Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Something fun that it's happening with me. And here to
join me to talk about this is my friend Chris
from Pub Culture Beercations. Chris, first of all, thank you
so much for being in our studio today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thanks Emry, thanks for having come by. This has been fun.
Getting planned to have you on the trip to the
Netherlands this spring and look forward to hanging out, chatting
a little bit and maybe even tasting a little bit
of Dutch craft beer.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, you brought some goodies in here. We'll do that
in a couple of minutes. First of all, for those
who are trying to listen, this is a first real introduction.
I've been talking about it for a couple of weeks now,
but now you're going to get a chance to really
explain what the heck is a beer cation?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
So why just take a vacation if you could take
a beer casi? Right? My theory on beer cationing really
comes from a twofold First of all, I've worked locally
here in Omaha at the Crescent Moon Nale House since
two thousand and six, always enjoyed a good craft beer
and working with that really got to know the beer scene,
(00:55):
and in two thousand and eight, the owner put together
a trip through our Hubert House German beer hall. First
time I had a passport, went on a trip, went traveled,
drank little beers in little pubs and little beer gardens
around Germany. And we had just opened our Belgian bar,
which is now just our party room, and I felt
I needed some more street cred for Belgium. So first
(01:15):
time going to Europe, I stay eight extra days, rent
a car, drive through Belgium, meet a bunch of great
breweries and brewers, and start to realize that traveling for
a beer is a little different than traveling for your genealogy,
or traveling for just World War II history, or just
the famous old buildings or cathedrals or different things. Those
(01:39):
are all wonderful. You really open your eyes when you
travel the world. However, no matter where I go in
the world, whether it's here in Omaha, if I'm in
San Diego, I go to the Netherlands, Germany, whatever, if
I find a good beer bar and I belly up
to that bar, I have found that the person to
the left of me can make ten times as much
money as I make, and the person of the right
can make ten times less for something as common as
(02:01):
every day. As a beer, we're equal for the next
thirty minutes, and for the price of that pint, we
can sit there and have a conversation and we start
to realize that the world's not so different. We all
complain about the same things like traffic and road construction
and weather and politics and everything else that we like
to complain about or find commonality about. And as you
(02:25):
sit there and you drink a beer in a new
spot with your new friends, you realize the world's not
so big. And my theory is, if maybe we can
make the world a little bit smaller, a little bit
better over a few pints, why not. And it's gonna
taste good, Well, it's gonna taste good at the same time, right,
And that's why I say pop culture beercations is traveling
the world one pint at a time, because it's every
(02:46):
one of those has a memory behind it. You know,
some people always say what is your favorite beer? And
I won't hold people back if they say it's that
Miller Lte fishing with my grandpa every Saturday in the
summer when I was ten. That beer has every reason
to be just as amazing as a top one hundred
or a top ten beer that comes from a very
rare monastery somewhere that you can't get your hands on,
(03:07):
because the memories that come with it are all just
as important.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah. So I pulled up here at your website, which
has all of the information about every trip that you take.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Sure. Yeah, there's thirteen on the books right now for
this year.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, pubculturebeercations dot com. The whole laundry list is there.
So you actually were in the Netherlands here, just flew
home Friday. Yeah, so you are not just like, hey,
we're going to go here and check this out. You
actually scout these out so you know everything to expect
and can help the people traveling on our trip that hey,
these are the cool places to go, these are the
(03:41):
places to eat, these are the awesome breweries, and you're
going to need to try.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Very much so. And in fact, the Netherlands is the
location of the world that actually started the company. So
people think of Germany, they think of Belgium, they think
of the Czech Republic. For European craft beer or beer
in general, those are beer countries, London, Ireland beer countries.
I was on my way back from that first year
and between omitting the flight from Germany to the Amsterdam,
(04:08):
I drove through Belgium. I got to Amsterdam, and I
really thought I was going to hang out for three
days in the Las Vegas a Europe. I thought it
was just going to be wild parties and coffee shops,
and you know, Amsterdam has that stigma, that mystique. And
I found out that the Dutch beer scene was first
of all very under visited by American beer fans, but
yet very rival to what's happening in the American scene.
(04:31):
A lot of ingenuity, a lot of great flavors, a
lot of creativity happening. But also it holds back history
that goes all the way back to the seafaring days.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Well, you brought me in one that we're going to
try it says fifteen oh one.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yes, and that's not even the oldest recipe from Yopen
of Harlem, where we'll spend two nights. Yopen is actually
the name of a barrel at that time, and Harlem
had the rights to brew beer to sell back to
the rest of the Netherlands. Amsterdam had the rights to
brew beer to sell to the rest of the world.
