slight pilsner bread going on in there which is very nice, and I get a bubble gum finish. 3 Stars for the Girlie beer.


So far so good. I didn't expect to get anything much higher than a 3 Star out of AMS.