The popularity of specialty beer (or craft bear) has risen to unprecedented heights in recent years. The Netherlands now has about a thousand breweries of specialty beer, after Germany the largest number in Europe. At the same time, more and more people are putting on their hiking boots for a walk in nature or an interesting urban environment. I combined those two trends in The Great Dutch Beer Walking Book: 30 thirty walks of 5 to 15 kilometers, all of which end at an opportunity where you can get a local or regional specialty beer. To help the enthusiast on his way, here’s a small preview.
Walk #1: From Breskens to Groede
8.9 kilometer walk
This walk starts at the terminus of the Vlissingen-Breskens ferry. You first walk along the remains of Fort Frederik Hendrik and further along the path along the North Sea. Striking points are the black and white lighthouse Nieuwe Sluis, the oldest existing cast iron lighthouse in the Netherlands, and the new tidal area Waterdunen within the dike.
At Strand Groede, the route heads inland. There you walk right through the curious bunker village of Groede Podium. It consists of a group of German bunkers from World War II, part of the Atlantic Wall, on which you can still see the impact of shrapnel. In order to deceive the Allies, the Germans camouflaged the bunker village as an ordinary village at the time. With success, because when the Canadian 7th Infantry Brigade arrived at Groede in October 1944 during the Battle of the Scheldt at Groede, it turned out to their surprise that the hamlet consisted of German bunkers.
The walking route ends at the Dutch Bargain tasting room, in the middle of the cute village. These quirky brewers make hip and sometimes even frantic specialty beers. They are available on tap, in cans and in bottles, which have no labels but are wrapped in eye-catching ‘sleeves’. The hearty Imperial Pale Ale, the Seawise (a Hefeweizen brewed with samphire) and the Imperial Zeeuws Blond are tasty, for example. For something special, try one of the quirky experimental beers that are brewed in limited editions. And then there’s the dessert beer Coffee Connaisseur, moi?, developed in collaboration with the two-star restaurants Pure C (Cadzand), De Kromme Watergang (Slijkplaat) and The Jane (Antwerp). This intense beer is brewed with raw cocoa beans and special Balinese coffee beans from De Zeeuwse Branding from Zierikzee; the owner was named best barista in the world in 2019.
Walk #1: From Breskens to Groede
8.9 kilometer walk
In and around Ootmarsum 10.2 km
The starting point of this Twente walk is the northern ring road of Ootmarsum. Here you walk into the beautiful bocage and ash landscape that is characteristic of the region. The young Willem Wilmink stayed there during the war and wrote a beautiful poem about it at a later age.
The route goes over the rolling hills up to the Springendal nature reserve, known for its springs, streams and burial mounds from prehistoric times. Along a cheerfully hopping stream and two forest lakes, the route returns to Ootmarsum via the Onland. You walk into the old town, with its half-timbered facades, crooked streets and art galleries.
The beer walk continues south from the center to end at the reconstructed Commanderie of the Knights of the Teutonic Order. In Gasterij Oatmössche you can drink specialty beer from the Othmar Brewery, named after a Frankish king who is said to have founded the town in the second century AD.
The Othmar beers are brewed according to the German Reinheitsgebot, the oldest food and commodity law in the world. This means that they can only be brewed according to traditional methods and with the four basic ingredients water, malt, hops and yeast, without any other preservatives or additives. If you were to take the Reinheitsgebot very strictly, the malt could only be barley malt, but with a slightly broader interpretation, other grains can also be used. The Othmar Weizen, for example, is a full, creamy wheat beer of high fermentation, in which the bitter hops provide extra freshness.
Walk #2: City walk Groningen
walk 6.2 kilometers
The city walk through Groningen starts at Groningen train station. After you’ve given the Peerd van Ome Loeks a slap on the ass here, you walk past the Groninger Museum to the lively Vismarkt.
On the other side of the Vismarkt, the route continues through the Koude Gat to the Grote Markt with the town hall and the complex of De Drie Gezusters, where every student must have had a beer at least once. You continue this walk to the Forum Groningen, the city’s newest addition. The spectacular building with its sleek sloping facades was opened at the end of November 2019 and has been one of the icons of Groningen ever since. It is a freely accessible multifunctional building, intended as a meeting place or. living room for residents and visitors of the city. From the roof you have a beautiful panoramic view of the city and Ommelanden; even the Martinitoren fades a bit.
The route then heads north past the Martinikerkhof, the Martinikerk and the Academy Building. You walk through the stately Noorderplantsoen towards Reitdiep and eventually end up at the Baxbier tasting room.
Baxbier is a specialty beer brewery of allure. The blacksmith’s secret lies partly in the biochemist who is associated with the brewery and who does special things with the Groningen tap water with which the beers are brewed. That water is, among other things, the basis for Bax Abel’s Ale, a layered and quite heavy beer with a hint of Thai Dragon chili peppers. The fresh Citra Pale Ale from the Kon Minder beer line is also brewed with the processed tap water. ‘Kon Minder’ is, by the way, the greatest compliment that a Groninger can give when he is very enthusiastic about something. And indeed, when the brewers tasted their first Citra Pale Ale, they only said to each other: ‘Could have done less’.
