We made the most of our visit and sampled
four beers on tap and two more in bottles. As an inevitable consequence, our
tasting notes get progressively shorter... We made the most of our visit and sampled
four beers on tap and two more in bottles. As an inevitable consequence, our
tasting notes get progressively shorter...
Zatte, the tripel, is something
special. It has a very light, slightly spicy nose, and the palate is very smooth
indeed - lots of vanilla, light zest and phenols on the back of the throat,
but with darker, strong malt, spice and fruit flavours and a subtle alcohol
bite. Finish is smooth, with lots of vanilla and caramelly malt. The best aspect
in our opinion is its sheer drinkability. Despite a strength of 8%, it slips
down beautifully (after our tasting session we drank two more) and you only
notice the alcohol content when you stand up.
Columbus is a strong, dark ale with a rich, treacley malt nose. It has a very chewy caramel and toffee malt character in the mouth, balanced by a vanilla smoothness and very little overt sweetness. Aftertaste reasserts the dark malt.
At this point (and from what we remembered
of the bottled Plzen reviewed early this year) we began to notice a house character
that can only have come from the yeast - all 't IJ beers seem to be extrememly
smooth with a subtle underlying vanilla flavour on the palate.
Plzen is sharp, bitter, hoppy and refreshing. Again it is very smooth on the palate with perhaps some vanilla and honey notes. It is a pilsner with a bit more character than most, but still manages to be fizzy, light and thirst-quenching - very much our conclusion when we reviewed it in bottles earlier this year.
The seasonal beer, Tur Bock, dark red-brown in colour, worked particularly well with the peppery cheese (which brought out the hops). Otherwise, the body was malty and treacley-sweet, but again very smooth, with a caramel finish.
At this point we ran out of draught beers, so we switched to the bottled selection.
Struis has a cheesy, treacley nose, with a palate of dark, crunchy malt. It seemed a bit harsher on the palate alcohol-wise than the others, but still had recognisable elements of the vanilla smoothness. We could almost imagine we were drinking an English old ale or barley wine.
Vlo has a spicy coriander nose, with a smooth vanilla and spice palate a little like a witbier. However, it is also extremely hoppy, with floral hops in the mouth and a zesty hop aftertaste.
Our conclusion, after an extended and very pleasant stay, was that this is a brewery with a great range of beers (OK, not a very erudite statement, but we were a bit worse for wear by that stage). Admittedly we tried them to their best advantage (the beer had travelled about ten feet), but there are not many places we can think of where we would give unstinting praise to all the beers on offer - if anyone knows of anywhere, tell us about it!