The good neighbour

I went to Trondheim for the weekend, with a family gathering the main reason. I managed a few hours on my own, however, walking the streets of my youth in the fairly decent weather. Most of the shops and cafes are gone – I bought a pair of shoes at one of the few remaining old fashioned stores next to the fish market in Ravnkloa.

Nostalgia aside, the town has become better in many ways. The city centre, which was dying out a few decades ago, does not have empty shop windows any longer. Despite the climate, it is much more bicycle friendly than Oslo. And they have made a lovely area out of the once very run down neighbourhood Bakklandet, just across the bridge from the centre.

Here at Bakklandet you find the most interesting pub in town, Den gode nabo - The Good Neighbour. It started as a fairly humble place, but it has now expanded into the next door premises, so it can seat hundreds of guests. Lost of nooks and crannies, though, so you can have a private chat as well.

The Neighbour is located in one of the old wooden warehouses on the riverside; it is nice to see this part of the architectural heritage being used in such a way. And, for the smokers and for the rare sunny days, they even have a barge in the river where you can get fresh air with your beer. The menu is limited, you may have pizza and burgers, but there are also some selected dishes available from the more upmarket restaurant next door if you want something fancier.

The beer list is very extensive for Norway, being far better than, say, Beer Palace in Oslo. They are experimenting with cask ale from Nøgne ø, and they have a wide selection of beers, both imported and from Norwegian micros. They have even had Nøgne ø ales on cask, which is truly a rarity in this country.

I had a very nice chat here with fellow beer blogger Anders, whom I have only met virtually before. We were also joined by his wife Magni for a while. Good beer and pleasant company. To a large extent we discussed strategy for how to modify the Norwegian legislation stopping micro breweries and pubs from listing their beers online. I will come back to that later.

Copenhagen beer festival

Yes, it is on this year as well, but I won't be there. May is the month for family obligations in Norway, and this year is no exception. But I am sure all of you who plan to go will have a great time.

There are special brews from the major players on the Danish craft beer scene, raters and tickers meet up, there are special events on at several breweries. And more than 1000 beers, which means there will be something for everyone.

Envious? Nah....

But they could have made a new poster design instead of just changing the dates.

A Swedish mild

Jay over at the Brookston Beer Bulletin is the hub in a coordinated beer blogging effort, this month focusing on mild ale, and this is my contribution:

Pumpviken påskøl is the Easter offering from the Nynäshamn Steam Brewery. I have written about beers from this brewery before, as I had the pleasure of trying out two of their draft beers when I was in Stockholm last year. They brewery is located in a coastal town an hour south of Stockholm by commuter train – an excellent starting point for exploring the Stockholm archipelago.

Their stout and IPA are fine examples of a micro with a focus on quality. Until recently, their beer was only available on cask in a few select pubs in the area, but luckily they are bottling some of their brews now.

It was very convenient that their Easter beer this year was a mild, as beer bloggers around the worlds are focusing on mild today. So, what is a mild? Today this style is rather hard to find, but some decades ago, this was the standard cask ale in the British Isles. The usual cask ale nowadays is a bitter, and in the nearly 30 years I’ve been drinking ale in England on my yearly visits, I have rarely encountered it. It is most often a low alcohol beer, a type of ale I associate with coal miners and farm labourers wanting a fairly neutral and a fairly weak beer they could enjoy in quantities without getting totally wasted before last orders.

So, a cask mild would typically be 3.0-3.5 % ABV, while the bottle in front of me lands at 5.8%. Yet, I think the taste profile is true to the type. It is less bitter than a bitter, and more flavourful than a (standard) brown ale. It is nutty, with lost of sugar from the malt, which is not subdues by dryness from the hops. There are hops, sure, bur they add more of a flowery full flavour. There is some dryness in the finish, though.

This beer reminds me of a good schwartzbier or bock, using the same caramel malt to give it a coca-cola colour. It is pleasant enough to sip, but it is like those Austrian lagers – the low level of bitterness ends up a bit boring on my palate, not really refreshing enough.