They would sell that beer to the Netherlands to then
buy the things that they needed to. They were known
(05:06):
for fabrics in Harlem. And this is Harlem with two a's,
not Harlem as in New York City and Harlem in
the Netherlands is where the name Harlem in New York
does come from, because New Amsterdam was on New York
was once New Amsterdam, right, the Dutch were there first,
and so it really has a lot of unique history.
So for example, in Harlem, the owners of the brewery
(05:26):
are personal friends. I've brewed on the open system before.
I've actually brewed four collaborations in the Netherlands, and the
one that I brewed in two thousand and seventeen when
I took eighty five pounds of Tutsi pops between two
suitcases to make a beer with a brewery called Alca,
which a Dutch means little owl one two three, right,
So we took the Tutsi pops. I had twenty people
(05:48):
who wanted to go with me, and so when that
happened in the spring of twenty eighteen, it launched into
getting a tour operator's license, getting my LLC, getting all
those legality east to do this, and you do it
once you might as well keep going. Of course, obviously
we had a few slow years there in twenty and
twenty one. But back on track now, and the Netherlands
(06:10):
is somewhere where I have gone over thirty times since
two thousand and eight. Now I know it like the
back of my hand. And these towns, these places when
I do pop in, and you'll if you're on the
trip with Emery and I and you see us we
walk in these places. There are bar owners that see
me once a year and they're like, Chris, how's it going,
what's new? How are the trips? They've become personal friends
(06:30):
and they'll be your friends too by the time this
trip's over.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Absolutely love that. Okay, So the best of all on
trip Orange Madness Beer Caation, which is late April. We'll
tell you how you can sign up, and I'm going
to taste a couple of beers real quick, because when
in Rome or Amsterdam, am I right? We're going to
exactly We're gonna do that coming back stick with us.
We're talking with my friend Chris from pub culture Beercations
on news radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Emory's songer on news radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
The Netherlands Best of Holland Orange Madness Beer Cass. Sign
up for it at pubculturebeercations dot com and use the
promo code Emery when you check out. You can save
three hundred dollars on your trip when you do that.
Chris is sitting here and you've brought some goodies here.
This is the bottle that you told me fifteen oh one.
So this is a really old I'm going to take
a taste here. What about this beer makes it so special?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
One thing first is the reason why this is called
the Orange Madness Experience is the Netherlands is the house
of Orange. William of Orange, and that's why you see
orange on all their like I X soccer, all of that.
And part of this trip is going to include King's Day,
which is the King's Birthday, which will be the Saturday
we get there. It starts on Friday, and everyone's dress
in orange and it is a party. It's kind of
(07:42):
like Saint Patrick's Day, Marty Groff, Fourth of July and
World Cup Celebration rolled into one giant all day party
and it's a fun experience. So that's why we call
this the Orange Madness Love it now. The beer we're
looking at as a beer here from the Open Brewery,
which is out of Harlem. This beer fifteen oh one,
the Open Beer or the Hoppen Beer, is because the
(08:03):
Dutch were already knowing to use hops on a little
extra level, not enough, and you can tell people, it's
not like you're drinking a crazy American ipa, oh no.
But they knew that to use hops in an extra
level would help keep the beer fresh and stable when
it was out to sea, when it was on the ocean.
And so this recipe was in the city charter of
the Open and the owner of the brewery found it
(08:23):
in the city records and was able to then make
this beer from this old recipe and create what we're
drinking right now.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Incredible stuff and it's really good. I mean, this is
very drinkable. Yeah, Like it's called hopin' beer. Hoopin' beer, yep,
hopen beer. Okay, so hoppin' beer. This is one of
the craft beer that we're going to be able to taste.
How much beer I mean, obviously it's called beer cas
so you're going to be having plenty of beer, but
on a full trip like this.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So okay, there's as much in as little as you want,
in the sense that sure, when we have group lunches
or group dinners, I do build in drinks. But if
you don't feel like you want two beers at lunch
and you want to, you know, you don't have to.
We put together pub crawls optional or also as a
group where you can try things in different towns. But
(09:13):
again you can switch that up and try something different.
Love that.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, So that's a question somebody asked me. Is there
is flexibility and some free time that you can kind
of do your own thing hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So for example, you know, you and your wife, you
decide that on one of the evenings you want to
go out to a really nice restaurant together. Other people
on the trip are like, I just want to go
hang out at the pub. Or somebody during the afternoon
when there might be some free time, wants to go to,
you know, the Van Golf Museum veng go Van Golf,
get very dutchy. You got to get that duchy flem
out of your throat, right. But somebody else is like,
(09:47):
I'm not an art museum person. I want to go
and just wander the canals and look at architecture. You
have to give people enough time to customize their vacation
thereon to enjoy, to make it that much more enjoyable.
