The Heineken Rooftop Bar: Amsterdam From Above

I went up on King’s Day. That is the twenty-seventh of April, the loudest day of the Dutch year, and by early afternoon the canal below the brewery was full of boats and the bridges were full of people in orange.

The roof was not quiet, exactly. But the noise arrived thinned out, the way a party sounds from the street outside, and it turned out to be the most restful twenty minutes of the whole day.

The Heineken Rooftop at a Glance
🏙️ What it is · A bar and open terrace on the sixth floor of the old brewery, in the former malt attic (Moutzolder), with a view north-west over the canal to the Rijksmuseum.
🎟️ How to reach it · Not on the standard tour. Add “Tour + Rooftop” (with two drinks) or book a rooftop-only ticket. Adults only, ID at the door.
🍺 The beer · Home of Heineken Studio, the small-batch experimental brews, led by Mokum750, the wheat pilsner brewed for Amsterdam’s 750th birthday. Not sold in shops.
🕛 Hours · The roof opens at noon (not with the attraction at 10.30) and closes at 7pm, or 8.30 Fri/Sat.
💡 Tip · Take the stairs through Silo 10, face north-west for the view, and try what Studio has on that day.

Six Floors Up

The bar occupies the sixth floor of the old brewery, and the terrace opens off it onto the roof. Most people reach it by lift, which runs up the inside of one of the brewery’s grain silos from the entrance hall. We walked part of the way, including the stretch that goes through the silo itself.

That stretch is worth doing on foot. It passes through the structure rather than around it, and it is beautifully lit, which I had not expected of the inside of a grain silo. The stencil on the concrete says SILO 10 in red capitals. Above it the timber floor and glass balustrade of the modern bar, below it a curved grey wall that used to hold grain.

The Malt Attic

The room is called the Moutzolder, the malt attic. Barley arrived by water, went up to the top of the building, and worked its way down through the floors as it was processed, which is why the grain store is the highest room and the kettles are far below it.

Almost none of that has been hidden. Arched concrete ribs run up into the roof. Recessed alcoves are lit orange and lettered in red with the old words: MOUTZOLDER, GERSTEMOUT, HEINEKEN BROUWERIJ MAATSCHAPPIJ. Green benches sit in the alcoves, and most of them were empty. It was late in the day on King’s Day and the whole city was outdoors and down at water level, which meant one of the busiest attractions in Amsterdam had room to spare. A neon lightbulb over the stairs reads TEST + TASTE + TELL, and dried barley stands in a planter along the balustrade.

A Bar Made of Bottles

The bar itself runs most of the length of the room, and its entire front is built from green Heineken bottles stacked on their sides and lit from within.

Above it hangs a cluster of long light tubes at angles, and a neon sign on the far column reads PILOT BREWS. Behind the counter the shelves carry more green bottles, the taps run in a row, and two screens above the back bar cycle through what is on.

Heineken Studio

That column sign is the clue to what this floor actually is. The rooftop bar houses Heineken Studio, the company’s innovation operation, and the beers made there are small batches that are not sold anywhere else.

The tap on the mobile counter lists eight things to choose between: extra dry, double hopped, witte, amber, Heineken Studio, floral, zest fusion and spritz. Our guide went through them one at a time. It was pouring, not standing there for show. The counter is wrapped in tape printed with the Studio logo and the words WORK IN PROGRESS, which is branding rather than building work, though it takes a second look to be sure. The screens over the main bar were pushing flavoured foam tops as well, in bitter blood orange and espresso.

Mokum750

I did not choose mine. The guide recommended the Mokum750, and it turns out to have a better story than anything else on the board.

Mokum is the city’s own nickname for itself. The 750 is Amsterdam‘s age: the city marked its seven hundred and fiftieth birthday on the twenty-seventh of October 2025, after a festival year leading up to it. Heineken brewed this for the occasion, and it was the first beer Studio released. It is an unfiltered wheat pilsner at 5.5 per cent, made with coriander seed and lemon peel, hopped with Citra and fermented with Heineken’s own A-yeast.

