HEINEKEN TOUR 11'

HEINEKEN EXPERIENCE 11'

Ever since I was a little kid and I watched the "Champions League" on the television I wondered what the big fuss was about Heineken. Heineken represents the Netherlands when it comes to beer, and it is one of the biggest sponsors in the soccer world. Well, since I was already in Amsterdam, I knew I had to check out the factory that produces the beer I have heard so much about. 

The tour itself was very informative.  The tour guides went over the history and then took us into a room where we learned what ingredients were in the beer. 

The Ingredients are: water, barley, hops and yeast.  Yeast happens to be the most important one because it earned me two extra when I answered a trivia question.  After we learned about the history of the beer, and what goes into making the beer, it was time to pretend to be the beer.  We were welcomed to ride in a simulator that invited us to imagine us been the beer. The whole journey was a rough one, and it made us realize that being beer is not as easy it looks.  The beer has to go through a heating process that for the feint of heart is to hot to handle. The whole packaging aspect of the journey was a fun one though: as we got to jump up and down for a long period of time. It felt like a roller coaster but it felt nice to be in the Heineken Packaging.  

The Simulation part of the factory was fun: we started off as barley, as we got soaked by bubbles, and then we were warmed up in the room as the barley was heated. 

It was fun to pretend to be the beer but it was even better to be the testers of the beer. With the payment of the entrance ticket, we obtained a bracelet that had two buttons attached to it.  We were able to exchange the two buttons in for two beers at the end of the tour. And we did. It felt nice to be able to ask extra questions while enjoying a fresh Heineken beer. 

I can confidently say that the Heineken Factory Experience is one of my top four experiences while traveling abroad and I have done many obscure things while on this journey. We were able to taste Wort. Wort is produced when water and barley are mixed heated and filtered. Most importantly we were able to bottle our own beer with our own name on it.  I believe that a simple gesture like that made my trip the perfect trip, even though I did have to pay five euros for the bottle. But the bottle had my name on it and I will keep it until I loose it some day. For right now though, the bottle is an amazing souvenir.  The Heineken Factory Tour is a tourist must do while traveling to Amsterdam.  If you have the time to have a good time, go grab a Heineken. 

                             By Eric Guevara