So I try to try to give you enough free
time to expand on that and with you open one
of the most amazing things. This is our last two
nights of the trip. We will be there and we
(10:09):
will go to their Grand Cafe on for our farewell
group dinner, which is the second of the last night,
and they will do a four course beer paired experience.
And it literally is an experience. You will see photos
on my social media's right now on both Instagram and
Facebook for pub culture beercations. This is in a church
(10:31):
that was converted into a brewery, one of the most
beautiful breweries you'll see, and they go out of their
way for an experience. And don't be surprised if while
we're there owners brewers people from town don't happen to
pop in and join us because they really like seeing
American beer fans come see their little beer town. It
is so cool. Can I try one more here? Yes? Yes,
(10:52):
let's do another one. Yeah? So what's this one?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
This is one you said in my hand that you
are actually collaborating there.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, so I just brew to collab well, I was,
There's part of the reason why I was there with
a brewery. And so it says kegs on this can.
But Tim has just rebranded and he is making a
new name for his brewery because he's going without a
beer partner on this. And we brewed a California Common
which is like anchor steam. Yeah. Yeah, we're putting orange
(11:18):
blossom in it, and they'll be called Granja gold or
orange gold because of King's Day. And everybody on the
trip is getting a souvenir four pack of this beer
as well as my buses are loaded with complimentary water
soft drinks and beer, and there'll be some of that
on that as well.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I cannot wait for this. This is going to be fantastic, Okay,
So cheers to you on this.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And Dutch, you would say, prost prost.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
It's very Germany, dutchy Germany, so yes.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Very Germanic languages you're gonna find. First of all, for
anyone who's worried about language, the Dutch are the single
best non native English speakers in the world, so you
will not have a language barrier, even though there'll be
a lot of people speaking Dutch and other languages because
answered as a very melting pot city, right, not going
to have that language problem. But you're going to start
(12:04):
to notice a lot of Germanic similarities. For example, we
say street, the Germans says rasa, and the Dutch they slacked.
Good thing. You got this foam thing on the microphone.
I want to slabbered all over it. But yeah, so
you're going to see a lot of those similarities. But
the Dutch folks are going to be so easy to
switch to the English for you as a traveler that
(12:26):
it's not going to be horrible for that.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, and we're speaking with Chris here from pub Culture Beercations.
I wanted to say that because I was in Spain
last September and my wife did a lot more Spanish
studying than I did. I did just enough to be
able to ask for the bathrooms where, and you know
which direction do I go for this or whatever. I
was so stunned at how easy it actually was is
a non native speaker to be able to navigate because
(12:51):
all these countries think about this, and you got to remember,
English is the first language for a lot of European countries,
as well, so, yeah, if that's one thing that's kind
of like freaking some people out who may not travel
very much outside of the country, don't be at all
because it's crazy how many people have that English as
part of their repertoire So with that being said, what's
(13:14):
the easiest way that you can get people to check
it out to sign up to see even if you know,
maybe two months, like by late April, it's a little
too soon. Like you said, there are thirteen in this
calendar year that you kind of have one.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
There are. I'm taking a group in March to Ireland,
but I have five more trips to Ireland this year.
I have a trip going to Central or Eastern Europe
I guess you could call it, but they really technically
Central Europe. That's going to be in Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary.
I've got trips going to the Czech Republic. I've got
trip going to Bene lux so that's Belgium, the Luxembourg
and Netherlands as well. I have a trip going to
(13:49):
Italy in November. That one is actually already over twenty
five percent full. Italy is a fun, wonderful place for
even beer. Believe it or not. I know, everyone thinks
why they've got great craft beer going on as well,
But we're not just gonna just drink beer. I mean
we do see a lot of the other sites. For example,
in the Netherlands, we are going to go to the Coconuf.
This is the yearly tulip garden that's only opened for
(14:11):
six weeks. Every year, over a million bulbs are planted.
Oh yeah, someone like you who loves nature, you're gonna
love the tulip gardens. We're also going to go to
different canal cruises and we'll have just history things along
the way, so it's not just hey, guys, get up
this morning and head to the brewery for lunch and
a brewery for dinner kind of thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I love that, cause there's anything wrong with of course,
of course, no judgmental zone here. If you want to
join our trip specifically, go to the Best of Holland
on pubculturebeercations dot com. When you check out, use the
promo code Emory. You'll save three hundred dollars on the trip,
and you could just search the website and the social
media as well. Pubculture Beercations a lot of fun trips
all year long Chris, this was awesome. Things for coming in.
(14:51):
We can't wait to chat again very soon.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I look forward to it. Thanks em.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, how about that. That is going to be super awesome.
We'd love for you to come with us, and I'm
going to finish this little sample of beer that I
have here. We're going to come back four o'clock hour.
We got plenty of news to get too, still right
here on news radio eleven ten kfa B