Brewery Visit: van Kollenburg

Brewery: van Kollenburg
City: 's-Hertogenbosch
Country: Netherlands

Recently i paid a visit to 'Stadsbrouwerij van Kollenburg', City Brewery Kollenburg. Kollenburg is located in 's-Hertogenbosch, coincidentally also my home town. It is located in, and underneath, Cafe Bar le Duc. The brewery was founded in 1999 , and currently brews 8 distinct beers, 6 all year and 2 seasonally. Kollenburg currently brews 500+ liters of beer a week, both for consumption within the cafe and for limited distribution.

Source: Cafe Bar le Duc

The brewery was the initiave of Cafe Bar le Duc's owner, Jan van Kollenburg. This is evident in both the brewery name and a number of its beers. Most beers have both "'t Kolleke" (an abbreviation for van Kollenburg) and "Jan" (the owner) in its name. For example their wit beer is named 't Kolleke Jonge Jan (young Jan). Not previously knowing the owners name,  I initially thought that the beers were named after the Sint Jan (Saint John) cathedral in the city.

't Kolleke Jonge Jan (from a previous visit :P)

It is possible to observe part of the brewery from the Cafe, and tours/tastings can be booked. Unfortunately such tours required a minimal of 10 persons, and visiting the brewery with only 5, we negotiated an ad hoc tasting session.

Tasting a Kolleke Ome (Uncle) Jan

All together we tasted five of Kollenburgs beers, 't Kolleke: Jonge Jan (Wit), Ome Jan (Blonde Ale), Triple, Oude Jan (Brown Ale) and Winterbier (Winter Warmer). We had a great afternoon tasting all these beers, however, almost none of them really stood out for me. With the exception of Jonge Jan, which i quite liked, the other beers were very average. However I did enjoy drinking them, they were just missing a little extra in terms of taste, most were a little bland.

It was a great afternoon beer tasting at a brewery in my own home town!
(and the start of a fantastic pub crawl, but thats another story)

Cheers!

Website: www.cafebarleduc.nl