Beer
PRESS INFORMATION
May 2008
The Best Beers are Right Here
Whisper it, but there used to be a time when Danish beer was drunk for its effect rather more than its flavour. And beer enthusiasts seemed to value quantity over quality. But that has all changed for the city known for the world famous Carlsberg brand, and where the interest in different varieties, flavours, nationalities and micro-brewing techniques has exploded over the last few years. These days, beer enthusiasts will love Copenhagen.
No less than twenty five new microbreweries opened during the year of 2005, which means that in the course of only six years Denmark has gone from being the country in Europe with the fewest breweries per capita by the end of 2005 will become the country with most breweries per capita in Europe.
One of the main reasons for the renewed interest in beer, or 'øl' as the Danes call it, is the increase in the number of smaller breweries in Denmark. Following a period in which larger breweries bought up or merged with smaller ones, once again smaller-scale new breweries are beginning to open up throughout The Copenhagen Region.
Copenhagen breweries
Carlsberg has opened a new brew house in Valby, which will ensure the continued development and production of unique speciality beers aimed at beer connoisseurs. The brewery also acts as a living display window for Carlsberg's beer culture and brewing craftsmanship. The brew-house is called 'Jacobsen'- a direct reference to the firm's visionary founder J. C. Jacobsen and his son Carl Jacobsen.
Copenhagen's Five Micro Breweries
Latest addition to the micro breweries in the district of Vesterbro is Vesterbro Bryghus. Five special beers are brewed here from traditional Austrian recipies and served at the long bar, which stretches through most of the room. A beer barrel with two faucets is found on the ground floor; from here guests can fill their own tankards. And on the first floor you will find a restaurant with an open grill and a beer-seasoned menu.
Downtown Brewpub has a female brewer who comes from Norway: Gunnhild Kolverreid. There are four in-house micro brews, seven 'guest brews' i.e. taps with other beers and a beer menu. You can also order a 'sampler', which is five 10-centiliter samples of different beers.
Nørrebro Bryghus. In this light, modern restaurant in one of the trendier districts of the city, you can enjoy modern Nordic brasserie food with a wide selection of beers, all brewed in full view on the premises. Nørrebro Bryghus, which is housed in a converted factory dating from 1857, makes its own Belgian white beer, dark New York lager (brewed as it was before prohibition), Bombay Pale Ale and a malty, sweet, English-style stout with a 7.5% alcohol content, among many others. Master brewer Anders Kissmeyer worked at Carlsberg for 16 years before starting this new micro-brewery, and has been rewarded with good reviews in the Danish press.
In March 2006 Nørre Bryghus opened a second brewery in Hedehusene close to Roskilde. This new facility does, however, not feature a restaurant, but supplies the market with the Nørrebro beers in bottles and on draught.
In April 2008 Nørrebro Bryghus was awarded the first medals in the World Beer Cup in San Diego, California. This is a competition, which is considered equivalent to Champions League and Olympic Games when it comes to beer. No less than 2800 brews from 660 breweries and 59 countries competed and were judged by a group of 130 beer experts from all over the world. Two bronze medals were awarded to the Nørrebro Bryghus, who is thus the first special beer brewery in Denmark to achieve this honour in an otherwise American dominated league.
But Nørrebro Bryghus is not Copenhagen's first micro-brewery. Anyone who has visited Tivoli Gardens will have passed Bryggeriet Apollo, next to the main entrance, which has been brewing its own beer on site since 1990. Apollo's beer is brewed according to the so-called 'purity law' (meaning only hops, yeast, malt and water are used), while the menu devised to go with it is also made from organic ingredients. As well as their regular pilsner, Apollo also produces a monthly special, which is worth sampling in their extraordinarily shaped beer glasses.
Micro-brewery in Færgekroen, Tivoli. The classical inn, which was opened in Tivoli in 1934, has two hand-brewed beers to offer the guests apart from open sandwiches, Danish traditional dishes and musical entertaining sing-along. The production is approx. 4000 litres per week and production time is 21 days.
