Finally Olympen

Oslo is an interesting destination for beer travellers. The last few years more and more bars and pubs have started selling craft beers, and Norwegian craft breweries like Nøgne Ø, Haandbryggeriet, Kinn and Ægir have made a name for themselves brewing excellent beers. There are many restaurants in Oslo selling craft beers on tap, and nowadays it is easy to make several pub crawls in the Norwegian capital testing out new draught beers on every crawl. One of the better places for a beer visit is Olympen.

Olympen is a traditional beer hall. Some years ago it had a reputation as a local smoke filled boozer, but nowadays this is a large and spacious restaurant with a solid and much better public image. Olympen is called Lompa by locals, and it has a nice atmosphere. After hearing many recommendations about the beer hall, I finally could enter it at its location in Grønlandsleiret street in the Grønland neighbourhood.

In addition to bottled beers, there are several draught beers available at Olympen. The house beer is Hansa pale lager, and it is by far the least interesting draught beer available. In addition there were five other beers on tap the evening I visited Olympen. Two of the beers were from Oslo's Schoukjelleren Mikrobryggeri, and I decided to check out one of the local brews. My choice was Schouskjelleren's Thunderbear Stout.

Thunderbear Stout was served in an original Schoukjelleren Mikrobryggeri glass. It was a black beer with a medium sized head and nearly no carbonation. In the nose I felt some coffee and burnt malts. The taste was of cold coffee and some chocolate cake. I liked this stout a lot.

It was unfortunately time to move on. I had things to do the next day, so I needed to call it a night. But I know I will be back at Olympen.