Subjective ramblings about beer, pubs and associated topics

Three new from Aass

Three new beers to be launched from Aass brewery in Drammen, Norway. I do not expect anything fantastic, as the words will appeal to both sexes in the writeup in the local paper is usually a code for not too challenging. But anything that is not a pale lager on the Norwegian market is uplifting. And the bottles look nice!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:32 | link | comments
beer, norway

A friendly beer tasting

 

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 09:37 | link | comments
beer, brewers, oslo, haandbryggeriet

Innstadt Neue Weisse

I arrived at Vienna Airport in the early evening, with ample time to catch my connecting flight. As I enter terminal C, I see a sign for connecting flights, and discover that my gate is just two gates away. I proceed through a security check and enter the area, which is strangely silent. I am then told that, since I am going to Oslo, which is in the Scengen area, I have to go out agian, take the bus to terminal A to go through passport control and then walk back to terminal C. Thanks a lot.

Luckily I managed to get into the passport queue before a jumboful of passengers form Taiwan, but this still left me sligtly annoyed and slightly thirsty. I spotted some promising beer signs above the Icarus cafe, and found a seat at the bar.

The Innstadt Neue Weisse is just the stuff to wash away the blues. A rich hefe, soft, with pronounced wheat malt and some banana aroma. Immensly refreshing. Given more time, I'd have another. But there were more ticket controls, security checks and passport controls to be faced before boarding...

But next time I'll know where to find it!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 14:08 | link | comments (1)
beer, austria, weisse

Small creatures

There is another micro opening in Norway in a few days time - called smaa vesen, which means small creatures.  They are locatied in the mountain region of Valdres, right in the middle of Southern Norway. This area has had a micro etablished for some time, and I hope the market is big enough for both.

Smaa vesen are starting out with a wheat beer, a pilsener, a pale ale, an ESB and a stout. Their ambitions are fine: We are a small family who aim to brew the best beer in Norway. We aim to offer something both for the experienced beer drinker and to show people who don't like beer that they really do..

They have a restaurant and a grocery store, too, selling and serving local produce in addtion to their own brews.

I wish them the best of luck, it is tough establish a brewery when you are not allowed to tell the public about your products. I'll keep you updated when I get hold of their beers.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:16 | link | comments
beer, norway, microbreweries, smaa vesen

Beer can be compared to other bubblies

Protected names like Champagne can be used in ads for other consumer products in certain situations, the top European court ruled Thursday in a case that pitted Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin against a Belgian brewery, according to the International Herald Tribune.

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton's Veuve Clicquot and an association of Champagne and wine makers sued the Belgian brewery De Landtsheer Emmanuel in 2002 for advertising a new beer as "champagnebier" and highlighting its sparkling-wine-like qualities. A five-judge panel at the European Court of Justice said that rules on "comparative advertising must be interpreted in the sense most favorable to it."

The decision by the court in Luxembourg will help clarify the rules governing a practice that is common in the United States and is becoming increasingly popular in the European Union, lawyers said. The bloc's 27 countries apply EU law on comparative advertising in quite different ways, said Jeremy Dickerson, the head of intellectual property at the British law firm Burges Salmon.

"The law isn't clear at all," Dickerson said before the ruling. "Companies in Europe use comparative advertising more and more, so any guidance one can get on that is useful."

EU rules define comparative advertising as any advertising "that explicitly or by implication, identifies a competitor or goods or services offered by a competitor." A Belgian court in 2005 asked the European Court of Justice for guidance on interpreting the regulations.

The court ruled Thursday that comparative advertising between products with and without protected names "is possible in certain cases," laying down some of the conditions that must be met.

Comparative advertising must not take "unfair advantage of the reputation of a trade mark, trade name or other distinguishing marks of a competitor or of the designation of origin of competing products," the court said. This requirement would be "partly compromised" by preventing the comparison of a product with one that has a protected name, it ruled.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:04 | link | comments
beer, brewers, belgium

Another nail in the coffin

The Young's pub Britannia in Kensington has changed a lot over the years. First they opened up the area at the back, creating a winter garden and a restaurant area. Then they removed the wall to the public bar to the left, destroying the cozy spot for regulars and their dogs that was probably Bad for Business. And they did the revamp last year, redecorating everything and replacing their rusty food with something more upmarket. They even changed the old sign with a new ones showing St Paul's Cathedral, which is in another part of London altogether.