I’m happy to raise my glass for those – inside or outside CAMRA – who struggle to keep this style alive. But I can understand why this has gone out of fashion.

These ramblings about the style are from the top of my head. For more accurate information, you should read the posts of the other bloggers!

Back to the roots

In the rural areas of Norway, there are long traditions of home brewing. Traditionally, farms in the barely-growing areas of Norway used to brew their own beer for different seasons – for the hay harvest, for Christmas, for baptisms and for funerals. There are even laws from medieval times giving fines for those who did not brew the appropriate beer.

The home brewing has dwindled until recently, with serious brewing only taking place in Voss, near Bergen, and in the Stjørdal area in the fertile landscape along the Trondheim fjord.

While commercial brewing has grown, with the big brewers eating the small ones and closing them down, the distance between the local brewers and the commercial brewers has gron, decade by decade. Luckily, there are those who want to make their craft beer available on a slightly more commercial scale, though, given the tax regime and other regulations it is not too easy.

Ølve på Egge brewery is located in Steinkjer, some kilometres from Stjørdal, and the brewer has been bottling his beers for a few years. They are very hard to come by, though. My brother in law smuggled a bottle out for a pub some time ago to give me, but, alas, he finished it off one evening before it got to me.

Last week there was a message on a Norwegian beer web sites that some bottles were available at Fenaknoken, an ole fashioned food shop in Central Oslo, dedicated to traditional food from all corners of the country. I went there during my lunch break to pick up the tow beers available.

The beer, which has been brewed for a few years is called Ølve på Egge, the name giving echoes of beer referred to in the Norse sagas of a millennium ago. This region is thick with history from the Viking age, and it is appropriate to refer to this when you brew a beer according to traditions that have been handed down through the centuries.

This is a pre-Reinheitsgebot stuff, brewed with juniper twigs. It is a cloudy, malty beer that tastes of the malt that is the main ingredient, with no fuss about hops from faraway places. (Well, the hops would be from faraway places, but they are not of any extreme variety.)

It has a full, rather sweet flavour, with some hints of summer fruit and even some spices – pepper and cinnamon comes to mind. There is some smokiness here, too, which I think is appropriate to how the malt has been traditionally processed.

This is a dark brew, with a low carbonation from the maturation in the bottle. It is no surprise that this beer is not pasteurized.

The outstanding feature here is the finish, which is crispy dry. The hops may do their thing here, but it mainly the juniper in the mash making a dry, tongue-curling feeling lingering in the mouth which shows that this is a beer that is a very distant relative from the standard Norwegian watery lager.

This is a beer for Norwegian traditional food. Smoked and cured rib of mutton, cured ham, fermented fish or smoked salmon. This is a beer that should have a more general release.

The Jubileumsøl is brewed on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of Steinkjer as a township. This is a lighter and brighter brew, but it is certainly not your average pale lager, either. It has a sweet malty, soft flavour. Under pressure, I would say it is a bit too sweet, perhaps. It is related to the German or Austrian old fashioned zwickl or kellerbiers , and I am happy to see a beer of this style available – this is far better than the similar brew from the Atna micro.

Now, where can I get my hands on a bottle of Ølve Bokk? The regulations here in Norway say it cannot be sold in a grocery store, and it probably is no sold in quantities large enough to be distributed at Vinmonopolet. A pub in the region of the brewer, perhaps?

How to waste a day in Cyprus

Professional obligations led to me spending a few days in Larnaca, Cyprus some weeks ago. A bit of online research had shown me that there is a brewpub in Cyprus, in the seaside city of Limassol. As I had half a day with no plans, I decided to take an excursion to check this out.

Public transportation is not up to much on the island, but they have a system of service taxis, which are minibuses picking you up where you want them to and then driving you to the next town. I asked the reception to order one for me, but I was informed that there would be an extra charge for the pick up, as the hotel was located too far from the centre.

