Proost
A wet day in Amsterdam finds us with a free afternoon. We review our options : Anne Frank house - sold out, Van Gogh museum - sold out, Heineken experience - the more the merrier.
We find the old Heineken brewery at Stadhouderskade 78. Entering the building we are met with an up beat vibe. Lots of young, enthusiastic, multi lingual Heineken tour assistants ensuring we know where to buy tickets, where to wait and how our self guided tour of the Heineken experience will proceed.
The tour was an exercise in self promotion, but it was fun and informative and we had two free beers at the end of the tour. We learnt that the current brewery located in Zoeterwoude fills 770,000 beer bottles every hour; the fruity taste in beer is banana; and Heineken ads are very funny.
The tour took 90mins working our way through the building learning about the history of the brand, how the beer is made and bottled and how the logo evolved.
The Heineken logo uses its own font Heineken serif. The e in Heineken was changed to a smiley e in 1964. The colours used are ;
At the end of your we end up in the Heineken bar which feels more like a nightclub complete with hoards of people, loud music and sticky floor. We enjoy our free beers, exit through the gift shop and make our way back out onto the wet streets.
