Subjective ramblings about beer, pubs and associated topics

The 10 € beer

I feel quite all right about leaving Norway for a month in Greece when the online newspaper Nettavisen has checked which outdoor restaurants in Oslo have the most expensive beer. The most expensive comes out at 80 kroner for half a liter, which is about 10 Euro or ten dollars. Have a nice summer!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 15:04 | link | comments

An alternative

Coors UK has launched a beer to be served at sud-zero temperature, of course claiming that the consumers have asked for it. My kids drink something called slush, where you get lots of artificial flavourings and colour in a semi-froxen liquid - at rather steep cost, I might add. So this may be a way of reaching the under age drinkers segment, perhaps?

On the other hand - if the wish for alcohol without taste is so stong, I think a real winner would be a glass of cold water while you inject ethanol directly into your blood. But then you would have to do a lot of work on the packaging of the water and the syringes to be able to enjoy present day profits!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 08:11 | link | comments

Italy again and another 20 minutes of fame

I am off to Parma again tomorrow, and I have found a bar next tot he hotel with the most impressive list of Belgian beers plus Italian micros. Every town should have one of those!

They called me from TV2 again this morning, as they were taping a new round of quiz shows just around the corner, and one of their participants had called in sick. So I spent my lunch hour recording a show which will be aired on the evening of July 18. I aim to be sitting in a Greek taverna tucking into some meze at that point in time, so I'll just have to catch it on the web later.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 11:44 | link | comments (2)
italy, beer

More than Guinness

The New York Times has a good article about Irish micros online. (You can read it free of charge for a period, but you may have to register first.)  By Irish I mean on the Emerald Isle, not mock Oirish around the globe.

There are distinct possibilities that I will go to Dublin later this year to check on the story. I can certainly vouch for the Porterhouse after may last visit, and I look forward to sampling the ales of Messrs. Maguire as well. As for the micros in the rest of the country, I will probably not have the time.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 07:30 | link | comments (1)
beer, ireland, microbreweries

A quote

I am in the process of winding down the blog for the summer. There will be a few more posts, and then a long vacation. I may pop into the occational net cafe during July, but it will not be often. Meanwhile, I loved this quote, attributed to David Moulton, whoever that may be:

Why is American beer served cold? So you can tell it from urine.

I want to add that this is aimed at the market leaders, not the craft brewers!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 09:17 | link | comments (1)
beer

Vienna V

Christas Stüberl is one of these little neighbourhood taverns you stuble upon when your errand is elsewhere. This is probably the most undiluted Vienna Kneipe I set my feet in. A street corner local, but as it is a stone's throw from The Vienna Art House, or Hundertwasserhaus, there are probably tourists in every day, too. Workers in soiled clothes, a few serious lunchtime drinkers, some people just having a coffee and reading the newspaper during their lunch break. There is a separate dining room or Gaststube, which seems to be more upmarket,  but the front room was fine with me as I just wanted a beer.

The Wieselburger Stammbrau starts out soft and malty sweet. A soft carbonation and aroma of cornfields and straw. A fine hoppy bitterness rounds it off. Vollmundig, it says on the bottle, and it quite the opposite of thin lagers - it really fills the mouth.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 11:25 | link | comments
beer, austria

Beer around the clock?

Parts of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition here in Norway, the Conservatives and the populist Progress Party, are calling for shops to be allowed to sell beer at all hours. I don't know why they bother to do this. There is not a snowball's chance in hell of getting this through, neither with the present government nor with their once and future coalition parters the Christian Democrats.

I am not afraid that selling beer in the early hours of the morning will mean the end of civilization as we know it, but what about floating an initiative that can find broader support?

If they really want to liberalize this field, an alternative approach is to try to find alliance partners on issues where they could create a majority. Examples? Letting small scale brewers sell their beers from a factory outlet directly to consumers, including beers of all strengths and allowing for weekend trading. This means they could make souvenir packages with glasses etc and keep more profit at the brewery instead of spending most of it on distribution.

Another related issue is to go for a sliding scale of taxation, thereby stimulating small scale brewers, something the current government would find it harder to turn down.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 09:25 | link | comments (1)
beer, brewers, norway

Two Danish IPAs

We are enjoying a heat wave here in Oslo at the moment, one more excuse for drinking beer! I bought the Mikkeller bottle in Denmark myself, an ale from a brewery that is a legend among beer geeks, as they brew small batches in the more extreme range of the spectrum. Thay are now expanding their capasity, so their beers will hopefully be more easy to find.  My father gave me the Søgaard bottle after a trip to Denmark. He reports that there is a very broad range of micro brews in the shops - but there is a lot of beer way past its sell by date, too.

