Beery Christmas Jour 17 : Jopen Nine Million Tricycles
Jopen, a brewery with old fashioned recipes
From the outside, it resembles a church, but once you enter, it's a brewery! The Dutch craft brewery Jopen likes to go for the original, transforming a former church in Haarlem into a resplendent brewery: Jopenkerk. To continue the sensationalism, Jopen also wanted to recreate the traditional beers of its 14th century city, when it was once one of the largest brewing cities in the Netherlands, for example with a gruit beer. At that time, craft breweries were very successful and the beer was transported in 112 liter barrels of the brand Jopen, on the river Spaarne. That's where Jopen gets its name from. Like De Molen, these are two breweries that are credited with bringing craft beer to the Netherlands.
Since its inception in 1994 and over the years, Jopen has been involved in the evolution of Dutch craft beer to take taste buds on a bit of an adventure, winning several prestigious awards along the way. If the commercial company Jopen BV manages the beer of the same name by relying on different breweries such as Halve Maan or the famous Trappist brewery La Trappe, it ends up having its own establishment in 2010, in the district of Raaks in downtown Haarlem. With a huge expansion and the opening of a second brewhouse, Jopen is now available in the Netherlands, throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. At the moment, Jopen's beer is also available at Saveur Bière in Fretin, in our 10th edition of the Beery Christmas advent calendar in the guise of a tripel.
9 Million Tricycles tasting by Jopen
In honor of the song, "Nine Million Bicycles" by Kathy Melua, the Dutch brewery Jopen brewed a beer and added a wheel by switching from bicycle to tricycle. Why? Because it's a tripel style and it's also a three grain beer, plain and simple. When poured into a glass, you see an orange color topped with a fine white head for fruity aromas of banana, pear, dried apricot, herbs, pepper, clove, cumin and alcohol. The vegetal side gives freshness and bitterness to the whole, with a new dimension that moves away from the bouquet of classic tripels.
The attack is soft and round with notes of spices, but with each sip it is then the power of alcohol and banana that takes over. The texture is silky, with an overall characteristic of Belgian tripels. See by this a lot of spice, cloves and herbs.
The sweetness of the cereals gives a little sweetness that carries a little the notes of alcohol A soft bitterness quite persistent in the end. We feel that it is strong, hence the importance of tasting it well chilled since a low temperature will allow to calm the power of the alcohol. There is a balance to be found between the degree of alcohol and the temperature of tasting. It is typically the right beer to accompany a dish in sauce with veal or mature cheese. Don't forget to drink it cold, around 8°C, to soothe the power of the alcohol.
ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOR YOUR HEALTH! PLEASE CONSUME WITH MODERATION.
