Heineken Experience

Description:

• Five minutes into the self-guided multimedia tour at Heineken's old Amsterdam brewery, I was already mentally pinning Frommer's "Overrated" icon to this review. Two things persuaded me not to: First, the farther you go, the better it gets; second, the other visitors (mostly young males) were having a whale of a time. But admission is steep -- even if you do get two "free" fills of Heineken beer and a keepsake Heineken glass -- and it seems like a bunch of Heineken marketing whizzes came up with a brilliant wheeze to repurpose the facility and grow the market. You pay to get hit by a high-energy multimedia assault aimed at fixing the word "Heineken" deep in your psyche, and to receive compelling content like "Water is a vital ingredient in beer-brewing."

  The experience, such as it is, unfolds inside former Heineken brewing facilities, which date from 1867. Before the brewery stopped functioning in 1988, it produced more than 100 million liters (26 million gal.) annually. Fermentation tanks, each capable of holding a million glassfuls of Heineken, are still there, along with multistory malt silos and all manner of vintage brewing equipment. You "meet" Dr. Elion, the 19th-century chemist who isolated the renowned Heineken "A" yeast, which gives the beer its taste. In one amusing attraction, you stand on a moving floor, face a large video screen, and get to see and feel what it's like to be a Heineken beer bottle -- one of a half-million every hour -- careening on a conveyor belt through a modern Heineken bottling plant. Best of all, in another touchy-feely presentation, you "sit" aboard an old brewery dray-wagon, pulled by a pair of big Shire horses on the video screen in front of you, that shakes, rattles, and rolls on a mini-tour through Amsterdam.

  It is fun, I have to admit. But serious types can take cold comfort from a multiscreen presentation on the evidently dire state of freshwater resources around the world.

• © Frommer's 2012