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!