The Pearl of India from Søgaards brewery is a pale brown, and has a wonderful smell of flowers. The hops are cooperating with the malt to give an explosive taste. Grapefruit and orange, giving way to a bitter finish that is a bit too short, perhaps?

The Stateside India Pale Ale from Mikkeller has hops jumping up as soon as you open the bottle, and they kick from the first sip. This is a no compromise IPA just as I like them. It has grapefruit and pine, with aromas that are related to a Greek tetsina wine. And the finish leaves you crying out for more. Near perfect!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 09:39 | link | comments
beer, denmark, ipa

Norwegian Summer beers

Norwegian food and wine web site aperitif has carried out their annual rating of Norwegian "Summer beers" as well as a roundup of other Norwegian "pale" beers, which seems to be anything that is not dark in colour.

This could have been far worse, when the tabloid newspapers have similar ratings, they collect a ragbag of actors, politicians and other celebrities and throw in a blonde model (which prefers low sugar alcopops, than you) for good measure.

Aperitif has picked two guys from the restaurant business plus one freelancer, whatever that means, and they have well written recommendations for choosing the best craft beers from Haandbryggeriet and Nøgne ø as the best pale beers. At the same time they are far too polite about the other pale lagers in both categories.  To give four stars to a beer which they describe as a soft and light beer for those who are not too fond of beer. The only one really getting the axe is Edge, the beer/cider mix I have written about earlier.

My point? Ratings which are too polite (afraid to scare away the advertisers) to tell what is quality and what is crap are useless!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 06:24 | link | comments (7)
beer, norway, haandbryggeriet, nøgne ø

Vienna IV - Siebensternbrau

(Siebensternbräu, rather, but this publishing tool does not like the small dots.)

The rain was pouring down on the streets of Vienna when I escaped into the Seven star brewpub, named after the street it is on. My meeting was over, I had bought chocolate and cakes and a guide book for the Cyclades and I had some time to spare before leaving for the airport.

This was a very relaxed place in the afternoon, but the menus indicate that they get busloads of tourists at other times. They have a broad range of beer, from soups and salads via toasted rye bread over to the "black pudding with horseradish and sauerkraut" type of really rustic dishes. The menus are in English, Italian and French, too. This city might deceive you as a sleepy Central European capital, but it is really a thriving international place. Have a look at the dimensions of the office buildings around the United Nations headquarters across the Danube, and you'll see what I mean.

The beer range is perhaps not as spectacular as in the 1516 brewpub, but they have a fine range here, too. They have a hemp beer and a chilli beer, neither of which I tried. Instead I went for their Honey Brown Ale. A fine amber colour, and lots of honey in the brew. Too much for my taste, really. If you like your beer on the sweet side, it is worth a try. I imagine this would be very fine for marinades and other cooking.

The Bamberger Rauchbier is a very special beer. They make this with malt from Bamberg in Bavaria which is smoked over beech wood. It smells faintly of smoke, and tastes of it, too. A full malty taste behind the smoke, too. Enjoyable, but probably not a drink I would have very often!

They were actually brewing when I was there, and the nice smell of the malt hitting the boiling water filled the room. The brewer told me that they brew 1600 litres per batch in their gleaming copper vessels.

I finished off with a Prager Dunkles, which was a fine beer. Lots of fruitiness - prunes and apricots - and a nice, dry hoppy aftertaste. Just the one to linger in my mouth before diving out into the rain again.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 08:45 | link | comments (1)
beer, brewers, microbreweries, austria

Vienna III (with no umlaut in the heading)

I went to krah krah, a beer bar and restaurant in what is called the Bermuda Triangle of Vienna. They do not brew any beers themselves, but they have a hand picked lists of beers from around the country. I had a fine lunch of goulash with small potato dumplings which had just the right level of paprika in the sauce.

With this a bottle of Jörger Weisse from the Grieskircher brewery, which is a mighty fine hefe weisse. A silky feeling on the tongue for the wheat malt, a little yeast and a lamon-like freshness in the finish. A fine summer beer, a very good beer with food. I don't know if this is available outside Austria.

