The brewery
Copper kettles beside the bar
A brewhouse of ten hectolitres of hand-beaten copper, built in 1992 and brewing in the middle of the café. It makes our three house beers and the seasonals, and you can watch it from your table.
The installation
Ten hectolitres of copper
The brewhouse was built in 1992 for Brouwhuis Maximiliaan, to the plans of the brothers Hoffman: hand-beaten copper, a thousand litres a brew, made by a Dutch firm over about eighteen months. It has stood beside the bar ever since, and since 2004 it brews under our own name.
It is a compact system. The mash tun doubles as the kettle, so the wort is mashed and boiled in the same copper. A separate lauter tun draws the wort off the grain. Fermentation happens in small tanks in the room beside the bar, and the beer goes to the taps from there.
Our full name is Amsterdamsche Stoombierbrouwerij De Bekeerde Suster. The steam is in the name, not in the method; the copper does the work.
The process
From filter tun to proost
The words painted on the wall of the Bierhal are the route a brew takes. Read them in the order the beer follows and you have the whole process.
- Filterkuip: the lauter tun. The mash is filtered; the sweet wort runs off and the spent grain stays behind.
- Wortpeer: the wort, boiled with hops in the copper.
- Gisttank: the fermentation tank, in the room beside the bar. Yeast turns sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Dry hopping: hops added after the boil, for aroma rather than bitterness.
- Lagertank: the maturation tank. The beer rests and clears.
- Biertank: the serving tank. From here the beer goes to the taps.
- Afvullen: filling.
- Fust: the keg. Our beers go to the taps, not into bottles.
- Proost: cheers. Your glass, a few metres from the kettle it came from.
- 10 hlper brewa thousand litres
- 1992the kettlesbuilt for Brouwhuis Maximiliaan
- 2004brewing as De Bekeerde Sustersince 26 November 2004
- 3house beersplus a seasonal
Taste it
Taste the beers
A flight of four at the bar from €12,90, a guided tasting with the brewery story, or a private tasting for your group. Up to 10 guests reserve online; 11 or more plan an event.