Nearly forgotten – Dutch beer styles
As the Netherlands are surrounded by some of the biggest beer cultures in the world, our own beer history was mainly based on Belgium (Dubbel, Tripel, Wit) and Germany (Pilsner, Bock, Weizen). There are some long-forgotten Dutch beer styles though. Most of them were driven out when German Lagers became popular, but since the Craft revolution a modest return can be seen.
Bredaas Wit
A typical Wheat or Witbier, with a local twist. Besides wheat and barley, Bredaas Wit also added oat and even buckwheat to the mix. Sometimes it was enriched with juniper. Because buckwheat isn’t a grain, brewers avoided some taxes and could thus produce a cheaper beer. The oat gives Bredaas Wit a fuller mouthfeel than its Belgian counterpart.
Between 1550 and 1750, it was one of the most popular beers in the Netherlands. So much so, that the harbour in Breda was originally built to ship this beer to Amsterdam and other densely populated areas.
Gruit
Not entirely Dutch – because this was also brewed in Belgium and Germany – but the Netherlands were indispensable in the development of this style. In the middle-ages, before the effects of hop in brewing were known, people used a special herb mixture for bittering and flavouring beer. This mixture (and the eventual beer) is called Gruit, also known as Grut, Gruut or Gruyt.
The style goes back at least to the 11th century, because that is when the Roman Emperor Henry IV started taxing Gruit. Most mixtures use gale, heather, ground-ivy, horehound, mugwort and yarrow. Other ingredients could be – but are not limited to – juniper, ginger, caraway seed, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Today, even hop is allowed, although that seems a little redundant.
Hoppenbier
After the German introduction of hop in beer, the landscape completely changed. Gruit slowly disappeared and made place for this new invention. Of course, the Dutch brewers took their chance to create their own variant – or as the Germans would call it, a cheap imitation. Nonetheless Hoppenbier was the first Dutch beer with a good shelf life. Because Hoppenbier could be stored, breweries quickly grew bigger.
The beer was amber in colour and used 40 kilogram of malt per hectolitre beer. That’s about double the amount than common today. It was mainly made with oat (up to 80%) and some wheat.
Kluinbier
Kluinbier was originally brewed in the northern Dutch city Groningen, where it was popular from the 15th to the 19th century. It was one of the first beers that used barley (62.5%) in addition to oat (37.5%). Barley was rare in the rest of the Netherlands, but in the northern provinces it was the most cultivated grain. This was a revolution in the Dutch beer culture.
The specifics of Kluinbier (or Cluyn, Kluyn, Kloen and Kluun) are also quite different than its southern counterparts. The boiling time was a whopping 24 hours! Historical documents describe it as a sweet, dark, and firm drink. It was supposedly also used as an ingredient for Warm Beer, a local drink with spices, eggs, and brandy, that was popular in the winter months.
Kuitbier
Kuitbier – also known as Kuit, Koite of Kuyt – was very similar to Hoppenbier. The main difference is the use of grain. The ratio was 3 parts of oat, 2 parts of barley and 1 part of wheat. This blond beer was also cheaper to brew than Hoppenbier. Kuit quickly became the standard beer in the Netherlands. Cities like Delft, Gouda and Haarlem produced it on a large scale. Around 1500, these three cities produced more than 1 million hectolitre of beer per year!
The beer was exported through the entire northern Europe. It remained quite popular until the seventeenth century, when Lagers started to dominate the Dutch market. Kuitbier is the only Dutch beer style that the renowned Brewers Association has acknowledged.
Fun fact: both Hoppenbrouwer and Kuitenbrouwer (brouwer meaning brewer, of course) are still known as surnames in the Netherlands.
Oud Bruin
This is not to be confused with the much better-known Flanders Oud Bruin. Although similar in name, the flavour couldn’t be more different. Flanders Oud Bruin is a sour beer, while Dutch Oud Bruin is a malty sweet, dark Table Beer.
It was made by filtering the wort of another beer for a second time. The result was a low alcohol beer (around 3%) with a short shelf life and little taste. That is why the beer was sweetened extensively after brewing.
Princessebier
Princessebier originated in Amsterdam and was one of the most popular beers of the nineteenth century. The luxurious beer was even exported to the colonies of the East Indies. Approximately 100 years later, it disappeared.
This beer was cleared to match the specifications a customer would like. This made it one of the first filtered beers in the world. The definition of Princessebier is a lot less clear. It was brewed with barley, but an exact makeup has been hard to find. Some sources speak of a pale version, while others mention a brown colour.