Brewery Eleven World Tour

Up to now

Together with Brewery Eleven, we have started a discovery tour around the world with the SMaSH series World Tour, in which we travel to 10 countries and brew 10 SMaSH beers. The focus of Hollands Hophuis is of course on the hops. We are almost halfway and here you can read how we did so far.

When a brewery goes for SMaSH, we are always very happy to join in, because SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hops) brings out the ingredients in their purest form and you can really taste how a hop variety comes out in a beer. When a brewery then comes up with the idea to brew a series of 10 SMaSH beers, we are of course very excited!

#1 English IPA
Our journey began in England, where the now hugely popular IPA style originated. It is said that classic IPAs from England tend to have a better balance of hops and malt. Nevertheless, it is of course a beer type in which hops play the leading role.

Eleven brewed a classic English IPA with British Maris Otter malt, we brought East Kent Golding hops. This hop variety is characterised by spicy and earthy aromas, which some beer lovers describe as " twigs ". A hop variety that is absolutely linked with English Ales, especially with the English IPA. A very well made beer in which the hops beautifully take full stage.

#2 Norwegian Kveik IPA
The most important feature of Norwegian beer is the yeast: Kveik. It is a kind of turbo yeast that produces a tasteful beer very quickly and without any unpleasant off-flavours. Kveik (which means just yeast in Norwegian) is very popular among home brewers because of these properties, and in recent years more and more professional brewers have been using it. For Eleven, this was certainly not the first beer fermented with Kveik.

Norway is too northern to grow hops properly, but with Aurora we found a hop variety that has a Norwegian link, as it is another word for northern lights. Aurora is a Slovenian hop variety with aromas of blossom with a spicy touch, these characteristics combined perfectly with the fruity aromas from the Kveik.

#3 German Kölsch-style
Kölsch, of course, originates from Cologne and it is a protected name for a type of beer: only if the brewery has a sight on the Dom of Cologne you may call it Kölsch. The Utrecht Dom tower doesn't count, so we added -style. Kölsch is considered a hybrid beer style. It is fermented with top-fermenting yeast, but the method and duration of lagering is the same as a bottom-fermented beer. The result is a crisp beer with a reasonably clean flavour profile.

We have chosen Hallertau Mittelfrüh as a hop variety. When we talk about Europe as the cradle of hop cultivation, this variety is a very striking example, occurring naturally in the Hallertau region. It has been cultivated for more than 100 years and is still loved for its subtle floral, slightly spicy aromas. With good reason this hop is seen as a noble hop variety. For decades, Hallertau Mittelfrüh has been very popular in traditional German beers, such as this Kölsch.

#4 French Bière de Garde
For number 4 in this series, we travelled to France to brew a Bière de Garde, a type of beer that nowadays has a wide interpretation. In this case, it became a strong Pale Ale with influences of a Saison, exactly the way we like this beer. As this edition came out in December, Eleven had the excellent idea to fill large 75cl bottles, perfect to share during the holidays (and beyond of course).

We naturally went for a hop variety from French soil: Elixir, a relatively new variety from Alsace. The aroma is strongly fruity, mainly tangerine and orange, with floral notes and even a hint of cognac. The result is as if a drop of orange blossom liqueur had been used and that fits perfectly into this rather powerful beer.

6 to go
Our journey is not over yet, in the coming months we will visit 6 more countries and 6 more SMaSH beers will come out of the kettles of Eleven with our hops, keep an eye on this site and our socials for the newest editions!

Carel (at the right) with the Brewery Eleven team.