Never mind. I was picked up at the hotel about 10 in the morning, we drove on to downtown Larnaca where some more passengers and parcels were added. Most of the passengers were locals, I suppose there are more tourists in high season. After zigzagging through the outskirts of the town, we picked up an old man outside his house and we were on our way.

The motorway goes partly inland and partly along the coast, and it was a pleasant way to see a bit of the country, with the spring greenery not yet having turned brown by the summer sun.

Arriving in Limassol I booked a return trip two hours later and set out to find the brew pub. The map I found on the web was not the most accurate, but after circling around the area for a bit I found it. The place has a splenid setting, on a quiet side street with a fine view of an old castle. At noon it was totally deserted, but the place is probably crowded in the evenings. The interior is like brewpubs tend to be, with a row of gleaming copper kettles and the usual trimmings of reproductions of beer and whiskey commercial of bygone days.

There were several beer taps, including both domestic macros and imported beers as well as their own beers.

I picked up a menu, found a sidewalk table in the sun and ordered a salad with grilled vegetables and feta cheese. The menu mentioned lager, pilsener, wheat beer and ale. I asked the waiter to bring me a half pint of all their own beers. He seemed a bit bewildered, but soon arrived with a mountain of a salad – and a glass of pale lager.

The salad was great – they seem to share the kitchen with several other establishments in the same building complex. The beer was just as pale lagers are everywhere, if I had been served the same beer elsewhere being told it was a Carlsberg, I would not have objected.

I finished my beer, and motioned the waiter to come over.

- I would like to try the other beers you brew here, pleas. May I have a glass of each?

- I am sorry. The lager is the only beer we have on. We only brew one beer at a time. You can have a draught Leffe. Or Guinness.

- So you don’t have the ale? Ot the wheat beer?

- No. When this is finished, we will have another beer for sale.

Being a polite guest in a foreign country, I bit my tongue, before ordering another half pint of the lager. I asked for the bill and walked back to the minibus.

I have to admit the return was a bit gloomy. £ 20 in taxi fare. Three hours of driving which I could have spent by the pool. All this for a pint of pale lager.

Next time I’ll probably call the pub before setting out on such an expedition.

But, since you ask, the salad was great.

A wee heavy session

I was in Scotland last weekend for the annual European Summer gathering of ratebeer. This is a community that usually meets through the web site, but some of us see each other while travelling, and the most eager ones meet for this event in the summer.

So, the host city this year was Glasgow, and it was certainly a nice city to go to. There will be another blog post about Glasgow as a drinking city where I make my usual biased opinions based on scant empirical evidence and the most cursory experience as a participant observer, never fear. I will just mention that it is a city with a splendid range of pubs old and new, and there are new cask ales, often from Scottish breweries, in many of these establishments. The natives are friendly, even if you’ll be lucky to grasp only half of what they say to you, and the central part of the city is easy to navigate.

Being a family man, who’s already spent my holidays with my family, means that I did not attend the whole programme of the event, which included pub crawls in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

I arrived on Friday evening for a nice series of draught beers at a few pubs, including the excellent Blackfriars, which means that I was reasonably fit for the main event of the weekend, the Grand Tasting.

This took place in the basement of the Blackfriars, and going on from Saturday noon until nine in the evening. It basically means that everyone brings beer along in generous quantities. This could be local beers, new beers, rare beers, aged beers – even good beers.

With about 20 participants, this means that there were more than 100 beers available. As the bottles are opened, a few at the time, they are passed around. With some of the there are some words about the beer or the brewery from the ones who brought them along, but generally there are people chatting and having a good time.

There were participants from a number of countries including the England, Scotland, the Czech Republic, Canada and Scandinavia. Some have English cask ales as their favourite, some prefer the Belgian gueze, and some want American style super hopped beer. There was something for everyone. I was happy to bring along some rare beers from Panil in Italy as well as some Norwegian rarities.

This was all very jolly, but as the hours wore on, some of us had second thoughts. We would never consider tasting more than 50 beers at a sitting anywhere else. And as you drink dozens of beers, your mouth numbs – are you really a good judge of the subtle flavours of a mild if that is beer number 42?

