10 Sep Hops Jopen, Hops
Nothing new: hops are one of the basic ingredients in beer. But use a few extra hands and you get beer that actually tastes like it. After Jopen’s Michel Ordeman once tasted such an IPA, he knew: “This is going to be it! With five Hop Forward beers, three-time DBC winner Jopen is now jumping into the future. This article by Sander van Werkhoven previously appeared in Mitra Magazine Edition 49 It is early 2000 and Michel Ordeman of the Haarlem-based Jopen is walking around the BrauBeviale in Nuremberg with head brewer Chris Wisse. Once again that year, the trade fair for the beer sector is filled with hundreds of exhibitors. Of course, beer can also be tasted. At one of the stands, Wisse Ordeman pressed a glass into his hands with the words, “You have to taste this. This is going to be a thing. It’s wildly popular in America.’ It is an India Pale Ale, or IPA. An originally English and forgotten beer type that has been rediscovered by a new generation of brewers on the other side of the ocean. Characteristics: heavily hopped and more bitter than almost all beers prevalent in Europe until then. ‘Around us were a few Bavarian brewers who had nothing but comments. ‘You can’t drink this, can you? Will never be anything.’ But mostly I thought, we should brew this too!’
At that time, you already had Jopen Hoppenbier. That wasn’t bitter enough?
‘It was the first beer we brewed 25 years ago and even then it was much more bitter than the usual Belgian beers. Dutch specialty beer barely existed at that time so you have to see its arrival at that time as well. It was brewed with European hops and had a bitterness of 40 EBU. Quite a lot back then. Until I tasted this IPA at the Brau. America is often our homeland and I knew that if it is popular there, it would happen here too. So the idea was born to make my own IPA with American hops. Those give a beer more fruitiness. That became our Mooie Nel, which hit the market in 2011.’
Was that a copy of an American IPA?
‘No, it had to have its own twist. Initially, I wanted to market three IPAs. The same beer, each time brewed with a different hop variety. We didn’t have our own brewery back then and brewed at De Proefbrouwerij in Lochristi. But Dirk (Naudts, owner-brewer of De Proefbrouwerij – ed.) didn’t want that and later it turned out why. At the time, he was working on the single-hop series for the Danish company Mikkeller and that would interfere too much with each other. Only when we started brewing our own at the Jopenkerk from 2010 did we start implementing that idea. We made 6 or 7 different IPAs and eventually it became this one. We won a lot of medals with it. At home and abroad. It is the most awarded IPA in the Netherlands.’
Have you ever served an American brewer a Mooie Nel?
‘Yes indeed. And they like it, you know. What they especially appreciate is the balance between fruitiness, bitterness and malt. The combination of those three. The maltiness in American beers is generally much lower, so the taste is drier. And they find it very approachable for a beer with 70 EBU after all. Which is exactly the point. Both an experienced IPA drinker can get pleasure out of this, as well as those drinking it for the first time.’
Is this what you call an “entry-level IPA”?
‘Look, breweries like De Molen and also Uiltje are much more into extremes. We deliberately don’t choose that with our assortment. We said, as soon as the beer lover wants to drink something more exciting than, say, a Leffe Blond, we want to be the next ring around that. Just a little more outspoken and challenging. But with our standard range, we won’t get into the outer ring. Although, of course, from time to time we do with our specials. Hence our new motto: Anything but boring.
Is IPA a hype?
‘IPA is the new lager. Just as in the past every brewer made lager, now there won’t be a brewer who doesn’t brew an IPA. Although there is still much to be gained. Too many IPAs have only bitterness. Whereas what matters is the interplay between fruitiness and bitterness. Sometimes there is a kind of tea-like bitterness or the beer is oxidized. All not pleasant to drink .’
How do you prevent that?
‘We have invested heavily in recent years to make our beers better. In our new brewery in the Waarderpolder, for example, we have a special valve on the lagering tanks so that we can put a hop holder on them. A technical story, but when adding the hops, no oxygen is added. And one thing a brewer doesn’t want is oxygen in his beer. We also purchased a special hopgun. So that you can also dry hop beer externally by passing it through a hose past the extra hops and again, no oxygen is added. Another advantage, our brewers no longer have to climb on the tank with kilos of hops.’ 
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