The Birth of Brouwerij Beetje

Pete has started his own contract brewing company! 

Last year, when he won a local homebrew contest, the prize was for Naeckte Brouwers to brew his recipe and put it on tap at their bars. That gave him some experience and planted the idea in his mind about taking things beyond the homebrew realm. The brewer at Naeckte also gave him more insight into contract brewing- where you pay a brewery to make your beer recipe using their large-capacity equipment. 

After speaking to some fellow brewers, and with encouragement from a few of our more business-minded friends, Pete decided to try his hand at a commercial enterprise. He didn't want to have the job of selling his beer to shops and bars around the city (he's busy enough with teaching), so he came up with plan for a membership club, calling it a "community-supported brewery" or CSB. He has signed up over 50 members so far who have made various levels of commitment to support the brewery. This would not be possible without our amazing community- fellow teachers and staff, other parents at ISA, and the friends we have made in our almost 10 years here. 

Pete had a name in mind for the brewery, but after some brainstorming over drinks with Sarah in London, a new name was found. A Dutch word to represent where we live, but a word that is well-known to expats and also fun to say! "Beetje," (pronounced roughly "Bay-cha") means "just a little." Spreek je Nederlands? (Do you speak Dutch?). Een beetje (a little bit). As the plan was for this project to be "just a little bit of a brewery" it seemed like a perfect fit. Brouwerij Beetje was born!

Next up was creating a logo. The word "beer" means bear in Dutch. It just so happens that both ISA and our college's mascot is a bear, so once again it seemed like a perfect fit. Pete wanted a fun little bear to represent the brewery. He reached out to his cousin's talented illustrator husband, Aaron Dana, who graciously offered up his services. 

Isn't he jolly!

We spread the word via all of our social channels and those who expressed interest were added to the mailing list. People can support a single beer release for €36 for a 12-pack, or get a discount by committing to 3 beer releases (€99 for a 12-pack each release or €189 for a 24-pack each release). Once Pete saw that there was enough interest, he scheduled his first brew day. 

To drum up support at school, Pete donated beer to ISA's Oranjedag festival and spent the day serving his beer and talking about the CSB. 

The ISA bear striking a pose like the logo

It's a family affair- clean up crew!

The first batch was made at Naeckte Brouwer's side brewery, Gerritt, in Uithorn. This brewery has the capability of making smaller batches, which is still about 500L. This is a lot more than what Pete needs for his CSB at this stage so he arranged for the brewery to take the remaining beer, keg it, and sell it on tap at their bar. 

He started with an American Amber ale, "Amber and Eve," representing the original beer he made using all grain around 14 years ago. Aaron made a special bear following the theme and Pete's friend, Tim, created the label. 

The first brew didn't go exactly as planned due to an equipment issue so Pete fretted about the quality of the beer. He went to the brewery each week to taste it along its various points of fermentation, and while it was not a match to what he had created at home, he decided it was still quite good. 

The beer had to be transported to the main brewery at Annakerk to be bottled using an older bottling system. Pete enlisted two friends who helped him bottle close to 1000 bottles of beer (about 300L worth)! once the labels were printed, the bottles were ready to go! 

The first event was in mid-May at Annakerk. Amber and Eve was on tap for purchase (with proceeds going to the bar) and members could pick up their beer. There was a great turnout and the beer (once chilled to the right temperature) was well-received. Jude was excited to have access to the private areas of the bar and helped by putting logo stickers on the boxes of beer (and people). 

Last week, Pete brewed his second batch, a hoppy American Wheat beer (name pending- the kids have come up with some interesting ideas!). The brewery shared that they are closing their smaller brewery so the beers will be made at Annakerk moving forward. Annakerk is a decidedly cooler space and much closer to home, so this is great news, except that the smallest batches they can brew are 1200L, way more beer than Pete needs. The brewery has faith now in what Pete can do and will sell on tap what he doesn't bottle. 

The alter of beer at Annakerk

Heading to Annakerk for dinner with the Nazlawys last weekend. 

They found some kegs of Pete's homebrew contests-winning beer and put it back on tap so now two of the specials are Pete's ("Ruby" is their name for the Amber Ale)! 

Wishing Pete lots of success with his midlife crisis project! I'm so proud of what he's accomplished already! 

You can follow Brouwerij Beetje on Instagram!

Maeve is 8!

Our sweetie turned 8! Her birthday was on a school day, but she convinced us to let her open a few presents before school and Pete made her requested pancake breakfast. She had been so excited for her birthday. Can you tell from the photos?! She's into Harry Potter, all things girly, and stationary sets. 