I do not drink beer, as anyone who has read the last three of these will know. I tried it anyway, because a beer brewed for a city’s birthday is not the moment to order a soft drink, and because standing on a roof above that city on its national holiday made the arithmetic hard to argue with. It is light and citrusy and does not taste much like Heineken. I had a few mouthfuls, took the glass outside with me, and left it at that.

Out on the Roof

The terrace runs along the southern side of the building in timber decking, with a broad red stripe painted across it in the shape of the star.

Vines climb a grey wall at the back, with the Heineken wordmark and red star mounted in the middle of them. A cornhole board sat on the boards in front of it, unused the whole time I was there. Long green benches curve round in circles in the middle of the deck, and there are high tables and stools along the glass.

Nobody was hurrying anybody along. People sat with a glass, looked out, took a photograph, sat back down.

The View

The view runs north and west across the rooftops, and the height is not the reason it works. The Rijksmuseum is close enough to read the clock on it.

A walkway runs the length of the roof beside a long gabled structure with a glazed end wall. From the railing the Singelgracht lies directly below, with a houseboat moored along it and cars parked under the plane trees.

Away to the east, a long modern block carries the Heineken name in green along its top floor. Beyond that the roofline runs out towards the towers of the centre.

A telescope stands at the rail and costs nothing to use. Around it on the afternoon I was there stood a row of people in orange scarves and orange hats, taking turns.

King’s Day From The Rooftop

The best of it is to the north-west, where the Rijksmuseum’s towers rise over the trees.

Below it, on the water, the boats were going past three and four at a time, every one of them loaded with people in orange. On the bridge at the bottom right of the frame, a market stall and a crowd. It was the same day I had spent down at street level, and from up here it played out as something I could watch rather than something I was standing in.

That is what the rooftop is actually for, and it has nothing to do with beer. Twenty minutes of altitude in the middle of a day with none.

Bubbly Tips

• Work out which ticket gets you up there. The standard Heineken Tour at €24.95 does not include the roof. Tour plus Rooftop is €29.95 with two drinks. There is a rooftop-only ticket with two drinks and no tour at all, which is the one to book if the brewery exhibits do not appeal. If you have already bought a standard ticket, ask staff in the entrance hall about adding the roof. Rooftop access came with my VIP tour, but the published VIP description does not list it, so confirm that at booking rather than assuming.
• Twenty minutes is enough, thirty is plenty. Official guidance suggests allowing thirty to forty-five extra minutes. I lingered for twenty and had seen everything, though nobody was rushing anyone out.
• Take the stairs. They run through the wall of Silo 10 with the stencil still on the concrete, which is a better piece of the building than the lift shaft. The Moutzolder is on the sixth floor, so check how many flights that means from wherever the tour leaves you before committing.
• Bring photo identification. The whole attraction is strictly eighteen and over and they check at the door.
• Do not plan lunch around it. The rooftop bar sells snacks alongside the drinks, but there is no full dining anywhere on site. The restaurants of De Pijp are a few minutes away at street level.
• The roof does not open until midday. The attraction below opens at half past ten, but the rooftop bar runs noon to seven, or noon to half past eight on Fridays and Saturdays. The terrace is also open to the sky with nothing overhead, so dress for whatever the day is doing.
• Ask what Studio has on that day. The experimental beers are small batches and they rotate. Mokum750 was still on draught in late April 2026, but do not travel for a specific one.
• Face north-west. The Rijksmuseum and the canal are the view worth standing at, over on the far side of the deck. The telescope there is free, and tripods and drones are not permitted.

Final Thoughts

The rooftop bar is a commercial space at the top of a commercial attraction, and I am not going to pretend the glass of Mokum750 in my hand was anything other than a product with a marketing story attached. But the story happened to be true, and it happened to line up. A beer brewed for Amsterdam’s seven hundred and fiftieth birthday, tasted on a roof above the city on the King’s birthday, by someone who does not drink beer.

The thing I would go back for is not on the menu. It is the gap between the noise down on the water and the noise up on the deck: same city, same afternoon, two entirely different volumes. On the loudest day of the Dutch calendar, six floors of brewery turned out to be exactly the right amount of distance.

Until next time!

xoxo,
Bubbly 🎈