Having received a rather interesting box of exotic brews from Amsterdam - like Knut did but without paying Norwegian tax - I am diving in here with the beer in the cute bottle first, labeled "Double Hopped Bier" from Christoffel. You will notice, as my wife did, that there is one of those little stoppers here instead of a cap, useful for home brewed salad dressings, according to my wife. I popped the top and poured, then looked at the label, "what is this? light colored? what is that scent???" There was yeast around parts of the bottle's inside, and the rather intriguing scent can be chalked up to the fact that it claims to be double hopped. Oh ho - what hops! Surely, not the kind of hops we see here in the US everyday.

This is a chameleon, and I haven't had one like it before. You pour and taste and think "ale! no, IPA! NO ALE!" and ask yourself "what is that spiciness?" I don't know, some sort of European hop, times two. Pours a nice straw yellow, cloudy then clear, nice foamy head subsiding to a small foam ring. First taste, spicy hops, then more sips prove a mellow ale taste, with a little, very little, bitter aftertaste. The wife remarked "pointy but somehow light, doesn't coat the tongue." All right, whatever she means by that, we can both agree it went along with my dragon's breath chili which had simmered all day.

So, I cry out, at last "why such a small bottle, why can't I have this beer everyday?" and would call the whole thing unfair, except there are more Dutch microbrews to test, in the fridge.....

Update: Postscript on the Christoffel. Our friends at Finger Lakes Bev's, of course, had me covered. Having looked around without luck for Christoffel, the owner checked his memory, and down low in the corner found this rather wonderful gift pack: $9.99!!!! Lovely. A careful look at the label here, this one intended for export unlike the Dutch label I had yesterday, suggests I had the blonde, which is a double hopped lager. Ah ha! The Robertus claims to be ruby, etc.

Footnotes a la Stonch:

1. An earlier review by Alan from 2005.
2. Here are the BAer's review.