... outside Copenhagen
Another micro-brewery has recently sprung up a little north of Copenhagen in Hillerød. Allan Poulsen began as a hobby home brewer, but in 2002 quit his IT job to realise a lifetime's dream and found the Brøckhouse Brewery. Brøckhouse brews 20,000 litres of beer a month, including an aromatic cloister beer, called Esrum Klosterøl, an Indian Pale Ale, a weiss beer, a stout and a powerful 8.6% alcohol Christmas beer. Brøckhouse beers are available in several bars in Copenhagen (including Charlie's - see below), and at Esrum Kloster, the monastery with which they collaborated in making the special brew mentioned above.
At Gourmetbryggeriet in Roskilde the beers are brewed in accordance to the seasons: a strong, aromatic Easter brew, a light and airy brew for summer, darker autumn types and a very dark malted brew for winter. The products are sold from the brewery shop Fridays and Saturdays. And there is Herslev Bryghus located in the small village of Herslev a few kilometers west of Roskilde. Visitors can sample the brews and exchange views with the brew master in the idyllic farmhouse ‘sample room’.
In Helsinge, less than an hour's drive north of Copenhagen, Fuglebjerggaard has achieved a fine reputation for its organic vegetables and fruits, and Camilla Plum, writer of cook books, offers courses in preparing organic meals. Her husband Per Kølster is taking up his own production of beer during the month of September 2005, likewise based on organic principles. Another farmhouse brewery Ølfabrikken started off in Tisvildeleje, but has now moved to Roskilde.
In Helsingør (Elsinore) in a quaint old building from the early 1800's, there's a small authentic marine store where you can purchase beer brewed in the same building. Klarérgårdens Bryglaug. The process can be seen through a window and the brewmaster's background is a lifetime's employment in Wibroe, the big Helsingør brewery, which is no longer brewed in Elsinore but now together with Carlsberg.
Carlsberg, the giant
....of course by far the largest brewery in Copenhagen, indeed one of the largest in the world ! Now brewed in over 130 countries, Carlsberg was founded in the early 19th century by brewer Christen Jacobsen. Today you can visit the Carlsberg Museum in Valby, just outside the city centre, where the company began and continues to brew beer. The Museum covers the history of the company while the Visitors Centre looks at the history of beer, and at the end of a tour visitors are given a complimentary glass to quench their thirst. Carlsberg has contributed directly to the cultural life of Copenhagen in many ways; for instance it founded the Glyptotek art collection and financed the famous Little Mermaid statue that has become, for many, the symbol of the city.
In 2000 Carlsberg moved into the gourmet beer market with its Semper Ardens range. Created together with some of Copenhagen's top chefs, these distinctive beers, Criollo Stout, Abbey Ale, Winter Rye and IPA First Gold, are sold in large 70cl bottles and flavoured with Danish herbs, fruits and berries. The chefs' input has ensured that Semper Ardens beers are ideal as an accompaniment to food or as an ingredient for baking, marinading and cooking. Initially available only through top restaurants, these beers are now available at many cafes and supermarkets throughout the city.
Beer venues in the city
So, where are the best places to sample Danish and foreign beers in Copenhagen? Of course, beer is available in virtually every café and restaurant in the city, but there are several venues that offer a notable range of specialist beers and share a genuine enthusiasm for the brewer's art.
In the centre of town beer drinkers have a lot of places to choose from. As soon as you come in the door of Charlie's Bar and see the hops hanging from the ceiling you realised this place is serious about its beer. This narrow, cosy bar serves English bitters, cask ales, and bottled imported lagers mostly from regional and family brewers - taking extra effort to keep them at the right temperature.
Another excellent place to enjoy the golden drink is at Hviids Vinstue's, in the historic interior, which lends it a unique atmosphere. A visit to this labrynthine kælder (cellar) pub-bar on Kongens Nytorv, with its flagstone floor, nicotine-stained ceilings, graffittied lampshades and lattice windows is an archetypal Copenhagen experiences. Dark, invariably smokey and full of hidden nooks and corners, Hviids, which dates back to 1723, is the kind of place where you can easily lose an afternoon or evening sampling the numerous draught Danish beers on offer.
