As a young boy of about 8 years old – now almost 30 years ago – I regularly went with my father to the store of Oevelen just across the border in Essen, Belgium. In our garage there were always 6 crates of beer: Amstel, Leffe blond, Duvel, Westmalle double, Westmalle tripel and Palm. You can tell where the passion for beer was born.
When we arrived at the liquor store, my father would unload the empty crates and an elderly man in a dusty coat counted the packaging. He then wrote the value on a note with a pencil which he then handed to my father. At the time – when my pocket money was (converted) 2 euros a week – I found it amazing that the beer was so expensive. With my weekly allowance, my father could not even buy 2 bottles of beer, how could he spend so much money on beer?
I was thinking about this moment when I was buying beer from a liquor store last week. I was in the mood for some nice IPAs. With the thought of spending a few weeks at home and the sun coming up, we had to make the best (and safest) of this situation.
With that in mind, I walked along the shelves at an appropriate distance, I was advised regarding my purchase and eventually settled on € 34.20. While I was on my way home I realized I had just paid € 34.20 for 6 cans, almost € 6.00 per can. Although I will undoubtedly love the taste of these beers, I couldn’t help comparing them with the classics like Duvel that my father and I still have in the garage. For a Duvel I usually pay around € 1.40 and yet I – and a lot of other people – are willing to pay 3 to 4 times this amount for a different type of beer. So apparently there is a market.
But why are people willing to do so? Is it an image / marketing thing? Is this the cool beer you enjoy looking at and which you want to be seen with? Is this brewer hip and happening at the moment? Is it a taste thing? Once you’ve tasted champagne, you don’t want to go back to a cava? Do people just have money to spend in times of economic growth and do they just not care, or is there a whole other reason?
Old school vs. new school
Personally I think you can compare it a bit with the wine market. A large number of suppliers ensure an ever growing diversity of products in all kinds of price and quality classes. In a bar you get a cheapish wine, a more expensive sauvignon blanc during dinner and a champagne with New Year’s Eve. I see the same thing happening with beer. For example, we have a regular beer at home when having a birthday party, a nice Leffe for after mountain biking and an IPA during the evening while watching Top Gear.
What I’m trying to say is that when the quality lives up to the price, I would gladly pay 6 euros a can!
We also search the digital world for interesting stories in the wonderful world of beer. On social media we came across the following description “The smallest beer shop in the Netherlands”, our interest was raised! One phone call with Fred Buddingh, owner of ‘Driemeterbier’, was enough. ”An article about my store? Nice, there is enough to tell, come by.” So here we are at ‘Little Beershop’ – an interview with Fred.
First of all, Fred, the name ‘Driemeterbier’, tell us the story!
We are now in the store called Little Beershop, which is the result of the ‘Driemeterbier’ store (translation: ‘Threemeterbeer’). In the time that I was still working as an editor for television, it always interested me to start my own beer shop. My brother-in-law has a delicacy shop in town and we came up with the concept 3 years ago to create a kind of shop in shop by placing a rack of ‘Driemeterbier’ with very nice beers in his shop. And so the smallest beer shop in the Netherlands was born with literally three meters of beer.
Every week I adjust the product range with 15 new beers. A good working concept, now there are also two locations of Driemeterbier in Hilversum and Amersfoort. Because the concept ran so smoothly, I started thinking about my own store and so I began looking for a suitable place. This area used to be a prostitution area and redevelopment turned this into retail property. After a successful crowdfunding campaign in which I even sold beer in one of the (vacant) red-light district rooms, this store started. The new name of the store was Little Beershop, to fit the theme of Driemeterbier.
How did you gather the knowledge to put together the right assortment?
Well, I kind of grew into it. I have been interested in specialty beer for a long time and have visited many beer festivals. I also had a lot of practice in the time when I only had Driemeterbier at the ‘Amsterdamsestraatweg’ (street name). We were just a small beer shop at the time. I learned a lot during that time by trial and error.
We see a special device and beer taps in the store, you don’t see that often, please explain!
At the time when we only had Driemeterbier, we also filled bottles with beer ourselves, so that people could take home fresh beer. Then I started searching for a way to also can beer and I came across this mini-cannery – a machine that could seal cans filled with beer. I wanted to create the atmosphere of a bar, but a bar where people can’t drink. You can drink it everywhere except inside the store, that is the underlying idea. It is quite new, nobody is familiar with this concept. ‘Frontaal’ Brewery also has one, but that’s the only other store to my knowledge.
Is there another thought behind the beers that you can can yourself?
9 out of 10 times I’ll try to find beer that you can hardly get in bottles or cans. For example, I currently have 3 beers from a German brewer with very good IPAs that can only be purchased on kegs. We immediately build a theme around it named ‘Deutsches Wochenende’, including German schlager music.
Three custom made designs, specially made for the mini-cannery.
How do you determine what to include in your assortment?