A friendly place, which I assume is quite packed in the evenings. A good thing they had a written menu, as I had problems deciphering what they had written on the blackboard. Efficent and polite service as everywhere in Vienna - a city where it is a pleasure to be a guest.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 11:36 | link | comments (2)
beer, austria, weisse

Famous for 10 minutes

It is higly unlikely that many of my readers are able to watch Norwegian TV2 tomorrow morning at 9:40, but I will be appearing in their breakfast quiz. It is on their web TV as well, but you have to pay for access. I am not allowed to tell you the outcome, but if I had made an utter fool of myself, I would probably not have told you, would I?

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 08:25 | link | comments (4)
norway

"..the interests of handpulled beer"..

If we are to believe the Publican, seven of the biggest regional brewers in the UK have joined together to form a cask beer think tank, which will look to represent the interests of handpulled beer.

It looks to me they have joined together to represent the interests of seven of the biggest regional brewers in the UK , which is quite something else.

The group advises that unless you are a specialist cask ale pub the best way to improve the quality of cask is to reduce the number of brands and slowly build them up as you become more skilled at getting the quality right.

Right. Cut down the number of cask ales, and the drinkers will come running to buy them.

Alistair Darby, managing director of WDB Brands said the new group was there to represent the interests of all drinkers of handpulled beer. “We think there is a lot of rubbish spoken about handpulled beer by people who have no consumer insight,” he said. “It is governed too much by anecdote rather than science and we want to debunk a lot of the mythology.”

My alarm bells ring when a producer stands up claiming to represent the interests of the consumer.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:19 | link | comments
beer, england, pubs

Vienna II - 1516 Brewing Company

Despite the wide range of beers available in Vienna, it is easy to get bored with the range of pale lagers available. They may call them helles or zwicl or urtyp or export or märtzen, and they may all be fine, but the distinction between them and the subtle nuances tend to disappear rather early in the evening. They may be brewed with tender loving care, but they fail to raise much of an enthusiasm with me. I know there are other views on this, but that is my 5 cents worth.

A contrast then is the 1516 brewpub. The name might give you associations to Bavaria, but this is more of an American micro with an Austrian twist. The interior is like that, too, with brick walls and copper fittings.

I had a blonde summer ale, a wheat spiced with Cilantro (whatever that is) and orange peel from Blue Curacao oranges. Refreshingly spicy, a very fine pastiche of a Belgian wheat. Their Märtzen was a rich brew, more complex than most others of its type. Malty, but with a fine hoppy finish. The oatmeal stout has coffee and liquorice, but is rather mild compared to their other beers on offer.

The West Cost pale ale is not the barnstorming type of Pale Ale, but more understated. Fruity, with a very pleasant dry finish. I would be very happy to have some of this available for summer refreshment.

Their ultimate beer is the Victory Hop Devil IPA. An extreme IPA which shows that you don't have to go to Denmark or the US to find the type. The whole range of hops, fruity and bitter, truly amazing. This is brewed by Bill Covaleski from Victory Brewing Company in Downington PA, using Centennial, Tettnanger and Cascade hops. The best beer available in Vienna?

They have good food; too, I had medallions of pork with asparagus ragout. This draws a different crowd than the Salm Bräu – or maybe it was the time of day? On a Sunday evening there is a younger, more international crowd enjoying their food and beer here.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 08:19 | link | comments (1)
beer, brewers, microbreweries, pubs, austria

Pub for rent (and you get a castle and an island, too!)

If you feel it is getting too crowded, you could consider applying for this: Piel Island is situated off the southern tip of Walney Island, lying three miles southeast of Barrow-in-Furness. (It is on the Irish sea, North of Blackpool, if you cannot be bothered to look it up on the map.) The island, donated as a war memorial to the people of Barrow by the Duke of Buccleuch in 1920 is today held in Trust by Barrow Borough Council. The 20-acre haven is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and is home to the 14^th Century Piel Castle, the  Grade II listed Ship Inn and six former coastguard cottages. Barrow Borough Council has plans to fix up the inn, making it ready for the Summer season next year. Formal ‘expressions of interest’ are, therefore, sought from all persons/ parties interested in the future tenancy, subject to terms and conditions to be agreed, of The Ship Inn and Piel Island.  I have a suspicion, though, that it doesn't look quite as nice when the Winter gales set in. Make sure you are well stocked on both beer and firewood!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 11:59 | link | comments
beer, england

Vienna I - Salm Bräu

On arrival in Vienna airport, the easiest brew pub to reach is Salm Bräu. The local train takes you to Rennweg, on the southern edge of the inner city, and for there it is one stop by tram or a few hundred meters stroll.

