We Tried Riverside Luxury Cruises’ New Beer-Themed River Cruise
Riverside Luxury Cruises has introduced a new Hops & Heritage beer-themed cruise itinerary. We gave it a try this summer on Riverside Debussy while cruising in Germany and the Netherlands. (Photo by Jason Frye)
In The Loop Travel was invited to preview a new beer-themed sailing from Riverside Luxury Cruises, but there was a catch. John was away, so we sent special correspondent and fellow beer geek, Jason Frye, to check out this tasty sailing. Here’s what he learned.
Let’s have a sneak peek at Riverside Luxury Cruises’ new beer-themed cruise offered new brews to try in every port. When you join this sailing, come thirsty.
In 2026, Riverside Luxury Cruises sets sail on the first of hopefully many beer-themed cruises, building on their renowned culinary and wine program to shine the spotlight on one of our favorite beverages: beer. Aboard the Riverside Debussy, the Hops & Heritage: Cruising Through Centuries of Brewing Craftsmanship itinerary promises seven suds-soaked days on the Rhine River where you’ll boost your beer IQ through tastings, talks and tours.
First, bit about my beer-consuming credentials: I’m a culinary judge and onetime restaurant critic.
So, I love the idea of putting beer front and center. Now, Riverside makes it easy to sip your way across the continent.
The Hops & Heritage Itinerary
Get ready for endless mugs of delicious brews on the Hops & Heritage voyage with Riverside Luxury Cruises. (Photo by Jason Frye)
Hops and Heritage sets sail on an 8-day, 7-night trip along the Rhine River July 29 to August 2, 2026.
Day 1: Basel, Switzerland (Embarkation) and Huningue, France
Day 2: Kehl, Germany
Day 3: Speyer and Mannheim, Germany
Day 4: Rüdesheim and Koblenz, Germany (with an overnight in Koblenz)
Day 5: Koblenz and Cologne, Germany
Day 6: Arnhem, Netherlands
Day 7: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Day 8: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Debarkation)
The route sails north on the Rhine aboard Riverside Debussy, calling on ports rich in cultural and historical offerings and plenty of city- and region-specific brews.
My preview sailing departed Amsterdam and sailed south on the Rhine and Main Rivers. We called on:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Enkhuizen and Lelystad, Netherlands
Xanten and Wesel, Germany
Düsseldorf, Germany
Cologne and Bonn, Germany
The stops were a little different than the official Hops & Heritage itinerary, but the heart of the programming was what cruisers can expect when they book the upcoming Hops & Heritage voyage:
Insights from your beer sommelier guide and the brewers and barkeeps you meet in port
Tasting notes and tips that’ll expand the way you enjoy beer
Memorable lessons on the history of beer and beer culture from the Reinheitsgebot (a Bavarian law from 1516 defining the ingredients in beer) to the role nuns and monks have played in brewing to the new wave of European craft beer
Elevated beer-paired dinners and tastings that showcase Riverside’s exceptional culinary program and the thoughtfulness of your beer sommelier.
What to Expect When You Sail a River of Beer
Beer sommelier James Kellow leads tours during a week of tastings and brewing history throughout charming ports in Germany and the Netherlands. (Photo by Jason Frye)
Our cruise popped off with a walking tour of Amsterdam led by James Kellow, beer sommelier. Calling on breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, we sampled a breadth of European craft beer while soaking up the sights of the city.
At De Bierkoning (The Beer King), we were nearly overwhelmed with the selection. This tiny bottle shop is stacked floor to ceiling with bottles, cans and glassware. Kellow gave us a few minutes to browse the jaw-dropping selection (which included hard-to-find sours, various Euro-interpreted IPAs and an arsenal of pilsners and traditional brews) before we settled in for our first tasting: Jopen’s Gruit, a style indigenous to the Netherlands. Jopen, in nearby Haarlem, brews its gruit using a recipe from 1407, a time that predates the use of hops. To achieve a hop-like bitterness and add flavor, gruits feature blends of herbs like sage, rosemary and even bog myrtle to a tasty end. After sipping our way through a six-pack, we moved on to the next stop.