Don’t get me wrong, there were not enormous amounts of alcohol being swilled down during the event. We had small samples of most of the beers, and with solid food served twice, the congregation stayed remarkably sober. But the sheer number of bottles passing by at high speed was overwhelming.

I took a break in mid afternoon. I went for a walk, looking at the Saturday shoppers. I found a book shop which had both No Depression magazine and a few tartan noir crime books. I had a cappuccino and a few muffins. I bought a few beers to take home. And then I returned, refreshed, for a last leg of the tasting.

This is not meant as criticism of the event at all, more a reflection that it sometimes can get too much for some of the more grumpy and elderly of us. I love the camaraderie of this crowd, which consists mainly of adults, quite a few of the greying kind like me. People are generous and including and have a wealth of knowledge about beers and brewing, far beyond my dabbling in the field.

Since this is my soap box, I know how I would want it another year:

First of all, I should give priority to the other parts of the programme, attending pub crawls, brewery visits etc, which is what I really prefer. Then I’d get to try more of the local cask ale as well.

What could be done about the tasting is to make a loose plan for which bottles should be opened when. The beers could be grouped according to style or brewery/country or origin. Then everyone could come and go a bit more relaxed, without being afraid of missing particular beers they are eager to try.

The highlights of the tasting? Probably the local Brew Dog beers - the brewers actually turned up for the event. They have the most amazing barrel aged beers, which will probably be the Next Big Thing. Their beers are avilable by mail order in the UK.

I also loved the beers from Dugges in Gothenburg, Sweden, which we visited last year. Some of the aged beers were also great stuff, very interesting to try.

Thanks a lot to Tom and Gareth for organizing the event. They should not be surprised if I turn up in Glasgow some time within a year or so to tour the pubs I missed! I didn't have any deep fried Mars bars, either....

A good conversation

I spent a few hours on Friday afternoon with an American journalist who was in Oslo and contacted me after reaqding my blog. Christopher is a bona fide freelance journalist, not just a spare time blogger like myself, so I am flattered that he found my writings of interest and wanted a chat to get some background on Norwegian food for a magazine article. He even bought me a beer!

The interactvity of the web and the possibility to meet and discuss, both virtually and when you are passing throug a city still amazes an old-timer like me. Some people you get to know, some you meet just once for a glass and a friendly conversation. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay in Norway, Christopher!

When beer bloggers meet

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I met up with fellow blogger Lars last week. After commenting on each other’s blogs for some time, we felt it appropriate to meet for a pint since we live in the same town.

We decided to meet at Oslo Mikrobryggeri, the only brewpub in town. They have managed to hang on for quite a few years, and the beers were certainly all right.

We both liked the Christmas beer best, a well balanced ale that combines a malty sweetness typical of Norwegian Christmas beers with lots of hops which adds pine and flowers to the aroma. Their Imperial stout was also fine – though Irish stout would probably be a better label. Tastes of dry roasted malt, lovely appearance, but not quite enough aroma. The Ecological Ale is the first of its kind in Norway. Some bitterness and aroma from the hops, but rather thin. The porter was not too successful, either. I love lots of hops in my beer, but in this one they were overwhelming, making a beer that was too bitter and unbalanced.

It’s nice to do some tasting with a fellow blogger, and we’ll certainly meet again for further research.

A beer for Ibsen?

Sometimes someone comes up with an idea at the same time as you, but they publish first and get the credit. In Oslo we still have a newspaper with both morning and evening editions, with the latter being mostly a collection of whining about the state of transport/education/skating rinks etc. in our city. Yesterday they proposed a beer to celebrate the 150th anniversary of playwright Henrik Ibsen, one of the few Norwegians famous just about everywhere. As the festivities are starting up, I have had the same idea, and I even have a proposal for which brewery should do it. This is a job for Nøgne ø brewery in Grimstad. They are located in a town where Ibsen once lived, and they even have taken their name - naked island - from one of his epic poems. So, my proposal is that they should make an Ibsen beer, I'm sure they will come up with something good!

