Subjective ramblings about beer, pubs and associated topics

Back again

I aim to resume my blogging again tomorrow, after some extensive field research in Trondheim and Vienna (with a stop over at plan B in Copenhagen). There are some terrific brew pubs in Vienna, and I have downloaded lots of photos as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 13:38 | link | comments
beer, austria

Westy 12 in Copenhagen

Ølbutikken in Copenhagen currently has Westvleteren 12 for sale. This is not often available in Scandinavia as far as I know, so catch it if you can! At 60 Danish kroner it is a bargain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:06 | link | comments
beer, trappist, belgium

Young's RIP

There have been rumours for some time that the shareholders were ready to axe Young's brewery in London, one of the two traditional brewers with a heritage to be proud of and with outstanding ales. The real estate the brewery stands on became too valuable.

The announcement came today. Youngs will move beer production to Charles Wells, and form a new company to be called Wells & Young’s Brewing Company Limited. This will happen swiftly - by October this year centuris of brewing in Wandsworth will be wiped out. Shame on you! 

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 22:14 | link | comments
london, beer, england, youngs

Hollywood Blonde

I picked up this bottle of kölsch in Denmark. Strictly speaking it is a kölsch-style beer, as the only ones allowed to use the term are brewers in Cologne and Bonn.

This beer, brewed by the Great Beer Company in Los Angeles is a fruity, top fermented beer, so that is true to the type. As I haven't tried the authentic stuff for quite a few years, I cannot compare this to the German version, but this is certainly a pleasant beer on its own merits. It is quite sweet, with the malt reminding me of bisquits. It is well balanced, despite a low level of bitterness. The hops bring fruitiness rather than dryness. There is a pleasant peach flavour lingering in the mouth which I rather liked. Try this if you find it!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 11:10 | link | comments
beer, german, usa , kolsch

Atna beers

So, here are two of the Atna beers, Mopedøl and Export. A moped is a small motorcycle, so I assume the Norwegian authorities will demand that they change the name of this one. Cloudy golden beer, rather soft. Cookie aroma. Saaz hops gives a full flavour, but not much bitterness. More like a helles than a pils, a landbier is probably right. A welcome addition to the land of bland lagers!

The Ecological Export is rather sweet. I think this will gain from storing for some time, so I will come back to this in a few months.. A quite pleasant beer, and the aroma in the finish is just the right one for an old-fashioned Norwegian export beer.

Both beers are unpasteurized and unfiltered. Personally, I think these beers could have been filtered - if you look for a beer on a sunny afternoon, you may not want the yeasty sediment.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 18:27 | link | comments (2)
beer, norway, atna

The whole family

It is the whole Atna range - six of them from the deep forests of Eastern Norway. I kept e-mailing the brewery enquiring about their availablility, and finally they called me and told me they had filled up this cooler bag for me. There was even a nice t-shirt  in it. all micros should treat beer bloggers like this. It does obviously not leave us impartial, but who said we were that in the first place?

The beers are unfiltered and unpasteurized and brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot. Tasting notes to follow soon. Two of them, the Ecological Export and the Wheat beer, are to be found in the state monopoly stores from early June, the rest are slowly making their way into supermarket and pubs. Tell me if you spot them!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:33 | link | comments
beer, brewers, norway

A national cooler bag

We celebrate our constitution here in Norway today. All the children get as much ice cream as they want, families gather, nice food, not much time for blogging. A cooler bag from Atna Brewery is appropriate - I'll tell you tomorrow what is inside.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 20:28 | link | comments
beer, norway

A pint and some minced sand lizard, please!

Not strictly a beer blog. It is a food blog, covering everything from haggis rolls (now that would be a challenge for a really hoppy IPA!)  to Asian food, including beer. Noodlepie is based in Saigon, Vietnam. Check him out!

At the brewpubs in Vietnam you can skip the burgers and go for fake weasel, stewed salamander with citronella, minced sand lizard with rice pancake, swan blood pudding , steamed tortoise with ginger (blood & gall to be served) or wild grilled Phan Thiet lizard.

There are, obviously, still cuisines that most of us would consider exotic. Norwegian whaling pales in comparison!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:27 | link | comments
beer

Beer-guzzling, lawnmower-riding, gun-toting

The beer-guzzling, lawnmower-riding, gun-toting White County man found guilty of shooting at a deputy after a scared neighbor called police has been sentenced to 30 years and banished forever from North Georgia, according to the White County News Telegraph.

He will do 15 years in the state penitentary with 15 more to serve on probation. “You are banished from North Georgia. You may never come north of Interstate 20 in Georgia again.”

When he is released, he will not be allowed to possess alcohol and may not possess weapons.

As a beer guzzler, I am offended by this type of verdict. How do they know it wasn't the fumes from the lawnmover that made him do it?

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 14:02 | link | comments
beer, usa

Copenhagen beer festival

Next weekend there is time for the annual beer festival in Copenhagen. They claim to have 800 beers to choose from, 150 of them new this year. 65 exhibitors. Lots and lots of imports, all the Danish micros, you name it!

I will not be going. May is a month with lots of family festivities here in Norway, and I cannot possibly sneak off for a few days. Next year, maybe?

Actually I prefer a quiet pint in a side street pub to the staggering masses in endless queues for the urinals.

But 800 beers.....

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:25 | link | comments (1)
beer, denmark

London beer museum

We discussed the possibility of a London pub museum over at the Good Beer blog some months ago. Seems like beer writer Roger Protz  and others have had the same idea . According to his web site, representatives from three London breweries, along with the Editor of the pub trade newspaper, the Morning Advertiser, met recently to discuss proposals for creating a museum dedicated to beer and brewing in London.