The immersive beer-themed trip takes beer lovers into a variety of pubs to experience the ramge of flavors and learn about the history of brewing in these regions. (Photo by Lauren Frye)
Biercafe Gollem has a monster menu boasting 14 taps and more than 200 cans and bottles. I opted for an Oud Beersel Rababar Lambic, a taste of a Petrus Aged Red, and pour of the Oedipus Brewing MannenLiefde saison. After so many samples and short pours on a warm Amsterdam day, I was glad to rest at our next stop, In De Wildeman, a brewery and restaurant where we were met with our first official pairing of the trip: smoked mussels to try alongside a kreik (cherry) sour and a bold smoked porter. Kellow, snacking and sipping all the while, led us through the tasting, drawing our attention to how the kreik accented sweeter flavors in the mussels, and the porter brought smoky notes to the forefront.
One stop remained in Amsterdam: Proeflokaal Arendsnest. They serve exclusively Dutch beers, offering an astounding 52 taps that include many house recipes. Style wise, you could drink around the world, sampling West Coast and New England IPAs, extra special bitters, Mexican lagers, a range of pilsners and more beers than you can imagine. I’m always curious about limited-release and celebratory beers, so I settled into a Stoof #2, a wild ale flavored with stewed pear for a warm, Christmas-y flavor tempered by funky yeast. Peter Van Der Arend, the owner, said he started the bar with only eight beers on draft, but because craft beer has exploded across the Netherlands to number some 500 breweries, his tap list expanded sevenfold since he opened 25 years ago.
The next day, we were in Enkhuizen, where a short stroll brought us to ‘T Ankertje where we met De Brouwvrouw (the brew lady), one of the nation’s most prominent female brewers. Sitting at a long table loaded with foamy carafes of beer and yard-long platters of tapas, we sampled Karin Mazereeuw’s fantastic beers. Mazereeuw’s mission is to celebrate “the happiness of beer” and her six brews did the trick. From the Dubbel Leckertje (a tasty dubbel, brewed, she said, “so women who don’t like beer can learn to love it”) to the Alex Ankertje (an amber made in honor of King Willem Alexander, a onetime frequent visitor to the brewery), they showed a palatable sense of place in every glass. The hour we spent chatting and sampling with Mazereeuw left us all with wide smiles and a curiosity to discover more about the Netherland and Germany via full glasses and mugs.
More onshore tastings over the coming days showed us the beauty of Düsseldorf’s altbier — old beer — a centuries-old style made by every brewery in town; the breadth of Cologne’s famed Kölsch; and the dizzying array of flavors and styles on offer at breweries and bottle shops along the Rhine.
Throughout our time on shore, I was impressed with our beer sommelier’s knowledge and easy way of explaining flavors, histories and brewing philosophies, but two marquee events — a beer and cheese tasting, and a seven-course beer-paired meal — had me ready to get back to the ship.
The Vintage Room
Riverside Luxury Cruises’ Vintage Room multi-course dining experience will offer beer pairings during the Hops & Heritage voyages. (Photo by Jason Frye)
All three ships in the Riverside fleet feature The Vintage Room, a private dining room where they serve a multi-course meal paired with exceptional wines (at a cost of €320), and in my case, beer.
Kellow worked with our chef to bring the perfect beer match to each dish, and did they ever deliver. Seven courses and seven beers that had everyone at the table talking.
Tuna and foie gras paired with a delicate wheat beer. Smoked beef cheeks served alongside a bold barley wine. Venison filet with potatoes, black truffle and charred asparagus accompanied by an even bolder Belgian quad from Moeursleutel. To finish, we sipped a doppelbock from Weihenstephaner, a perfect match for the Chocolate Extravaganza dessert course.
The following evening, we reconvened for a less formal but no less tasty beer and cheese pairing. Drawing on Riverside Debussy’s seemingly bottomless cheese selection, we were treated to six varieties of cheese and six new beers to sip.
Goat cheese and a tart Gose from Amsterdam’s Homeland Brewery was a surprising pair, as was Jopen’s West Coast IPA (a spot-on take on this U.S. style) and aged gouda. One of the top pairings featured a hard-to-acquire beer (thanks to Kellow, we had plenty) from Belgium’s famed St. Sixtus Abbey — their Trappist Quadrupel — and a sweet-but-funky German blue cheese.