They have the more traditional range of central European beers – a helles, a pilsner, a märtzen and a weisse, and there is usually a special beer on tap, too. When I was there they had a strong dark beer, the Cuba Negro at 6,2%. Quite similar to a stout, it tastes of coffee and roasted grain. It has sweet fruit – mangoes, perhaps – and a crisp, bitter finish.

The food menu is extensive, with spare ribes of frightening proportions passing by. Lighter meals, too, like asparagus and cheese dishes. People order from the spectrum of beers and seem to be conscious of what they want. Nice to see the female guests do the same, too, in a country not being famous for being in the avant-garde of equality. There is no music, but people come here to enjoy themselves. They bring their dogs, they bring their (well behaved) kids, they bring their parents. They smoke all the time, so if you react to that, you should probably go on a sunny day when the beer garden is open.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 07:58 | link | comments (3)
beer, brewers, pubs, austria

plan b again

I had a few hours in transit in Copenhagen on my way to Vienna last week, and instead of idling it in one of the lounges I jumped on the first train to Nørreport station in downtown Copenhagen. The place was quiet at Sunday lunchtime, with swift service, so I managed to try three different draft beers from Danish micros in an hour as well as a splendid chicken salad sandwich.

I started with a Summer Wheat from Bryghuset Braustein, which was not an instant hit. It was rather light and sweet, and nothing out of the ordinary. I have had far better beers from this brewery.

The Nørrebryg from Grauballe, brewed for plan b, was a fine bitter beer. Rather strong for a bitter, so an IPA is probably the proper classification.

The Triple, also from Grauballe, has a rich flavour, with flashes of fruit - plums turning into prunes, dates and raisins. A whiff of port in the aftertaste, and you feel the alcohol in the finish, too. A fine ale, though a small glass was enough in the middle of the day.This won the beer of the year award at the Copenhagen Beer Festival recently, and I can understand that!

I bought with me a few bottles from their extensive range of bottled beers, too, at prices similar to the ones you pay in shops. Very useful on a Sunday when everyting else is closed.

All this and pretty blonde waitresses, too. What more can you ask for?

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:37 | link | comments
beer, denmark

Back to my home town

I went back to my old home town Trondheim for a few days last week. They have had nice spring weather, but when the plane landed, the hills and mountains had a sprinkling of fresh snow.

This means I went for the only brewpub in town, Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri. This is located in the city centre and has a nice sort of post-industrial looks with brick exterior and interior, lots of wood and copper kettles and pipes.

Their Porter is dark amber with a coffee aroma. A rather light porter. The Stout, slightly stronger, is a more complex beer. It is brewed with some rye and with Golding hops. A very fine beer.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 09:31 | link | comments (1)
beer, norway, microbreweries, trondheim, pilsener

Beer quiz

Some knowledge of a Scandinavian language (and Scandinavian beer) is needed for this quiz in Berlingske Tidende. I got 20 points, but there was a technical hickup, so I might have had 21.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 13:00 | link | comments
beer, denmark

From Brazil without taste

Sometimes the mainstream media are as outspoken as the bloggers. Look at this from Andy Holloway in Canada Business magazine:

Molson Coors Brewing Co. couldn't get anyone to drink its Brazilian import, but that hasn't stopped Labatt Breweries of Canada from rolling out its own version this spring. Now available from Quebec westward, Brahma supposedly fills a gaping hole in Labatt's lineup: an "international player in clear glass," says spokesman James Villeneuve. Apparently, beers are no longer categorized by style or price, but by bottle colour and location. That's understandable, since Brahma doesn't exactly offer an exotic taste explosion. Indeed, Labatt seems proud that Brahma, the world's sixth-best-selling beer, has a "clean flavour" and "no aftertaste." In that respect, Brahma isn't much different than  Molson's Brazilian experiment, but the similarities end there.

Molson tried selling A Marca Bavaria using a tacky soft-porn television ad that boasted "there are no sins below the equator." It also positioned the beer as "super premium," even though it was clearly neither of those things — especially in Brazil, where it is considered a poor man's brew. Of course, this is the same company that believes its own Canadian brand deserves the "premium" designation.

There's more..

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 08:55 | link | comments
brazil, canada, beer