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beer reviews bottled beer

Brouwerij ‘t IJ (try typing that while tipsy)

Brouwerij 't IJ bottles

One of our friends is a keen cricketer and, on a recent tour of the Netherlands (yes, lots of cricket there, apparently) he picked up a couple of bottles from Brouwerij ‘t IJ for us to try — Columbus (a ‘special’) and Natte (sort of a double).

It took us a moment to get the measure of them: the slickly designed, brightly coloured labels led us to expect bright, slick beers, but what we got in our glasses (despite our great care) was murky, spicy and a little funky — more along the lines of the mysterious Witkap Stimulo or something from De la Senne. Taking a walk on the wildside.

Natte (6.5%) did not impress us at all at first: “It tastes like a rubbish Christmas beer from a mediocre British microbrewery,” said Boak. But, as we worked our way down the glass, the tongue-drying suggestion of cinnamon sticks coupled with what seemed a very generous amount of bittering hops became rather moreish. So, a little rough around the edges, but ultimately very likeable. We’d probably take it over, say, Chimay Red, if we saw them on sale together.

The yellow-amber Columbus (9%) was also a grower. The name suggests an American influence and the website boasts of ‘lots of hops’, but what we detected was plenty of residual sugar (honey, golden syrup); wet grass; and mouldy cellar walls. Then, at the end, as it burned its way down our throats, rum came to mind. That all worked together quite pleasingly, once we’d got over our initial nose-wrinkling.

In the end, what made them good was that they were so close to being bad, like a garage band whose performances are more exciting because they’re on the verge of collapsing at any moment.

Beer and board game matching: these went well with Alhambra.