I kind of smuggled a bit of July into the last post, because our family holiday was overlapping between June and this month.

Also, it was done to get the shit beers of France out of the way, and the prospect of July was to try quite a lot of new things in various situations. July saw two weekends away with the family and friends, and an order from Brewdog to get my hands on their specials that aren’t normally available in The Netherlands.

All in all, even though there weren’t even 20 days in July that I hadn’t posted on yet, I got to 32 unique beers that were not listed before. That’s quite insane, but I think I can get away by blaming my friend Joost. Not sure how or why, but it feels right.

Brewdog

• Candy Kaiser
  German style altbier, which I like. This one does well, but it’s not overly special.
• Elvis Juice
  Grapefruit IPA. I had only one grapefruit IPA before and it was hideous. This one wasn’t, but it also wasn’t great. I don’t really see the point of this style.
• Jet Black Heart
  Random stout.
• Born to Die 18-08-2016
  This was the cause of the order from Scotland. I wanted to try it and got a load of mates involved to carry the shipping costs. It’s really good, but not unexpectedly so. I had hoped for it to be a bit more piney, and resin like, like the one they had this autumn.
• Kingpin
  Craft Lager. I don’t see the point.
• Black Hammer
  A great and bitter IPA. Really good black IPA. Thoroughly enjoyable with loads of bitterness and the roasted malts stand out too.
• Monk Hammer
  A mix between Triple and IPA. The Triple, or just the Belgian style of it in general, makes it a bit sweeter than normal, and I don’t really like that in an IPA.

Lager, and hideous and/or pointless stuff

• Brouwers Pilsener by Albert Heijn
  Holland’s biggest supermarket chain released a somewhat crafty lager. The void between regular lager and craft beers is about a € 2 hole. This one comes in at just under 70 cents for a half liter and it’s great for that money. Dry hopped lager works well, and especially at this price. Kudos!
• Amster Radlers at 0.0% abv
  I tried both the Lemon and the Lime/Mint variety since they came with an order somewhere. Both of these things are utterly pointless and should not exist. The lemon one is just a lemon soda with a hideously sweet finish, and the lime/mint one makes even less sense. If you don’t want alcohol, and the taste of lemon, go drink soda.
• IPA by Brand
  ‘The beer that makes Limburg proud’ is something they should not shout if this is the stuff they’re releasing. Their lager is fine by any standard. Unfortunately for their ‘special brews’ they hold brewing competitions. A nice idea, but in this case it’s more like they need this because of a lack of inspiration. The result is this weak willed IPA. Actually more of a hopped up lager. Again, there’s no point in this.
• Hop Cider by Brothers Drinks Co.
  ‘Made by real brothers’. Like I care. Anyway, a nice enough cider, but the hop is barely noticeable, especially if you’ve had a beer before. I’ve had hopped ciders that were miles ahead of this one. A shame, really.
• Chocolate Marble by Marble Beers
  Apparently a stout with coffee and licorice in it. The roasted malts overpowered the too gentle influence of either. And it was a bit too thin for my liking. Bummer.

IPAs

• Pataskala Red X IPA by Stone Brewing
  Awesome beer. I have very little experience with Stone Brewing, except their Arrogant Bastard Ale, which I don’t really like. This one, however, hit every spot an IPA should hit. Massive flavor.
• Arctic Berry Ale by Einstok Olgerd
  Strangely crisp with an unfamiliar fruity flavor. It does get boring very, very fast though. Shame.
• Pesakond Black Forest IPA by Pohjala
  I’ve had this before this year, but I found them in a discount now. It’s a black IPA with spruce tops and blackberries. And it’s awesome. Highly recommended!
• Viven Imperial IPA by Van Viven
  Not bad, but boring
• IPA by Stone Brewing
  Very good, but not exceptional on any level. Still recommended if you’re looking for a very solid IPA.
• Cannonball by Magic Rock
• High Wire by Magic Rock
  The above two are all good but not exceptional
  
• Rye IPA by Black Market
  I really like rye beers, and this one is no exception. Not as good as some others, but still very tasty.
• Sikaru Green Griffin by Ninkasi Srl
  Brought by a colleague from Romania, this one can play with the big boys. Solid beer.

Sours

• Petrus Aged Red by De Brabandere/Bavik
  A surprise of a cherry beer that I didn’t expect. If you expect a sweet Belgian brew, as I did, it doesn’t really appeal at once, but given some time to get to grips with the flavor, it’s actually pretty good.
• Redwood 2015 by The Wild Beer Co.
  A many headed beast of sourness, fruit and barrel aging of all kinds. Sounds like a random thing but actually very good. One of the most interesting beers I’ve had in a while. Highly recommended.
• Winnetou by Oedipus
  This is an interesting one by the Amsterdam brewers. They fermented their ale inside old Jameson whiskey barrels. I’m not entirely sure on their process but it resulted in a sour pale ale of some sorts. It’s quite gorgeous with the wood not playing too big a part, giving more room for fruity and sour flavors to shine. It sold out a while ago but if you can find it, I think you should try it.

Random

• Viswijf – Vissenberg
  Forgettable
• Piraat Triple Hop – Van Steenberge
  Forgettable
• Dark Arts – Magic Rock
  Forgettable
• P’tit Granit – Belgo Sapiens
  Forgettable, although the brewery name is awesome.
• Smog Rocket – Beavertown
  Pretty well smoked and therefore quite lovely. It’s a fairly one-dimensional beer, but very good at what it does.
• Bourbon Barrel Aged Arrogant Bastard – Stone
  This is a bigger, sweeter and amped up version of the regular Arrogant Bastard. And I quite love it. Flavors are as you’d expect them of the reddish original with the sweetness of a bourbon barrel added. Still, it works well.
• Holy Cowbell India Stout – Beavertown
  Forgettable

Vast amounts of beer, with quite a few new ones lined up for August. I keep telling myself I’ll drink (or at least buy) less in the coming months, but somehow it doesn’t seem to happen.

Beer of the month is a tough choice between Stone’s Pataskala Red X IPA and the Redwood 2015 by The Wild Beer Co. So, I decide a tie is possible too.