Lucky bastards meeting in Schiedam?

[Odin]

May is between mild and wet. Difficult to say. We live close to the sea and sea climate ... one day it rains, next one the sun shines. And that's on a relatively predictable day. Mostly: one minute it rains, the other the sun shines. Around 20 degrees C. Fields will be green, cows will be out ...

Odin.

[Jimbo]

Malt wine is aging on oak. Tastes nice already, I was tight on the cuts and had to water it down to 60.

This neutral is an interesting story, I started with 4 gallons of feints from all fructose/glucose based spirits. Rum, Apple, Blueberry, Raspberry and Cherry. Averaged 39% so ran as is. Gonna have to run 2 more times I think, its a fruit bomb still haha. I doubt I'll shake all the fruit, so its gonna make an interesting pseudo neutral for my absinthe and geneva haha. Ill start with 4 runs, then maceration and a 5th run. So hopefully that does it.

[Jimbo]

May is between mild and wet. Difficult to say. We live close to the sea and sea climate ... one day it rains, next one the sun shines. And that's on a relatively predictable day. Mostly: one minute it rains, the other the sun shines. Around 20 degrees C. Fields will be green, cows will be out ...

Odin.

Sounds like bushman will feel right at home. Thats pacific northwest weather.

[OverEducatedIdiot]

For those considering a trip to the museum, I will say it is an interesting experience, both the distillery and the culture. Schiedam is about 30-45 minutes from Amsterdam on train and to me is a completely different atmosphere than Amsterdam (based on my limited knowledge). For Bushman, if you're from the PNW you may find it comforting that I tasted a few local beers that were quite nice while in the NL. Odin will likely correct me but there is a local brewery on Texal producing an assortment of brews.

For those southerners, Schiedam has surprisingly good spare ribs which I noticed seemed to be a house specialty at a lot of places. And the cheese, set aside some time for going to a market or somewhere to try and buy local cheeses.

Disclaimer, these opinions should be taken for what they are worth.... less than $0.02. Your mileage may vary.

Odin's next task: Dutch cheese and Jenever pairings!!!!
This idiot votes Aye

[Jimbo]

Odin's next task: Dutch cheese and Jenever pairings!!!!
This idiot votes Aye

Do the Dutch still enjoy unpasteurized cheeses, or did the EU hose you guys up too?

[Odin]

So I am just flipping thru some pictures and I find another one taken in Schiedam. In Rob van Klaarwater's Jeneverie "'t Spul". Some guys having fun with Rob. Just to get an impression.

[Odin]

As we say over here: "U vraagt, wij draaien!" So here we go. A bit on cheese. Not an expert, but a try.

Well, when you are from my part of The Netherlands, there would only one sort of cheese going with genever ... Gouda of course! Not that crap you can buy abroad, but the real stuff. From around Gouda. Not from the city of Gouda itsself, because that's a city. Cheese is made on farms, not in cities. Well, real, handmade, non plus ultra quality that is. So why is it called Gouda if it isn't made in Gouda? Because Gouda, as a city, had a weekly market where the cheeses were sold.

Real Gouda cheese is made in the region surrounding Gouda and Woerden. The young one is okay, the middle aged one is good, the old one is ... magnificent. Salty to an extend that eating it sorta hurts the gum. Sorry guys, nothing to be compared to what you can call. Gouda made a terrible mistake when new EU-legistlation came into play. They didn't ask for a regional annotation. Sure that's the wrong words, but you get my point: Scottish whisky only being made in Scotland, begin 40% or more, having matured for 3 years ... etc. "Appelation Controlee ..." thingie. They didn't do it, and now everybody can make sh*t and call it Gouda.

In the villages around Gouda and Woerden, cheese making is still an art performed. By the farmer's wife. Every farm, every village has its own unique flavor and smell. The cheeses, I mean. I grew up in a village like that and we went to a farmer every week to buy some 2 to 3 kilo's of cheese. Some young, some aged, some old. And maybe some "komijn" (kumin?). The farmer makes the cheeses in various sizes. From around 5 kilo's to 25 to 30 kilos. Actually my grandmother made her own cheese still. Never tasted it. She stopped around the time I was born. What a woman. Six feet tall and the hands of a dock worker. Why? Because she helped farmers milking cows. She hand milked some 60 cows in the morning and around 40 in the late afternoon. If that does not explain the hands ...

