Final Day: Gulpener Brewery, Bavaria Brewery, Holland Malt

So, Maastrich turned out to be a rowdy night for most of the group.  Rounds were bought, dinners were had, rare beers were consumed, dance clubs were taken over, and people got lost.  But despite some dehabilitating hangovers, our crew moved on into the final stretch like champions.

We left Maastricht for the Gulpener Brewery in the small town of Gulpener which served one of the better pilsners I had all week.  The brewery was really unique in the sense that it was tucked right into the town’s center, surrounded by homes and small shops.  Going from the brewhouse to the cellar to the packaging line all required some outdoor travel, so the brewery sort of took on the feel of an abbey.

All of Gulpener’s products are locally produced in the nearby region and the brewery really pushes local awareness and community involvement, most notably a hop harvest weekend that takes place in September that allows members of the public to engage in the harvesting of hops for the brewery.

After piling up on some Gulpener, we made the trek to the enormous Bavaria compound in Lieshout.  Bavariais huge.  Just getting around the place was an effort.  Here we were treated to lunch, which was excellent, and then took a tour of the original brewhouse which now is no longer in operation (just like Heineken). Then we were shown the current brewhouse, which was enormous to say the least.

And although time was running short, we managed to sneak in a tour of the Holland Malt facility that operates in conjunction with Bavaria.  This was really cool to see as a brewer, for malt is a very important ingredient.  Holland Malt delivers their product all over the world, and the size of the facility proved that.

And finally, from Bavaria we headed back ‘home’ to Amsterdam where our group had longed to get back to.  I can get into the details of what went down during our last night in ‘the Dam’ but that would be for a another type of blog.  We had a fantastic time in Holland…

Thanks for reading-