Walk #3: The three Egmonds
13.5 kilometers walk
The walk along the three Egmonds starts in Egmond-Binnen. Here you first take a look at the Benedictine St. Adelbert Abbey, the oldest abbey in Holland, founded at the beginning of the tenth century by Count Dirk I of West Frisia. Several West Frisian and Dutch graves are buried in and near the abbey.
The route leads from Egmond-Binnen to the sea. First you come across the Adelbertusakker with the Adelbertusput, a place of pilgrimage for devout Catholics, after which you can enjoy a lovely walk through the North Holland Dune Reserve. Once you have arrived at the beach, you continue north to Egmond aan Zee, the birthplace of Miffy. You leave the beach here and walk through the former fishing village to Egmond aan den Hoef. This place once originated around the ancestral seat of the West Frisian and later Dutch lords and counts of the Egmont family.
The last part of the route leads through the bulb fields back to Egmond-Binnen via the remains of the castle and the castle chapel. It goes without saying that this area is at its best in the spring.
Herberg Binnen is the end point of the walk in Egmond-Binnen. Here you can taste beer from Brouwerij Egmond, the only Dutch Benedictine abbey beer. The brewery uses grains and hops from organic farming to make beers under the name Sancti Adalberti. The beer line has the slogan ‘miraculum novum’, not only because they are very tasty beers, but also because a small, bit of miraculous spring water from the spring on the Adelbertusakker is added to each batch. The brewer also adds lime blossom to the beers, which gives them their own character.
Walk #:4 City walk Maastricht
4.4 kilometer walk
This city walk through beautiful Maastricht has the station as the starting point. You first walk through the Wyck district, where Wieckse Witte was brewed for a long time. Along the way you will come across the former steam beer brewery De Keyzer, now a brewery museum.
At the Céramique site, the route crosses the Maas to the Helpoort and the Jekerkwartier. At the end of the city park and the old ramparts is a statue of the French nobleman D’Artagnan, who seems to be pulling his rapier to attack. His real name was Charles de Batz de Castelmore and he was Count of Artagnan, but because of the world famous book The three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas we know him mainly under his romanticized name D’Artagnan. The real count was killed in 1673 on the spot where his statue now stands.
The route continues into the city center to the monumental Vrijthof. From the square you continue your way through the Stokstraatkwartier. You cross the Maas again over the Sint Servaasbrug, the oldest surviving bridge in our country. On the other side on the left, the brasserie of Stadsbrouwerij de Maastrichter Maltezer is the end point and you can enjoy the beer.
The brewery was set up in 2018 in part of the former De Ridder Brewery. Two enthusiasts have breathed new life into the Maltese beer – once De Ridder’s showpiece – with the help of Maastricht beer drinkers. The monarch-grandmaster of the Maltese knighthood has personally given permission to use the eight-pointed Maltese cross as an emblem. In return, the order receives a small donation per liter of beer sold, while the brewery also helps poor Maastricht families.
The amber colored Maltese is a Dortmunder style beer. It is bottom-fermented, has a modest caramel edge and has a slightly fruity taste in which stone fruits such as apricot can be recognized. According to the brewers, it is a typical beer from the south, a refreshing and easy to drink everyone’s friend.
Walk #5: Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog
12 kilometers walk
During this walk through the Dutch Baarle-Nassau and the Belgian Baarle-Hertog you pass the Dutch-Belgian border countless times. There is no other way, because Baarle-Hertog largely consists of enclaves that seamlessly merge into parts of Baarle-Nassau.
The whole consists of 22 Belgian enclaves in the Netherlands and eight Dutch enclaves on Belgian territory. Seven of these are counter-enclaves or endo-enclaves, in other words pieces of the Netherlands that fall within a Belgian enclave. The bizarre enclave situation does no harm to both Baarles, because every year tourists from all over the world come to the ‘world capital of enclaves‘ off.
The start and end point of the beer walk is Brasserie den Engel, right in the center of the double place. The route first leads through all kinds of parts of the enclave and then goes south into the Brabant farmland. You walk here on a so-called boot path along the border and you become acquainted with the phenomenon of Death Wire. This was a system of barbed wire and electricity wire barriers that the Germans built in 1915 between occupied Belgium and the neutral Netherlands, in order to stop fleeing Belgians and prevent smuggling. The wires had a high voltage of 2,000 volts on average, which killed at least 44 people here near Baarle. At the border a piece of Death Wire has been reconstructed, at Zondereigen a guard and switch house can be seen.
From the Dodendraad the route leads back to Den Engel. There you can get beer from the Daughter of the Korenaar brewery. The brewery has a fixed range of twelve specialty beers and also produces a series of special beers that mature in barrel. There is, for example, the Nouveau Riche, a Belgian white beer with extra buckwheat and rosemary that, after refermentation, is aged for four months in Brunello di Montalcinovaten from Tuscany. Noblesse VSOP is a spicy blond beer that matures in gin casks, the La Renaissance Gold is an IPA that has been aged in white burgundy casks for a year. Also intriguing is the Peated Oak Aged Embrasse, a dark ale that matures for four to six months in Islay Scottish whiskey casks, and you can taste it too. The tasting room and shop at the brewery are open on Friday and Saturday afternoons.
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