An interesting variety on the young Gouda is the so called "gras kaas", with "gras" meaning grass. Cows stay in the stables during winter time, feeding on dryed grass. In spring they go out again and start to eat fresh, wet grass. Takes some time for them to adapt to that. And in that time the milk is fruitier, more filled with gasses. The gasses pass into the milk and from the milk to the cheese, swelling it, making it lighter and refreshing in taste.

I took some visitors once to make our own cheese. Interesting experience.

OEI: Texel makes interesting beers. I guess our beers are good in general. Just that they all taste the same (take Heineken as a starting point). There are lots of micro breweries starting up making more interesting stuff.

Okay some pics on cheese and that's it.

[Jimbo]

Not that crap you can buy abroad, but the real stuff. From around Gouda.

The best Gouda's we can buy here are, of course, imported Dutch Gouda's

[Odin]

Which can be good Jim ... but is still factory made. From pasteurized milk that is. Real handmade "Boerenkaas" is not exported I am affraid. That's the cheese the famers ("boer") make themselves. From non-pasteurized milk. So much more character there ...

Hey, I am learning something on cheese here. Thanks guys! Just read that cheese was made here from prehistoric times. Cheese making equipment from centuries BC. Seems that Julius Ceasar mentioned the people from the Low Countries making cheese in "De Bellum Gallicum", on his wars in Gaulle. He doesn't speak of genever, what makes sense, because it wasn't made in the first century BC.

The oldest real Gouda that was recovered and still eatable (edible?) was found by Rusians on Nova Zembla. From Willem Barendsz attempt to find a way to the East traveling north of Russia ... The cheese had been frozen for close to 400 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Barentsz" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Remember having a talk with a French friend of mine, in my adolescent years. In France. He told me that the Dutch chambers of commerce advertized Dutch cheese and promoting Holland in France with the slogan "The other country of cheese", since the French produce an astonishing variety of cheeses.

This friend of mine had to laugh a lot about this and rephrased the slogan to "The other cheese of that country". Guess he was right. We don't have so many different sorts of cheese as the French do. O, BTW, Limburg is also a Dutch cheese. Now, if anyone wants to try what old socks taste like ...

Odin.

[Jimbo]

Sadly, you are correct. All 'marketed' cheeses in the US and EU must now be pasteurized. However a good pasteurized Gouda is better than no Gouda. I love a thick slab of smokey Gouda melted over my burger, piled high with sauteed (in butter) onions and portabello mushrooms.

Luckily there are the holdouts in all countries who disregard government mandates and continue centuries old traditions. Making unpasteurized cheeses one of them (distillin likker another). With growing awareness of healthy food choices and an intolerance for FDA mandated nonsense (FDA work in the best interest of the largest food corporations, dont get me started on this topic), people are seeking heathier choices. Starting to anyway. We have one farmer locally who has found a way around the mandates by having a self service shop. You come in, 'donate' the price of the goods in an envelope dropped in a slot, and help yourself to the unpasteurized milk, cheese, yogurt, butter etc. These type of shops are springing up across the country.

I've been fortunate to travel a lot for work. I love finding a small village in France, where the proprieter of the restaurant will pride himself on the local unpasteurized cheeses offered. All regions have something like this they are very proud of, centuries old traditions. Cheese and wine in France, Kimchee (assorted varieties and ages) in Korea, Ales and sausages? in England. Lagers in Germany and Czech, sour beers in Belgium etc etc. This for me is the essence of life. Finding those things that people do very very well, regionally, old traditions. We must keep these things alive, lest we all mash into one homogenized boring mundane sterile existence.

[Odin]

Just got a present in from OEI! American BBQ spices (now if only the weather would be better ...) and a bottle of DWWG. Never tried that recipe. Very curious to find out how it is.

Regards, Odin.