White islander

Nøgne Ø's Wit is available in some Norwegian supermarkets. I have had several good wheat beers in this Belgian style during the last year, and I have become fond of beers like Hoegaarden.

The Norwegian attempt from the Grimstad brewery has a golden colour. In the glass there is some carbonation and a lasting, white head. In the nose there is a lot of flavour from yeast and fruits with accentuated banana. The taste is really nice. There is some yeast and more banana in the mouth. I like this beer. It is just delicious!


This is an excellent wit beer, and I am looking forward to drinking it in the sun next Summer. In the mean time I recommend Nøgne Ø's Wit for all wheat beer enthusiasts. The price for a 0.5 litre bottle at a Meny supermarket here in Norway was 39 NOK, which is slighty more than 4 EUR or 4 GBP.

First Brew Dog

I have seen people telling both good and bad things about the Scottish Brew Dog brewery and its beers. Until January I had never tried a Brew Dog beer. I have seen them on shelves in beer shops and bars abroad, but I had never seen a bottle here in Norway.

This changed as of 1 Januar when the Norwegian state owned wine and liquor outlets, Vinmonopolet, started selling some Brew Dog beers. I decided to try one out, and Rip Tide was my first Brew Dog beer.

According to the label this is a "twisted merciless stout". The alcohol content is 8%. The label also tells that this beer won the prize for "world's best stout-imperial" at the World Beer Awards. The beer is very dark. In the glass there is some carbonation and a small, tanned head.

In the nose there is coffee and some burnt notes. In the mouth the feeling of cold coffee takes the lead with much bitterness, but there are also hints of prune there. The beer is balanced, as the alcohol content does not show.

Rip Tide is a nice beer, but I feel the straight forward coffee taste makes it unneccessarily bitter. I would like to try it again, but I feel there are other dark beers out there that suit my palate better than this beer from Brew Dog.

Brown island

Brown Ales can be very good beers. I have had my share of Newcastle Brown Ale, so I was expecting something entirely different when I found a bottle of Nøgne Ø's Brown Ale at a supermarket. Many of the Nøgne Ø beers have been to my liking, and I was looking forward to trying it.

In the glass the Brown Ale is a dark beer with a medium sized tanned head. There is nearly no carbonation. In the nose there are burnt notes and also some caramel. The burnt notes are distinct in the mouth, while the caramel more or less steps to the side. There is also some bitterness before coffee leads off in the aftertaste.

I liked this medium bodied beer, and I feel it is one of the better beers among Nøgne Ø's offers with a lower alcohol content.

A Norwegian brewpub

Although the Bryggerikaia brewpub in Bodø is not brewing beers at the moment, there are other brewpubs in Norway. Not too many, but if you visit the biggest cities you should have a chance to find one. Oslo has Oslo Mikrobryggeri and Bergen has Kalfaret brygghus. There are among others also brewpubs at Lillehammer and in the little village Flåm in the fjord district.

This month I visited Trondheim, and in the city centre Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri can be found. Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri has the same owners as Oslo Mikrobryggeri. Outside there are possibilities for outdoors seating, but the freezing Norwegian Winter temperatures makes this not tempting. Inside, Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri has a large room on the ground floor with a large bar in the middle of the room.

Nearly all beers sold at Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri are brewed at the premises. The day I visited the most popular beer was the brewery's pale lager, Trondhjemspils, which is unfortunately a quite ordinary beer. In addition to this the brewpub also sold a porter, a bitter, a stout, an amber, a bayer and an IPA. Beers are sold in several measures, but they are also available in taster glasses which cost 15 NOK for 0.1 litre.

I decided to take a taster glass of all available beers, and after five minutes I was served seven glasses of beers in several colours. The first beer I tasted was the porter. It was upper fermented and black in colour. In the nose there were hints of coffee, and in the mouth the coffee was still there. The beer was thin bodied and felt watery. It had some caramel in the aftertaste. The beer had 4.5% alcohol and all in all I felt it was somewhat boring.


Next beer out was the bitter. It had very little aroma, but I liked the consistence of the beer. Tastewise it did not impress me. There was not much flavour except for some hops in the aftertaste. Another boring beer, unfortunately.

I then tried the stout, It was black with a small head. The nose had some coffee and roastedness. In the mouth the coffee was to the fore, but it felt somewhat watery. A good beer, but at 5.5% alcohol I had hoped for more taste in it.

Then it was time for the amber. It had a great, amber (sic!) colour and nice aromas of fruit. In the mouth the fruit was kicking with tastes of apples and peaches dominating. The aftertaste was somewhat bitter, but in all a balanced beer that I liked a lot. This beer had 5.5% alcohol.

Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri's Baviarian style beer, Bayer, had a nice copper colour. In the glass there was nearly no head, but a lot of carbonation. I felt the beer was watery and with little taste. Another boring beer.

The last beer I tried was the IPA. It was a pale beer with little aroma. In the mouth it was something else. Hops and bitterness gave it a nice bite, but an exciting feeling of pears followed by more hops in the aftertaste made this IPA a nice experience. I liked this beer best of all the beers I had at Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri, so I enjoyed an American pint of it afterwards. The 0.45 litre of IPA was priced at 57 NOK, which is nearly 7 EUR or slightly more than 6 GBP.

