Garden Variety New Yorker

Beer in Amsterdam: Arendsnest

travel, Uncategorized October 9th, 2012 by Ceetar in Beer

There are many terrific places to drink beer in Amsterdam, and I was barely there long enough to sample very many of them, but one of the ones that really stood out was Arendsnest. This is a beer ‘bar’ (they’re called cafes in Amsterdam) on a quiet street specializing in Dutch beers. As of this posting Google maps is suggesting it’s closed, but I promise that’s not the case.

Arendsnest has quite a selection of beers written on chalkboards on the walls. It seemed they had a decent bottle selection as well, and some of them looked liked they might be extremely local, sporting simple white paper labels that looked like the product of a small outfit, but alas there was no bottle list.

Now, it would’ve been helpful to have some styles listed next to the beers. I’ve taken for granted how much I know about US beer sometimes, and being able to recognize beers and styles. In Amsterdam I was barely able to pronounce most of the beers on this beer list. I had three.

First I had an Ongelovige Thomas by Jopen. It looks like that means Pagan, or unbeliever. It’s listed as an American Strong Ale and at 10% ABV. It struck me by the way it was listed as a limited release type beer, so I selected it. It was good but not great, a little too strong on that intense alcohol taste for me.

For my second beer I selected an Xtreem Centennial by Bierbrouwerij De Eeem. Much like I did at Brouwerij ‘t IJ I was drawn in by the hops name that I recognized. This one was clearly an IPA. This was probably the best beer I had in Amsterdam, although I’m clearly partial to India Pale Ales. It had just the right amount of spicy bitterness and was a very well executed beer.

Shortly after I ordered that one, the guy next to me asked the bartender for advice and he happened to mention a rye ale. I tend to really like rye beers, so I resolved to get a third beer, and for it to be the Den Dorstige Tijger by Ramses Bier. It’s a cool name for a beer anyway, which translates to the thirsty tiger. Of course, both untappd and ratebeer list it as an IPA, with no mention of rye so I must’ve have misunderstood. I was particularly disappointed by this one anyway, which tasted pretty watery and weak to me with a sort of blah bitterness to it.

So that was Arendsnest, a very cool cafe in Amsterdam specializing in local beers. In retrospect I could’ve chosen a better subset of beers, but I’m still glad to have checked the place out and recommend it for any beer fans heading to The Netherlands.

Tags: amsterdam, amsterdam beer, arendsnest, beer in europe

Leave a Reply