But I've blogged about that before.

They e-mailed me today, promoting the celebration of St George's day. Surely a day of promoting the wonderful St George's ale, one of the very best of the Young's range?

Nope. It's Bombardier promotion time as seen on the right. Forget about the lovely ales they brewed in London until last summer.

Goodbye, Britannia. I shall seek out other places to slack my thirst!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 14:27 | link | comments (3)
london, beer, youngs

A slogan from Finland

I thought you'd like this one. Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway share a similar system where most beverages with alcohol has to be purchased at government  monopoly stores. As you can imagine, this setup does not have a broad popular support.

And the prices in Finland are cheap compared to Norway!

This was nicked from the Finland For Thought blog. My own pictures rather unfocused and muddy, I know. This should improve when the season for al fresco drinking arrives. Or maybe I should clean the lens.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:36 | link | comments (1)
beer, finland

Bier Circus, Brussels

Time flies..

I have reported from parts of my Brussels visit some weeks ago, but I have omitted one of the highlights, the cafe Bier Circus. Within walking distance of  your usual starting points - ten minutes from my Gare du Nord hotel, this is the place to head for after checking in, just when you need to fill your mouth with something more refreshing than the airline's recycled air.

The place is airy and clean, with big windows towards the street. The decor is partly beer and partly, er, circus. Some clowns here and there, but not too many. Lovely old enamel signs and posters advertising beers and breweries long gone fill some of the walls, and there is even a column filled with Westvleteren bottle caps, relics of days when these beers were only for those in the know.

The place is divided in two, the cafe/restaurant side where things are quiet, there is table service and low conversation - and the bar, where the locals are clustered with more loud conversation under a cloud of smoke. I quickly decide that this is an evening when the cafe part suits me best.

The beer list runs into the hundreds, so I order a draft beer from the blackboard first. The Bink Blond is a , well, blonde at 5% ABV, but it is certainly not a pilsener.
Full flavour, very Duvel-like. There is just as much aroma in this as in beers twice its alcohol strength. Hazy blonde beer in a nice art deco decorated glass. Round soft wheatiness, citrus, smooth body and some hops bringing it to a lovely finish.

I order some snacks with my next beer, some Belgian croquettes. Quite all right, but not really good value for money. (As I leave I see the board with the daily special, and realize I should have gone for that instead.) The beer looks like a similar blonde, but it is certainly not. De Graal Tripel is for sipping, the opposite end of the spectrum from a session beer. Flowers and herbs, more like some kind of cordial spiked with vodka? But there is a wheat beer kind of softness at the bottom. Interesting, but not quite there!

It is not easy to pick one more beer from the list. There is the full range of styles. There are trappists, there are Christmas beers, there are vintage beers..

Being in Brussels, I decide to go for a lambic from the Cantillon brewery. They have a special bottling for Bier Circus called Dermere Cuvee du 89. It has fine carbonation, firm head, with the citrus kicking in as you lift the glass. Cidery tingling feeling, the beer sparkling on your tongue like those childhood sweet-and-almost-too-sour sweets. It is lovely. But one is enough!

Friendly and attentive service, similar to the beer cafes in the Netherlands I reported from last year. I declare this as a must stop when visiting Brussels.

Postscript: I should have stayed here, quietly having a few more beers, reading my paper. Instead I went to check out the Delirium cafe, famous for having a beer list of 2007+. It was filled with youngsters swilling banana beer, you have to fight the other customers to get a glimpse of the beer list, and the draft beers have weird fruit and vegetable flavours. Top this with barmen who cannot be bothered to give any advice on their stock, and you don't get any praise for me.  The Bier Circus is definitely the place for grumpy old men. If, on the other hand, you idea of a good time is to drink coconut beer until dawn, you have alternatives. To each his own.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 08:29 | link | comments
beer, brewers, belgium, lambic

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

I had this lovely beer the other evening, brought back from a day trip to Denmark. Carlsberg is the distributor of beers from the Brooklyn Brewery , which means that their great beers are widely available in Denmark.

