PRESS INFORMATION
August 2010

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.

Danish micro breweries had a golden era during the last decade and Denmark has since 2005 been the country that has the most breweries per capita in Europe. One of the main reasons for the renewed interest in beer, or 'øl' as the Danes call it, was the increase in the number of smaller breweries in Denmark.

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

Vesterbro Bryghus has five special beers that are brewed from traditional Austrian recipes and served at long bar, which stretches through most of the room. On the basement you will find a restaurant with an open grill and a beer-seasoned menu. In 2010 they opened a salon on the first floor.

Downtown Brewpub has around eight in-house micro brews and four ‘guest brews' i.e. taps with other beers and a beer menu. You can also order a ‘sampler', which consists of five 10-centiliter samples of different beers.

Nørrebro Bryghus is a 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. The founder Anders Kissmeyer worked at Carlsberg for 16 years before starting this new micro-brewery. In April 2008 Nørrebro Bryghus was awarded its first two medals at the World Beer Cup in San Diego, California and in 2010 they we´re awarded two gold medals and one silver medal at the World Beer Cup in Chicago, Illinois. A competition that is considered the OL of beer, with no less than3.330 beers entered from 642 brewery's and 44 different countries.

In 2009 they released Denmark's first CO2 neutral beer`Globe Ale´ having bought CO2 quotas to insure that the beer will not be a liability for the environment. Nørrebro Bryghus has had a second brewery from 2006 in Hedehusene close to Roskilde. It does not have a restaurant, but supplies the market with Nørrebro beers in bottles and on draught. In December 2009 all Nørrebro Bryghus beers became CO2 neutral!

Anyone who has visited Tivoli Gardens will have passed Bryggeriet Apollo, next to the main entrance. Copenhagen's first microbrewery. 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.

The story of Mikkeller is the story of two home brewers that in a few years went from hobby brewing in the kitchen to national and international recognition. Since the summer of 2007, the world famous brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, has run Mikkeller on his own. Mikkel is a gipsy-brewer, who brews at different breweries in Denmark, around Europe and the United States and has his own beer bar Mikkeller Bar in the heart of Vesterbro. At Mikkeller Bar, open every day of the week, you will find 15 taps from Mikkeller and the world's best breweries, cheese, snacks and a specialized bottled selection. Ten of the taps are Mikkeller's own brew.

... outside Copenhagen

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.

Den Tatoverede Enke in Gothersgade received the Golden Badge two years in a row from the Danish Beer Enthusiasts for its unusually high standard.

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.

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: Copenhagen Beer Festival in May and Nyhavn's annual beer festival in September with its canal side bars and restaurants awash with beer and accompanying merriment.

The historic pleasure garden Tivoli held its first Øl festival (Beer Festival) August 2002, attracting 50,000 beer enthusiasts. This has today developed into a food festival including beer. Tivoli's ecological classic beer is CO2 neutral. Produced by Braustein Brewery it can be found in various restaurants in Tivoli. Additional inspiration on www.visitcopenhagen.dk/ølruten (Danish only)

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