Hello brewing friends!

We have some good times ahead of us and behind us: we hosted two wonderful tasting sessions in Amsterdam. A lot of you came to visit and meet the brewers, have a chat, a taster and some good fun. We had a great time and want to thank our hosts, de Bierkoning and In de Wildeman, and visitors for making these events happen! More will certainly follow in the future.

Last queensday was a day off for us, but we came up with a jolly test brew on the day before. A weizen is in main fermentation and we managed to break our efficiency record on our test facility, yay! More records were broken on thursday, when we filled a huge tank at de Molen with another 60 minus hl of our delicious Chica. Minus 30 l that is, as one of us (do we really need to mention a name? We all know who we’re talking about don’t we?) spilled a keg worth of beer by messing with the infamous R2D2.

Next week has us leaving for a small roadtrip to Denmark, which we are very much looking forward to. First stop will be Kolding, where our brewing brothers of Kolding Bryglaug are waiting for us to create a brew with all sorts of crazy ingredients. Then it’s off to Copenhagen for a series of beer festivals. We don’t have to brew or serve beers over there, but just enjoy ourselves and taste some of the worlds best beers available. Heaven is a place on earth and next week it’s called Copenhagen! ;-)

But you don’t have to miss us for a long time: saturday May 19th we will be present at the Utrechtse Bierbrouwersfestival in our beloved city of Utrecht. We bring our Chica and Double Oatmeal Stout on tap, so be sure to come and have a sip. If you are not able to make it, there is another event the next day. Local bar cafe Zomaar in Amersfoort will host a small beer event on sunday afternoon and together with de Eem we will serve some nice beers there as well.

Hope to see you on a lot of those festivals! Cheers!

Foreign Small Chica came from the 2nd runnings of her big sister, Hot Summer Chica. Actually, there is no Chi nor Ca in it, but just a bit of Cha and Go. This little girl is sweet like vanilla and spicy like pepper.

Winter is over, so we need to brew some good beverages to enjoy in the coming sunshine. Of course, you could think of a golden-colored, refreshing and crisp beer. But sometimes, you just long for a full-bodied, dark and strong brew. Made with our beloved Chinook and Cascade hops, 99% pure chocolate and a little orange zest. We are ready for a hot summer!

Did you notice the buzz? Rumours are spreading Rooie Dop items have hit the shelves and are ready for you to catch! We created some awesome t-shirts and our private models showed them off next to a classic VW buzz (with the latter somehow drawing more attention…). Alright alright, the van is for real, the logo on it is not (yet), but we still might see it used as a delivery truck. Apparently, there is a crucial part missing still: the engine. Sounds pretty crucial doesn’t it?

Still our delivery services did a great job in getting our brews across the country and even across Europe! France, Germany and even Spain are about to see our sunny Chica Americana. But don’t forget your own roots ofcourse: Holland’s got some nice places where you can taste Chica and Double Oatmeal as well. Among others, you can get it at places like De Molen, Burg Bieren and De Bierkoning. Check our distribution page for more information.

Last month we also got our first interview for national podcast. National railway services finally carried the guys from Podjebier to Utrecht city centre. Check out the tasting session they had at our place and listen to all the delicate phrases we use to describe beer (cough!) at their website (#17 ). It is in Hague and Limburgian (???), so if you are not familiar with those near extinct languages, don’t bother listening.

For now, we are about to open a nice Chica Americana to enjoy. And why not, a Double Oatmeal Stout for dessert. You better go get them too!

Ot is a great ambassador for Dutch small breweries. Give him a t-shirt and he will cross the globe wearing that shirt. Also, he craves for big hoppy beers and you better not bother him with a boring 50 IBU. No, Ot wants more of those little IBUs. Therefore, we created our version of Russian River’s flagship beer, Pliny the Elder, with a calculated amount of 327 IBUs. May we present: Ot the Elder!

For as far as you haven’t met us yet: here is your opportunity to meet your favorite brewers and taste some of our new beers! Our Chica Americana IPA and Double Oatmeal Stout are bottled and kegged and will be available at some selected spots for tasting. So, mark the following dates in your agenda in ‘red’. ;-)

Saturday April 14, we will showcase our new brews at de Bierkoning in Amsterdam. From 14.00 – 17.30 you are welcome to have a sip and catch some bottles in easily one of the best beer stores in the country!

Tuesday April 17, the first kegs of Chica Americana IPA will be connected to the taps of in de Wildeman and will pour you some of our liquid gold. At 19.00 the party will start and our Chica will dance for you!

Saturday May 19, Utrecht will host the 2nd Utrechtse Bierbrouwers Festival. Rooie Dop will be there along with several other local brewers to let you enjoy the finest craft beers of Utrecht!

Hope to see you all on some of these great events!

The world needs more dark strong ales. We like to respond to this need with this lovely smooth oatmeal stout. A strong taste is provided by chocolaty and roasted malts, which are combined with soft smoothness from the oats. Add up a little bitterness from Columbus hops and you’ll get a dangerously drinkable Double Oatmeal Stout!

At Rooie Dop, we don’t really care about styles. But this is our version of an American IPA. Classic example of the style? Fits perfectly into the category? No. Does it need to be? It just needs to be pretty tasty! Chinook and Cascade hops dominate this beer and are assisted by a biscuity malty backbone. You just can’t resist a Chica Americana!

Yes! Finally, we did it! We have made some big batches of beer! Ever since we started stirring in the brewkettle, we have been planning on brewing a bit more than the usual two crates of beer. First, we needed some more experience on the brewing process ofcourse and as a loyal fan, you probably have been following our adventures since day 1. We experimented with some IPAs and barley wines, even made a Belgian tripel. But all we wanted was to make that little dream come true and create a huge amount (for our standards) of beer in one go.

A couple of weeks ago, it was the day. Big brewday! On a cold and early thursday morning, we moved our bottoms towards Bodegraven, where Menno and his crew were waiting for us. Our friends from De Molen have given us the opportunity to brew on their shiny equipment, which we are very grateful for. Who doesn’t want to brew together with one of the top-respected brewers? And as ambitious as we were, we didn’t want to brew just once. No, we filled them kettles twice!

Not a hard guess, but the recipes we came up with were an IPA and a Double Oatmeal Stout. Our recipes needed a little tweaking, as not all the ingredients we had in mind were available, but we didn’t have to make any large adjustments. A long day of weighing the ingredients, lifting the large amounts of malt, filling the hopback caringly named R2D2 and hugging the yeast, followed. But at the end of the day, two tanks of beer had been filled and with a glass of a new de Molen saison (a style made for the workers on the fields, fittingly), we could look back on a fantastic day.

Are you curious and want to taste them? At this moment, the beers are chilling out in the lager tanks for a short time. After that, they will be bottled and ready to hit the shelves in one or two months from now and we might even be found on a local event or festival. Be sure to keep an eye on our website and facebook!

It is robust, it is smoked, it got honey and mustard in it and it is dark colored like a porter! Meet our robust smoked honey mustard porter! Smoked flavors dominate the beer and we would call the honey and mustard notes rather ‘subtle’. If you like the classic rauchbeers from Bamberg, this might be your cup of tea.