Two of our existing brewers recommended Emelisse to us early in 2013. Quietly doing their thing in a beautiful brewpub on an island in the south-western region of The Netherlands since 2005, the story was completed when head brewer Kees Bubberman signed on in 2007.
Kees (formerly a chef) was a home brewer of great renown. Rumour has it that for a period of two-and-a-half years, Kees won every competition into which he entered a beer. The running joke was that if Kees entered, everyone else was competing for second place.
Given the opportunity to showcase his brewiing talents on a commercial scale, he helped Emelisse develop a reputation for producing consistently amazing beers, in a wide array of beer styles.
We first visited the brewery in October 2013. Sitting down with co-owner Tom ter Horst, we made our way through 8 of the beers in the Emelisse range. Starting with their Witbier, moving three several different IPAs. up to the Imperial Russian Stout - all were fantastically flavoursome, interesting and perfectly balanced. For a night cap, Tom shared a couple of the White Label series beers, which really are something to look out for. Needless to say, we were fans.
The brewing magic at Emelisse is achieved on a 1000L system, with double brew days the norm, to fill the 2000L fermenters under the brewpub/restaurant. The brewing as an annual production of around 2000 hectolitres. We wish it were more!