It liked being able to visit Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri, and I will be back if I return to Trondheim. The beers were nice, but I felt that other Norwegian breweries have better beers to offer. The IPA is beaten by the IPAs from both Haandbryggeriet and Ægir, and Hansa and Aass make better bayers than Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri. But the beers here are better than most of what is brewed at the local macro brewery in Trondheim, E. C. Dahl.

Anniversary beer

The Norwegian Nøgne Ø brewery has several styles among the brewery's various beers. One of them is the anniversary beer, Nøgne Ø #100. This was a beer brewed as their batch number 100.

Nøgne Ø #100 has a deep, dark colour. It is nearly black. There is little carbonation and it builds a little and tanned head. In the nose there is some sweetness. I also find some hops, prunes and hints of chocolate.

In the mouth the prunes and bitterness fight with a touch of coffee. Lovely! In the aftertaste Nøgne Ø #100 stands out as a tasty and balanced beer.

Nøgne Ø #100 is a great beer, but I would love it more fullbodied. It is also strong with 10% alcohol.

Back on the quay

If you want to have beer in the city centre of Bodø, there are several bars and restaurants to visit. One of them is Bryggerikaia, which is perfectly located next to the wharf. Bryggerikaia used to advert that it was the only brewery in Bodø. In June I was at the brewpub twice to check out the beers brewed there. When I visited, there were no beers available in the brewpub. I was therefore hoping for a new chance to check out Bryggerikaia's beers when I was in Bodø earlier this month.

Once again I was disappointed. The cute and friendly waitress could tell me that the brewer has moved from Bodø and that all the brewery equipment is not in use at the moment. She then showed me a corner of the pub where I could see some of the brewing tanks.

According to the waitress, the management at Bryggerikaia hope to start brewing again, but they do not know when. In the meantime Bryggerikaia sells draughted beers from the Mack brewery of Tromsø. Mack is according to their advertising the most northern brewery in the world, and on tap I could see their Arctic Beer, a pilsner, a Bayer, Haakon special beer and a seasonal beer. I like Arctic Beer, so I used the opportunity to try it again.

Mack's Arctic Beer is a pale lager. It was served with much carbonation and a medium sized head. The beer has a flowery aroma with some malts. In the mouth the malt takes the lead with some hops and grains in the aftertaste. Arctic Beer is a very good lager, and I would like to recommend it among Norwegian pale lagers. The price at Bryggerikaia is 69 NOK, slightly more than 6.50 EUR or 6 GBP. If you want bottled beers, Bryggerikaia also sells Corona, Grolsch or Carlsberg.

I hope Bryggerikaia will get back to brewing their own beers. The pub is a very nice place to visit, and I would like to return there.

Even more airport beers

North of the Arctic circle, you will find Bodø. Bodø is one of the largest cities in the northern part of Norway, but with slightly more than 46,000 inhabitants it is not a large town. Bodø is home to the largest air force base in Norway, and the Norwegian armed forces and Bodø University College just outside the city centre are the biggest employers in the area.

In addition to the Bodø Main Air Station, there is also an airport in Bodø next to the airforce base. Bodø airport is located five minutes by taxi from the city centre, and it has a nice little terminal building.

Inside the building the departure area is on the ground floor. Here you can check in and drop your baggage. Up the stairs from departures, you can go through the security control. But, if you want to have a beer, you might wait for a while. Alcoholic beverages are not sold in the waiting hall after the security control, so if you want a beer you need to turn right after the stairs and enter Bodø Aktiebryggeri.

Bodø Aktiebryggeri means Bodø Brewery Ltd, but it is not a brewery pub. Instead it is a normal pub serving beverages and some light snacks. I had a large portion of nachos with salsa and sour cream. Nice stuff, but not very filling. The name Bodø Aktiebryggeri comes from a brewery that once existed in Bodø.

Among the beers available from tap you can find Guinness and Ringnes Lite. Ringnes Lite is not to be confused with lettøl (light beer), which is a Norwegian beer with low alcohol content. Instead Ringnes Lite is a beer with a lower calory count. In my opinion, this is also a beer with lower taste as well. If you want a diet drink, then Ringnes Lite might be an alternative. But so is also water.

There is also draughted lager beers like Carlsberg and Nordlandspils at Bodø Aktiebryggeri. Carlsberg is brewed on licence in Norway by Ringnes, and it is not among my favorite beers available in Norway. Nordlandspils used to be Bodø's own beer, but after Nordlandsbryggeriet brewery was bought by Ringnes, the production was moved from Bodø to Trondheim.

Nordlandspils is served in a 0.6 litre glass at 89 NOK. The beer is a pale lager with some carbonation and a small head. The nose is flowery with hints of fruit. In the mouth there is a hint of sweetness, malts and more flowers in a thinbodied beer. The aftertaste is bittery, but it balances the sweetness very well. I feel it is an OK Norwegian lager, and it is better from tap than from cans.

I liked Bodø Aktiebryggeri, but I feel that the airport needs a pub also on the other side of the security check. The way it is now, you can only find a Narvesen stand with books, magazines, soft drinks and snacks. If my flight was postponed, I would hate to have gone through the security check and not being able to have a beer or two while waiting for my plane to departure.