The Black Chocolate Stout pours a pitch black, with a small head that looks like chocolate milk.

A very compex beer. Some grainy feeling at the first sip, then coffee, toffee, liquorice and sour cherries start dancing around.

This is an after midnight brew, to be sipped when the rest of the house is asleep. A beer for a good book. Or a Willie Nelson CD. Near perfect.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 13:18 | link | comments (4)
beer, usa

The Norwegian alcohol policy again

I spotted this delivery car from the Atna micro the other day. Their slogan used to read: Godt øl fra 2005. (Good beer from 2005). Now they have changed it to Godt nyttår fra 2005  - Happy new year from 2005. Thanks to the Unit of substance abuse, probably.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 13:16 | link | comments (1)
beer, norway, atna

Spring in Northern Europe!

Thisislondon.co.uk, the splendidly named web version of the Evening Standard, has an overview of where you can eat and drink outdoors in London. This includes pavement cafes, riverside eateries, upmarket restaurants with terraces and establiehments with gardens.

I won't be going there soon. But I liked the pic from a Bavarian-style beer garden in Richmond so much I borrowed it. A two-litre seidel for me, please, miss!

Sorry to whoever commented on this post, I deleted it among all the spam before I read it. You can try again!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 12:36 | link | comments
london, beer

On the other hand..

there is a market for crap as well. You have access to cheap water, you use the cheapest hops extract, and the yeast is multiplying nicely.  A pity you have to use malt in the beer, it is far too expensive. Well, due to the wonders of bio technology, you can use some unmalted barley instead, much cheaper.

Just add some enzymes.

We need better labelling for the consumer to see which brewers are cheating and which are not!

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:34 | link | comments
beer, brewers

Quality beer is growing

No, I haven't quit blogging yet.

I've been fairly busy with other things, trying to organize children's soccer training and what have you. I've been to Italy for a few days with the family, too, but I did not have any time to dwell on the ber scene of Tuscany. Lovely ice cream, though, but the leaning tower of Pisa was not a particularly comfortable building to climb.

Anyway, this just in from the Houston Cronicle:

According to Information Resources Inc., a provider of industry data, in 2006 the top 15 new beer brands measured by case sales volume were all selections from the "high-end" market _ a group that includes flavored malt beverages like Bacardi Silver Peach, seasonal brews such as Jack's Pumpkin Spice, craft beers like Leinenkugal Sunset Wheat and imports.

"That's been the story in 2006," said Bump Williams, an executive vice president and general manager of the beer, wine and spirits division at Information Resources.

After years of losing market share to the hip, Sex and the City-style world of spirits, brewers are now trying to lure drinkers back to the good old brewery. But rather than pushing their old-fashioned lagers, brew masters are creating new concoctions and joining forces with international names to bring an air of sophistication back to beer.

"There was a period of time when the beer industry was not really doing that much innovative stuff in terms of what they were bringing to the table," said Miller Brewing Co. spokesman Pete Marino. "There's a lot of romance coming back into beer right now."

That romance might cost beer drinkers a few extra dollars. A six-pack of a high-end beer is normally about $6 or more depending on the region of the country. In an urban area like New York City, for example, a six-pack of Samuel Adams Boston Lager can run $10 or more.

But Williams said beer lovers, particularly new drinkers only a few years removed from the college days, are now more willing to try new things, regardless of the extra cost.

Beer drinkers, he said, "don't all want an American lager. They want an India Pale Ale, a stout _ craft beers have been able to take advantage of that."

Well, I would probably put Bacardi Silver Peach in with the Sex and the City drinks, but apart from that it is certainly good news. We see Carlsberg rolling out their premium beers across Europe, too, an obvious answer to the micros producing craft beers.

Posted by: KnutAlbert at 10:21 | link | comments
beer, brewers, usa