After school, the festivities could begin! She had made her plan well in advance: Dominos, Harry Potter 3 viewing (Pete just finished reading the book to her), and then ice cream sundaes. 

She insisted on making everyone's sundaes, writing down our orders with the various toppings. 

She's a silly one! 

Maeve is as organized as her mother and had her birthday party planned (and goody bags made, complete with individual names) nearly 3 months before the actual day! We booked the Van Gogh Museum after enjoying a painting workshop there over Winter break. Good thing she is organized because they only offer 2 birthday parties a week so it books up fast! It felt iconic to be able to have a party in the famous museum. 

The day before the party, however, I received a distressing email that the art teacher was sick and a replacement couldn't be found. So the party would either need to be rescheduled or it could continue, but without the painting workshop (the entire reason for going). The cake had already been made and the alternate date they suggested wasn't an option for us, so I scrambled to think how we could salvage the party. 

I reached out to two friends who run art workshops to see if they might be free and if the Van Gogh Museum would let us bring our own teacher. Unfortunately, they were not free and the museum wouldn't allow an outside teacher. That got me thinking that since I had just learned some basic watercolor skills, I could lead a workshop on my own outside the museum. The weather was looking really nice so I went to Action to stock up on supplies and then broke the news to Maeve who was rightfully disappointed. The show must go on... 

Heading into the city with some friends. Pete took the bakfiets with the party supplies and I carried the cake. It was a really warm day and the frosting totally melted off the cake! It was a good conversation starter on the tram, though! 

As a consolation, the museum offered us all free admission and a scavenger hunt to complete for prizes. The museum was really busy and the scavenger hunt was quite involved. I was relieved when we completed it and still had all 11 kids with us! 

We set up in the cafe to enjoy cake and presents. 

That poor melted frosting! 

Then we headed outside and watercolored under some shady trees, with the smell of marijuana smoke from nearby tourists wafting over us. Oh, Amsterdam. 

 

Camping in Zeeland

We went on our (now) annual camping trip over the long Ascension Day weekend. When we booked the campsite we were thrilled that new friends Matt and Mary were going to join us with their daughters. We knew the weekend would be more fun with friends, having done the camping trip just our family the past two years. So we were majorly bummer when they had to cancel because their daughters were really sick. Especially because the weather was perfect and we knew how badly they wanted to be there (and have healthy kiddos!).

We had a corner unit in the typical Dutch field camping situation. We set up next to a Dutch family with 6-and 9-year-old girls. We were all shy for the first day or so, but with the kids staring each other down long enough, we finally made introductions and the kids had fun playing with their new friends the rest of the weekend. It was also a great way to practice our Dutch as they didn't speak any English! It was great hearing the kids use their Dutch! 

The resort, Roompot Beach Resort was great, with a lot to entertain the kids. We enjoyed the indoor waterpark, playgrounds, craft activities, and nature outing. I got a lot of my book read! 

The highlight for me was the proximity to a lovely beach, where we went each day. Our site was on the other side of the dunes, behind the beach houses. The location is on a body of water, sealed off from the North Sea by the Delta Works. So the water was calm and warmer than the ocean. 

A solo sunset stroll

On Friday we went to a local farm, which was hosting the Campina Days. Campina is the main dairy company in the NL and they open their dairy farms for visitors two times each year. They had activity books for the kids and all was great, until the end when they were out of the promised medals the kids would get for completing the tasks. 

Family sunset walk (sunset around 9:30pm)

Just when we realized we ran out of gas for the cook stove! Whomp whomp. No French toast or bacon for us :(

A long beach day on Saturday after kid activities in the morning.

Dinner out at a local brew pub complete with a huge playground and our camping neighbor friends who happened to go to the same restaurant! 

There was good wifi and we were able to stream the Eurovision finale Saturday night. Such a disappointment that the Dutch artist was disqualified for some backstage incident. His super catchy song, Europapa is such a hit, and while it wasn't favored to win, it would have been fun to watch! 

There was other entertainment that night in the form of Northern Lights! The display that was visible across parts of the US was also visible in the NL. I'm not convinced we saw them though as the lights we saw were centered around the cafe and could have just been spotlights! The night sky was completely clear though and the stars over the beach were still very special. 

Sunday was Mother's day and our kids were in a funk having had to say goodbye to their new friends. We had the job of taking down and packing up camp so it was not a relaxing morning. The late nights and so much activity must have caught up with the kids as well as their behavior all day was rather atrocious! Pete did his best to manage their moods, but it was declared that I was due a Mother's Day do over!

It was another beautiful day so after packing up, we spent some time at the water park and then had lunch at the resort cafe before ending our trip with a few hours at the beach. 

A little peace thanks to Pete!

Thank goodness they are cute :)