Cheese tasting

This morning I had the pleasure to attend to a cheese tasting at Reypenaer in central Amsterdam. They produce a number of cheeses the old fashioned way, letting them slowly ripe in their riverside warehouse.

We tried six cheeses:
Chevre affiné (4 months, goat cheese)
Chevre Gris (10 months, goat cheese)
Wyngaard Affineur (6 months, made of summer milk from cows)
Reypenaer (matured 1 year, made of winter milk)
Reypenaer VSOP (2 years, winter milk)
Reypenaer XO Reserve (2,5 years, summer milk)

I liked them all, but Reypenaer topped my list, followed by VSOP, XO Reserve and Wyngaard Affineur.

Belgian beer tasting

While in Stockholm, I arranged a Belgian beer tasting for mostly friends and fellow paraglider pilots. It's always a pleasure to spread the Belgian Gospel and see how the guests start to discover this new splendid universe.

We tasted following beers (in this order):
St Feuillien blonde
Chimay Grand Reserve
Westmalle Tripel
Oud Beersel Geuze
Bios Kriek
Orval

I was busy talking people through the tasting, but Fredrik Angrimer snapped a few photos with his mobile:

Next Hypoxia on its way

Late yesterday night I uploaded the next issue of Hypoxia to the print shop. This is the last issue for this year, but I am very happy to say that I will produce the magazine also during 2010. Here is a peak on the front page.

Femke is off to London today, but only until tomorrow. And I am going shopping! Well, researching shopping in Amsterdam for a story that is.

Benin

Femke is back from Benin! I missed her. She had a both successful and interesting trip, as often is the case when she goes to West Africa. I took the liberty to select a few of her photos and post them here. Enjoy!

Beer instead of Benin

Femke is in Benin for a week of work, and I am languishing back home, trying unsuccessfully to work. As an antidote I tried out a new beer bar called Beer Temple together with our friend Sander. It has the same owner as another good beer bar (t’Arendsnest), but where the latter only serves Dutch beer (but close to 100 of them) Beer Temple is specialized in American Micro breweries.

I started with an Anchor Liberty Ale on tap, which was beautiful. We also compared two of the Danish brewing genius Mikkeller’s concoctions, the Mikkeller Single Hop Simcoe with his Single Hop Nelson. Both were nice but the one brewed with Simcoe hop was without a doubt the better one.

Dutch friends over for fika

Today Chantal and Pepijn came over for a fika at our place. They are both paragliders and that is how I got to know them. Living in Haarlem, it is not that often we meet, so it was really nice that they popped by.