Another historic Copenhagen drinking institution is the nearby Palæ Bar. This red-fronted Parisian-style bar is popular with writers and journalists, who can be found philosophising over a few glasses too many of the bar's three different types of porter and draught Guinness. With the voluble clientele and the regular jazz gigs held at Palæ, things can get fairly lively here.
For the restaurants in Nyhavn a dark tasty brew, a special Nyhavn Ale, has been created by the Ørbæk Brewery, founded 1906 on the island of Fyn (Funen). This is one of the few old, independent breweries still in existence.
For two years in a row 2003 and 2004 Den Tatoverede Enke in Gothersgade has received special recognition from the Danish Beer Enthusiasts for its unusually high standard: the Golden Badge.
In the neighbourhood
Ølbaren, close to the trendy café square Sankt Hans Torv and Nørrebro Bryghus in Nørrebro, has recently transformed itself from an old-school bodega to a haven for beer enthusiasts. Lars and Jan, the former engineers who opened this intimate bar in 2002, have kept the décor simple focussing instead on offering a well chosen selection of Danish and foreign beers from small, independent breweries. These include the Danish Limfjordsporter, the popular Czech Budvar, Irish stout, German and Belgian white beers and the dubiously named Young's Dirty Dick, from England. Ølbaren recently won a Bronze Medal from the Danish Beer Enthusiasts organisation.
Out in Frederiksberg genuine beer monsters will appreciate the dedication shown at 90'eren (The Ninety), a favourite among Copenhagen's beer lovers since 1916. They take their time to pour a pint properly at 90 'eren, in fact it is wise to order something else to drink while you wait for your first to be poured as Peter the barman can take up to 18 minutes to fill a glass. But you can taste the difference, and it gives you time to take in the Italianate freizes on the wall, which like the rest of the décor and furniture date to the 1920s.
In Vesterbro Märkbar is a popular pre-club venue with a grungy-arty atmosphere and a decent selection of Czech beers and Bavarian Erdinger beers.
Meanwhile, Circus in Østerbro has one of Copenhagen's most characterful interiors. This continental-style café and restaurant is housed in a former butchers shop and its walls are still graced by the original freizes, dating from 1900. Circus serves a good range of beers, including the Belgian weiss beers, which can be accompanied by their excellent tapas.
The supermarket chain Irma has added to its variety of brews by introducing two new beers from the recently opened small brewery Skands in Brøndby, a Copenhagen suburb. They are called: Humlefryd, New Stout, Nicks Ale and Skands Porter.
For a special occasion
As well as their daily devotion to the brewer's art, Copenhageners are rarely short of an excuse for a special beer celebration. Both Easter and Christmas are marked with special beers from Carlsberg and Tuborg (the days they go on sale signal the start of their respective seasons for many Danes), while the city is also host to beer festivals: European Beer Festival, 12-14 September 2008. The historic pleasure garden Tivoli held its first Ølfestival in August 2002, attracting 50,000 beer enthusiasts, while Nyhavn's annual beer festival, held each Autumn, sees its canal side bars and restaurants awash with beer and accompanying merriment.
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Breweries in Copenhagen: |
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Bryggeriet Apollo |
Brewpub |
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Færgekroen, Tivoli |
Nørrebro Bryghus |
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Vesterbro Bryghus |
Kongens Bryghus |
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Charlie's Bar |
Märkbar |
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Den Tatoverede Enke |
Ølbaren |
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Palæ Bar |
Hviids Vinstue |
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GB |
Vinstue 90 |
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Other places of interest |
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Carlsberg Museum |
Jacobsen's Brew House |
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Plan B |
European Beer Festival |
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... and outside Copenhagen: |
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Gourmetbryggeriet |
Herslev Bryghus |
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Fuglebjerggaard |
Mikrobryggeriet Ølfabrikken |
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Brøckhouse Brewery, Hillerød |
Gourmethuset Store Børs |
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Bryggeri Skovlyst |
Braunstein |
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Klarérgårdens Bryglaug |
Danish Beer Enthusiasts have their own website:
Information on festivals, venues etc.
www.ale.dk
other useful links are:
www.haandbryg.dk
www.ratebeer.com
www.oelruten.dk (Danish only)
Hop on the Beer Route