Let's hope they are able to get something out of this. With the London breweries behind the venture, there is a hope that it will not be another tourist trap serving ice cold Irish stout!  As Roger Protz points out, they still need to tackle the thorny problems of a suitable location in London and the high level of rents.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:52 | link | comments
london, beer, england

No beer for Benedict

According to financial news service Bloomberg, Polish public television will ban advertisements for such things as beer, lingerie and contraceptives during this month's visit by Pope Benedict XVI.

First of all I would think that there are other means of promoting contraceptives than public television, papal visit or not, but that is probably just me being grumpy and old fashioned.

But I find it weird that they should ban beer ads on account of the pope. He did his theological studies and was ordinated Archbishop in Freising, home of the oldest brewery in the world. And, mind you, a brewery that was run by monks for most of its history. I am sure that the pope enjoyed the occational glass of pils or weisse from Weihenstephan! The church in Bavaria does certainly not seem to mind the use of monks and nuns in the advertising of beer.

And does Benedict XVI really go to Poland to watch television? Don't they have cable TV in the Vatican?

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:40 | link | comments (1)
german, bayer, poland

The view from Prague

I don´t think I am an alcoholic but for me not drinking beer or wine with food is bad. Having water with a meal reminds me of my years in prison.

Vaclav Havel in a new book quoted by the Financial Times quoted by Johan Nordberg quoted by me.(Reminds me of an old Tom Lehrer song!)

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 13:09 | link | comments (2)
beer

All Party Parliamentary Beer Group

According to the trade journal the Morning Advertiser, All Party Parliamentary Beer Group chairman John Grogan issued a rallying cry for the pub and beer industry to go on the front foot. He also called for the industry to revive the “golden age of British pubs and beer".

I would say that having an All Party Parliamentary Beer Group is a sign of civilization. I could envisage something similar in Belgium, Germany and Denmark, too, but not elsewhere.

Around here we have the all party temperance movement instead.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:01 | link | comments
beer, england, german, denmark, belgium

The Austrians know how to do it

I always like to plan ahead when I travel to minimize the time spent beer hunting. Quite a few pubs, breweries and bars have good web sites which are really helpful, but the supermarket chains seldom promote their beer range online. Maybe there is a pdf of this week's flyer telling you how big the discount is for 24 cans of the best selling lager, but that's about it.

A nice surprise then is the web site of Austrian part of the Spar/Interspar chain. They have a very good overview of their beer range, they give advice on how to clean beer glasses, they give an instant course in various types of beers etc. Doas anyone have similar examples from other countries?

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 15:15 | link | comments (5)
beer, austria

The decline of American beers

The Beer Therapy Blog, which I really hadn't noticed before, nicked the following facts from the Wall Street Journal, so I take the chance of nicking it from them:

From 1950 to 2004, the amount of malt used to brew a barrel of beer in the U.S. declined by nearly 27%, and the amount of hops in a barrel of beer declined by more than half. Part of that decrease is due to improvements in how brewers extract flavor from hops. Nonetheless, beer’s taste became steadily lighter.

Over the past 20 years the IBU’s of most American-style lagers has declined from roughly 15-20 IBU’s to fewer than 10 today.

They go on to tell that Budweiser has reversed the trend slightly by recently adding more hops to their beer. Are there no limits to their desperation? Adding beer taste to beer, now that's a novelty!

Well, there is a large number of beers to try out before I'll taste a Bud again!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:24 | link | comments (2)
beer, usa

A job well done

Lars Marius has a quite different approach to beer blogging. While I try to write something every day, he waits until he has something to write about. Which is probably a wise thing to do.

This week he has compiled his ratings on ratebeer to give a comprehensive review of the Norwegian brewers, both micros and macros. If I weren't so lazy, I would have done this a long time ago.

I am happy to tell you that I agree with most of his views. And I would like similar overviews from other countries that are not in the top ten.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 08:05 | link | comments
beer, norway

On the American beer market

A web site called Convenience store Decisions has an article on the changing American beer scene.

The larger beer manufacturers are struggling to compete with their smaller competitors, who offer both craft beers and what I would call novelty beers. Some have introduced energy beers, spicy beers and a potpourri of other flavors in efforts to keep their customers. Anheuser-Busch is launching a blueberry beer soon...

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 14:47 | link | comments
beer, usa

Anchor Liberty Ale

Not too many American ales to be found around here, but there are a few to be found in Denmark. This Liberty Ale was among the finds at the Legoland hotel. It is splendid, just my type of beer. Smells of aromatic hops, and a fine taste dominated by hops, too. Aroma hops giving the flowery taste and others giving a dry grapefruity finish.

Sure, there is malt in there, too, but it is strictly playing second fiddle to the hops. A beer for grown-ups! Could you get a distributor in Norway, please?

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 11:22 | link | comments (2)
usa , beer

A fine pilsener

Unsere Bürgerbrau is a fine Bavarian pilsener available on tap in Italy. I found it in a rather humble pizzeria when I just had time for a quick lunc. Fine hoppy bitterness is just the thing to clean the palate after the pepperoni.

There should be a market there for more italian beers with taste, too, but they are few and far between. On the other hand, it means that there are often interesting imports to be found, which is good for a beer hunter.

Now I'll just have to find somewhere to have an espresso....

 

 

 

 

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 09:48 | link | comments
italy, beer, german