Rock City Brewing

We are on our way! Our first stop is Amersfoort, known as Rock City, which immediately explains the name of Rock City Brewing. Before you read more about that, first below video where founder Koen tells you more about his brewery, hops and of course the beer we brewed.

So, Rock City. Amersfoort owes this nickname to a local nobleman from the 17th century. As part of a bet, he managed to get the locals to drag a granite rock to their town. They did so in exchange for beer and since then the locals have been called keientrekkers, which translates as boulder pullers, a name that is worn with pride.

We are welcomed to the Rock City Brewpub by Koen Overeem, founder, owner and flavour chef of Rock City. A brewer with a history in advertising. A great combination, as Koen knows better than anyone to clearly explain his vision on beer and what Rock City stands for.

Melle and Koen from Rock City Brewing with the Hop Trophy.

Tasteful adventure

At Rock City, everything is about flavour. An open door you might say, but it soon becomes apparent that this is lived out in everything at Rock City. "Our starting point has always been taste, not a particular style of beer," Koen explains. "We are not about brewing a style of beer, we are about creating a taste experience. When you hear people talking about our beers, it's always about full-bodied, about creamy. That is a result of our beer recipes, where we think about the taste experience we want to offer and not about beer styles."

He takes his first beer Koene Ridder as an example: "The starting point has never been American Triple, it has been the combination of citrus aromas from coriander seeds and hops in a powerful-tasting beer, that flavour experience is the goal."

Staying away from beer styles entirely isn’t the case at Rock City, because their beer is of course brewed for beer lovers: "Our wheat beer is now called Fruity White, which was Eclectic Wheat Ale. That's super nice, for ourselves, but not something the beer-loving consumer really understands. They need shelf navigation, otherwise you're a product they'll ignore".

So flavour, something you can experience at Rock City at its finest: A tasteful adventure. "I want more Rock City brewpubs in the Netherlands where we can surprise our guests with our experience of taste, where beer is an adventure." It is evident: we couldn't wish for a better start for the Hop Trophy.

Single hop test

At Rock City, we selected the hops thoroughly. Koen aims for fruity aromas: "Getting the fresh-fruity side out of hops is always the challenge". For the test, we therefore chose five hops with fruity aromas of citrus, tropical fruit and stone fruit.

The brewing team had five bottles of wort fermented and then 150 grams of dry hops went into those, resulting in five different single hop test beers. That's a lot of hops for such a small amount of beer, so it's not really drinkable anymore, but the hop aromas do bang out of the bottles, which was exactly what it was all about.

After carefully smelling and comparing (and still tasting), the brewing team had decided. Cardinal was unanimously chosen to go full on during the dry-hop to maximise its citrus and multifruit juice aroma. Ernest (stone fruit) and Wolf (tropical) join in the whirlpool and dry-hop to give the hop character a complete appearance. This is how we completed the recipe on the spot regarding the hop additions!

The Rock City Brew Pub and brewery: Mijnbouwweg 15, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

On tap are Rock City's regular and one-off beers, in addition to a number of beers from around the world.

The kitchen features a large smoker in which house-smoked pulled pork and spare ribs are prepared. The choice of appetisers is wide, as are the vega(n) options.

rockcitybrewing.nl

Read more about the beer we brewed here, follow us on Instagram for the latest updates! #hoptrophy