New Religion

As some of you know I recently moved to Haarlem and am only started to get to know the town and the people. Just last saturday I met a local advertising guy via via and he told me of a nice little local beer brand with expansion ambitions, I must say... he enthusiasm made me curious, so I decided to visit the brewery.

In all of my previous years as Creative Director for mayor international advertising agencies I seldom encountered brands with so many authentic values that you just feel the urge to want to step in and help it to the next level.

Today I found one of these rare communication pearls... Jopen Beer

'Jopen' is a mediaeval beer that origins from Haarlem and is brewed in an actual church, the only one in the whole of western Europe the brewer - Robbert - told me with pride.

You can watch Robbert brew all the different varieties in the kettles in the church, as is also a bar / restaurant nicely divided by a glass wall.

So my fellow Blippers, if there is a new goal for a pilgrimage, it's not Lourdes.... it's The Jopen Church in Haarlem (Shot here with God sent sun rays for even nicer light ;-)
Just mail me at hjarald@xs4all.nl and I'll gladly join you for a 'baptism' ;-)

Cheers!

Hjarald

ps1. Robbert was upstairs for lunch, but if you press the 'L' key you can have a sneak peek at his work domain ;-)

ps2. A nice anecdote Robbert told me.
The Latin quote on the wall reads: 'Cerevisia argumentum est Dei amoris nostri volentis nos felices esse'
which translates into:
'Beer is the sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy.'

It's claimed to be said by Benjamin Franklin just before he commenced writing the 'First Constitution'