Food & Beer Culture

What do people eat with beer in Amsterdam? Bitterballen—small, round, deep-fried balls with a creamy meat ragout filling, served with mustard. They're the classic snack of the borrel, the late-afternoon hour for drinks and nibbles, and appear on nearly every menu in the bruine kroegen, the brown cafés.

A bruine kroeg isn't a color so much as a style: dark wood, sand or wooden floorboards, old mirrors, and beer advertisements. Tradition holds that the brown walls come from decades of tobacco smoke. Café de Prins on the Prinsengracht, opened in 1967, is considered a prime example from the Jordaan neighborhood. There, beer and jenever sit side by side.

Beer also pairs well with cheese, and with herring, which the Dutch eat raw. The saltiness and fat call out for something fresh, and a foamy Pils delivers exactly that. Bokbier, on the other hand, suits heartier fare, like aged cheese and dark bread.

The highlight of the year is the PINT Bokbierfestival. The consumer organization PINT launched it in 1978 at Café Gollem on the Raamsteeg, back then with just a handful of bock beers and 65 visitors. Since 1994 it has been held at the Beurs van Berlage and is considered the largest bock beer festival in the world, usually taking place on the last weekend of October.

Part of the beer culture is the drinking rhythm: small glasses, frequent refills, and plenty of conversation. Once someone starts a beer, they tend to linger. Chatting with the bartender often teaches you more about the city than any guidebook. Here, beer is a companion, not a competition—and those who are driving stick to something else.