I am in contact with both the ‘middlemen’ and directly with the brewer himself. You get so much offered as well and I’ll just make a selection from that. The Netherlands has so many brewers that I have chosen to support the local community. For example, I have a rack here with all the beers from the area, think of ‘Kromme Haring’ and ‘Van de Streek’. I prefer to sell more local beer and support local friends than, for example, to offer beer from Enkhuizen (a town further away). The funny thing is that people really appreciate the local beer, but also want to try beer from all over the world.
What trends do you see in 2020?
You always see that people specify a certain beer style here, for example “this is the year of alcohol-free and of sour or NEIPA”. I also think this will be the year of NEIPA, but I think this will also be the year in which a very large group of people will finally discover specialty beer. I notice more and more that people who used to drink standard ‘LaChouffe’ at home now come to the store and say: “I recently had something with tropical fruit” after which I point them to a beer and they say “I’ll take 6 of them!”. This large group of people is starting to discover the possibilities of specialty beer.
Who are your customers?
Pretty diverse, but generally young people. Few elderly people … some, but few? This is probably due to my assortment. For example, I have little Belgian beer, those beers aren’t runners either in my store. 98% comes from modern breweries.
What do customers indicate as the main reason why they keep coming back?
I really try to create an atmosphere in the store. For me it is fun to make it a ‘Deutsches wochenende’ now. For my store in Hoogland I had also canned beers with the label of the village, and the Brexit was also a theme in the store.
In addition, the constantly innovative range is of course also something that is appreciated. That is perhaps what I focus on the most, I just want to be the store for the new beer. I just want to have the coolest beers available.
How would you describe the atmosphere?
It must be a kind of bar where you like to stay and have a chat, and yes it is a shame that you can’t have a beer with it, but that’s the way the law works. It would be my ideal store if you can just order a beer while shopping here. Until then we are a store where you can buy fantastic beer in a bar environment that you can drink anywhere except here, haha!
Proost Jochie! (which translates closest to: Cheers buddy!) The slogan of the Little Beershop.
And your future plans?
Future plans? I still have so many things that I want to do in this store, I still have to put finishing touches on a lot of things. My to-do list is still huge haha. For now I am busy with that, and with a feeling that I just want to be here and practice my passion.
A source of beer knowledge, special beers and warm hospitality. That’s how a visit to Huub van Dijk can be summarized. Huub is the brewer of multiple prize winner ‘saison Wittekop’, a phenomenal beer with which he won the Brussels Beer Challenge and the Dutch Beer Challenge. He is also an award-winning zythologist and collector of just about anything that has to do with beer. To combine the useful with the pleasant, we went to visit Huub with the BeerNDX team.
Time for the interview!
“Sorry for the mess men, but we have just returned from 2 days in Antwerp and have not had much time to clean up.” Once we started talking about Antwerp and its bars, the conversation really takes off. “Do you know where you should go? Café Mombasa in Borgerhout; very nice beers that you can’t drink anywhere else. Also very hospitable, highly recommended. ” While we are being served a ‘Wittekop’, he picks up a number of folders. In these folders – described in detail – are the places in the Netherlands and Belgium which true beerlovers must visit. Quite an undertaking, while browsing through the scriptures.
Team BeerNDX listens carefully to the stories of Huub.
While we talk about the visit to Antwerp and the collection of beers, related beer items are discussed as well. Clearly it is not only beer that he collects, we notice that when he shows us the rooms upstairs. “I think I have about 80 beer neon signs and they all still work.” he hasn’t exaggerated one bit, especially by showing us the neon sign of Sint Sixtus (!). There are even 2 rooms and cupboards in the corridor that are filled with enamel signs from breweries that no longer exist or at least have adopted a clearly different house style.
Pretty impressive Huub, I am very curious about the beers in your collection, how many bottles do you think you have?
There was a long pause, after which he answered: “I don’t dare to estimate, I think somewhere between 500 and 600.” A very modest estimate, I can tell you.
The La Trappe oak aged collection is also complete!
When did you start collecting beer?
The real collection must have started somewhere in 2009. At least, most of my beers are from that time. I certainly have older beers in my collection, but I often bought them later. How do I get them? I have been in the beer world for quite some time now, and after a while you will get to know a lot of people in there. As a result, I have nice beers that sometimes even the brewer himself no longer has.
Can you name such a showpiece?
For example, I still have a closed box with 12 ‘Cuvée van de Keizer Blauw’ from 1999. The beer will be over its top by now, but it is really special to have. I don’t believe there are many of them around in this condition.
Another showpiece of Huub: Ter Dolen Limited Edition.
Where do you purchase your beer?
I particularly like the traditional beer culture and that is why I like to visit Belgian stores a lot. You will almost always find special items, especially at smaller stores in unknown places. I can recommend it to anyone who visits Belgian. Oh wait, on second thought, rather not. Otherwise the specials are gone before I can get there, haha.
And when you have found a nice beer, with whom do you prefer to taste it?
That’s easy, with Mieke Desplenter from Ter Dolen and Hildegard van Ostaden from the Leyerth. These ladies have meant a lot to the beer world and they are also very knowledgeable.
Any tips for the starting collector?
Make sure you have a good environment to store the beer. Beer should not have too much light and it should not be too hot. But the most important tip: “Don’t forget to drink!”