Menawhile, I tried two of their current beers last night. Their Trippel is a shot at making a Belgian style Trippel, but it is not an unqualifies success. It has a complex sweet & sour taste, but it is not quite there. This has not been released for general sale, as they were not totally happy with the outcome themselves. It is not at all unpleasant, other breweries would be happy to market such a product, but it is more that it does not quite rank with their other excellent beers.

Better then their Amber ale, which I thought was just released, but at least has not ben widely available. A virtual explosion of hops in the mouth with a full malty character underneath with sweetness and a straw flavour. This must be their best beer so far - I look forward to comparing it with their IPA.

Beer books

There is still a staggering number of German breweries operating, from brewpubs to global brand names. While it could be argued that only a small percentage of these produce very exciting beers, it is worth noting that all this brewing activity also leads to secondary industries. Among those you have publishers specializing in beer and brewery books, and I came across Hans Carl. They have been publishing brewery books and periodicals for almost 150 years, and they have an online catalogue which makes interesting browsing.

Most of the books are obviously in German, but some have parallel editions in English. The titles range from the purely technical to reference books such as a hop atlas. There is a Katechismus der Brauerei-Praxis, German-English, German-Spanish and German-Chinese brewery dictionaries, an address list of German brewers than run to 432 pages... There is even a bargain section with very attractive prices – you can pick up a primer on the chemical and technical aspects of bottle washing for the price of a glass of beer.

Jerusalem Tavern

I still plan to get around to a general article on London pubs, but here is at least some words about a pub which you all should seek out. While the pubs in the most pricey areas of Soho and Covent Garden tend to be fake Irish identikit places, the rest of London has lots of great pubs. Many of them belong to the London brewers Fuller’s or Young’s, but there are others as well if you take the time to seek them out.

A one of a kind pub is the Jerusalem Tavern, the only London pub run by St. Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk (where they have their only other pub.) The building dates back to 1720, and is located close to the Smithfield meat market, a few minutes walk from the Museum of London .

I would guess that this rather small pub fills up rather quickly both at lunchtime and after office hours, so try to do as I did and find a quiet afternoon.

The beers range from splendid examples of classic British beers to more experimental brews, and you should be able to find someone to your liking. At any time there are six or seven beers on tap, and the rest of the range is available bottled. To get through as many as possible, I ordered half-pints, which is certainly not my ordinary size of glass.

I started with an Organic Best Bitter, which was, simply, an English bitter as good as it gets. Very hoppy, with an almost chalky finish. The Golden ale was more related to a lager, and while a good beer, it did not reach the heights of the bitter. The Cream Stout was another winner, with a full aroma that should be the envy of a certain Dublin Brewer. Lots of molasses and coffee gives a full aroma. Bittersweet finish from Fuggles and Challenger Hops.

Suffolk Gold is an ale brewed with lots of First Gold hops – Nirvana for a hop addict like me.

The only one I felt lukewarm about, was the Lemon & Ginger Spiced Ale, which I felt was too much of a novelty beer. Maybe something to drink with sushi – take a sip of this between bites instead of pickled ginger?

Friendly staff, with solid knowledge about their trade. The secret behind a range of six real ales on tap in a small pub is to have small casks. They use casks which are half the size of the ones used in most pubs, which means they can keep the beer fresh at all times.

I staggered out after a few hours, as they unfortunately only serve food (or do food, as they say) at lunchtime, but with clear intentions to return at the first opportunity. I bought with me a few bottles from their fridge to enjoy at home, too. A review of their Winter Ale shortly. I believe they export some of their beers, and some of them are available in shops such as the beer shop in Borough Market as well.

St. Peter’s Brewery was recently up for sale, as the current owners felt they had reached a stage when more capital was needed to expand. The latest reports say they have withdrawn this offer, and we can count ourselves lucky that they were not bought up by one of the big lager lads!