The official Hops & Heritage sailing in 2026 will feature some different breweries, different pairings, and different personalities than what I experienced, but the heart of the sailing will stay the same: living up to De Brauwvrouw’s mission to celebrate the happiness of beer. Expect a superb beer dinner in The Vintage Room and an eye-opening beer-and-cheese tasting. Expect to sample dozens of beers that celebrate the regions of the Rhine. And expect to head home having made some new beer-loving friends.
Onboard Life
Riverside Debussy features a range of premium restaurants and other amenities, as well as five-star service from attentive crew. (Photo by Jason Frye)
Things to Do
In case you need a break from all that beer, Riverside provides cruisers with plenty of ways to enjoy their cruise. Daily onshore excursions send small groups off to explore historic sites, cultural centers, castles, museums, and more.
With a fleet of bicycles onboard, you can pedal through town or along riverside bike paths for a dose of nature or an extracurricular visit to a biergarten. Riverside Debussy’s pool is perfect for a refreshing plunge, or you can turn on the swim-against current and get in a few laps; and when you feel the need for a workout, the fitness center has cardio equipment as well as dumbbells, a cable machine, rollers and mats. Fitness programs ranging from simple stretching to yoga on the Vista Deck offered more ways to stay active.
Dinner and Drinks
Mealtime aboard Riverside Debussy is full of options. Waterside, the main restaurant, features a buffet breakfast and lunch, and an a la carte dinner. At breakfast, expect to find a dazzling array of fresh fruits, juice shots, yogurt and muesli, smoked fish, cured meats and cheese, eggs made to order, and sides like potatoes, bacon, sausage, beans and more.
At lunch, you’ll find another generous spread, with a salad bar, composed salads, a carving board and a live cook station, fresh pasta, an array of vegetables, fresh-baked breads, a few vegan and vegetarian options, and a selection of desserts that would make a pastry shop envious.
At dinner, Waterside switches to an a la carte menu offering a diverse selection of international dishes. Appetizers like beef tartare, goat cheese salad, and caviar with crushed chive potato will please the table. Pastas and risottos make a for a great middle course. Entrees ranging from Angus beef medallions to duck breast to fresh fish accompany vegetarian-friendly dishes like roasted cauliflower steaks. Desserts include brownies, tortes, tarts, cakes, ice creams and more.
You can also take breakfast or lunch at Atelier, a bistro-style venue on Deck 3. Here, baristas make espresso drinks and sweet treats like bubble waffles, milk shakes and ice cream cones, but there’s also a small buffet and a curated menu of breakfast and lunch specialties like eggs Florentine and burgers.
On each sailing, Riverside holds a barbecue on the Vista Deck (it’s weather dependent), giving you the chance to dine al fresco on meats and veggies cooked on Big Green Egg grills. Ribeye steaks, barbecued chicken, giant prawns and skewers of veggies fill most plates, but the galley crew lays out a generous spread of salads, sides and accompaniments.
This doesn’t even get into room service, the self-serve cake station, the popcorn machine or the late-night treats (think personal chicken schnitzel, grilled sausages, spring rolls) they serve when there’s an evening excursion or nighttime entertainment.
You’ll find two bars onboard — one on the Vista Deck, the other in the Palm Court, the main bar on Deck 3 — and nightly entertainment in the Palm Court. A shipboard musician plays piano most night, but guest musicians hop onboard for performances from time to time.
Your Stateroom
Riverside Debussy (and sister ship Ravel) has six suite categories from the spacious Owner’s Suite (similar to John’s tour on Riverside Mozart) to the cozy Symphony and Melody Suites. King beds, sumptuous linens and bedding, a roomy bathroom, and a stylish, relaxing color palate make each room a lovely retreat. In-room dining and 24-hour butler service make your room even more appealing, though if your beer cruise is anything like mine, you’ll spend most of your time in the Palm Court or on the Vista Deck sipping brews with your fellow sailors.
Is Hops & Heritage for You?
Beer lovers, the culinarily curious and river cruise fans who just happen to book this sailing will indeed find it fits the bill. Riverside will operate as usual with budding brewmeisters onboard, giving everyone the chance to enjoy the cuisine, tours, public spaces and camaraderie of a typical cruise but with beer-focused forays, dining and tasting experiences adding another layer to this superb sailing.