Back at the office

Kontoret's name is just clever. In English it means "the office", and they have a slogan that can be translated as the office being open for overtime work. As a beer bar, Kontoret is one of the better ones in Bergen. There are six beer taps, and some of them always offer beers from Ægir and other craft breweries.

Kontoret is part of a restaurant house that has a anniversary this Spring. To commemorate the anniversary, Kontoret offers a house beer at the moment. This is a kölsch brewed by Ægir.

Kontoret Jubileumsbrygg had a cloudy, pale colour. There was no carbonation and a small head. In the nose I felt some fruit, yeast and sourness. The taste was fruity with a touch of citrus before a finish with some grass and yeast. This was a nice beer, but I prefer beers in other styles than this.

At an earlier visit to Kontoret, I also tasted Mikkeler Cream Ale. This was a cloudy beer with no carbonation and barely a head. In the nose citrus took the lead, while the beer had lemon to the fore. The finish was watery and boring. I did not enjoy this beer.

Bergen now has three pubs serving house beers. That is a nice development. Although Henrik Imperial Amber is the best of the house beers, Kontoret Jubileumsbrygg is a fine beer. At Naboen you can drink Naboen Bayer and Naboen Bitter. The tasty bitter is brewed by Kinn, while the Bavarian styled beer is rumoured to be brewed by Aass. The waiters at Naboen do not want to disclose the brewery site, and that is stupid. Therefore I give my kudos to Kontoret and Henrik for being up front offering relevant consumer information.

A taste of IPA or three

India Pale Ale is one of my favourite beer styles. I was therefore happy to find a new IPA acquaintance at a Vinmonopolet outlet. Scottish Joker IPA is brewed by the British Williams Brothers brewery, and of course it was given a test run.

In the glass Scottish Joker IPA is a cloudy beer. There is barely any carbonation, and it has a very small head. In the nose I feel grapefruit and some pines. In the mouth grapefruit takes the lead before a watery finish with some orange. I felt this was a boring IPA that left a lot to be desired.

Ægir Ratatosk Double IPA is named after the squirrel in the Norse god sagas. In the glass this is another cloudy beer with a coppery colour. It has some carbonation and a small head. I feel toffee, flowers, apricot and some grapefruit in the nose. The beer has a fine, full body. There are tastes of citrus, pineapple, caramel, tutti frutti bubble gium and some sugar. I also feel some alcohol touches before a partly bitter finish with some lovely hops. This is a fine beer, but I prefer Ægir's normal IPA. And after a few sips, Ratatosk also gets too sweet. Unfortunately.

Mikkeller Green Gold is a beer I have tasted as a draught beer earlier. From bottle this IPA is a cloudy beer with a medium sized head and barely any carbonation. I feel grapefruit in the nose, while the beer tastes of more grapefruit combined with some blood orange. The finish is bitter with a lot of hops. This is the best beer of these three, but it is somewhat more bitter than what I would prefer.

The Session: Sour beer

It has been a while since I have contributed to The Session. This month I am back, and this time the topic is "Sour beer" and it is hosted by Jon Abernathy at The Brew Site. Thanks for hosting, Jon!

The Session is the beer writing project where beer writers and bloggers from around the globe write on a single beer-related topic on the same day.

I have never tried a sour beer before, so this month's The Session was a great starting point. My local supermarkets do not sell sour beers, so I had to check out the nearest Vinmonopolet outlet.

There were not that many beers to be found there. I found some Belgian triples and several IPAs and porters together with the occational pale lagers that are too strong to be found in Norwegian supermarkets. But there were no sour beers in the beer section.

By chance I went to the shelf with the newest products from Vinmonopolet. Among wine bottles and liquor I found one beer bottle. And guess what! It was a sour beer. I had hoped to find a Belgian lambic or gueuze. Instead I found Mikkeler Spontanale. The Danish brewery calls it a geubic, by the way.

Mikkeler Spontanale was a fizzy, pale beer with a tiny head. In the nose I found some fruit and a touch of yeast. The taste was very different to what I expected. I felt lemon, some spices and a touch of vinegar. It was not a favourite, and I believe this beer to be an acquired taste.

I will try other sour beers in the future, but there are other beers that suits my palate better at the moment. For instance is a can of Pilsner Urquell waiting for me in the refridgerator right now.

Two beers upstairs

Henrik is one of the better places to drink beer in Bergen. The pub is situated on the first floor in a building near the theatre, and it is near other local beer temples like Baran, Naboen and Kontoret.

Of course you can find pale lagers, Guinness and Kilkenny at Henrik, but I prefer drinking beers from the three Nøgne Ø taps. Usually you never know what to find, but you can count on that it is at least one excellent beer. Sometimes there are three Nøgne Ø beers, and at other times there are some beers imported to Norway by Nøgne Ø.

Mikkeller Green Gold is one such beer. It is an IPA brewed by the Danish brewery. In the glass the beer looks fine with a cloudy colour and a solid head. There is grapefruit and some grass in the nose, while I feel grapefruit and apples in the mouth before a bitter finish. This is a lovely IPA.

Left Hand Milk Stout is nearly black beer with a little head and nearly no carbonation. In the nose there is a touch of coffee, and the coffee is also present in the mouth with some caramel and a touch of sweetness. The finish is partly bitter. The stout is fine, but I guess I would rather have had another glass of Mikkeller Green Gold than this beer.

A bunch of import beers

Mikkeler is one of the most popular Danish craft breweries. Mikkeler Beer Geek Breakfast is a beer brewed for Mikkeler at Nøgne Ø in Norway. It is a dark beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose there is coffee, while I feel coffee, roasted nuts and some cocoa in the mouth. The finish is bitter with a touch of cold coffee. This is a lovely beer.

Westmalle is one of the Belgian trappist breweries. The Westmalle Tripel beer has 9.5% alcohol, and it is cloudy with a medium sized head. There is nearly no carbonation. In the nose there are fruits, some flowers and malts. I feel malts, sweetness, some peach and a touch of yeast before a partly sour and bitter finish. It is a nice beer.

Amstel Pulse is a Dutch pale lager. I drank the beer from the bottle. In the nose there was some malts, while in the mouth this was a watery beer. It had some sweetness before a tiny touch of hops in the finish. This was a boring pale lager that it is easy to avoid. There are loads of better lager beers around than Amstel Pulse.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a golden, but somewhat cloudy beer in the glass. It has some carbonation and a medium sized head. I feel citrus and grass in the nose. In the mouth grapefruit is dominating before a semi bitter finish. This is another lovely beer.

Wheat and more

Kinn brewery from Florø is one of the smaller craft breweries making themselves a name in Norway right now. In Bergen some Kinn beers are always available as draught beers at Naboen. Last week I found a new beer there, Kinn Jubileum.

This was a wheat beer brewed after Belgian traditions. In the glass this was an unclear beer with a nearly golden colour. The nose was fruity with a hint of orange peels, while the mouth feeling made the orange peels take the lead. This was a lovely wit, but I would love to try it in Summer in the sun. In that case, Naboen is not the right place as it lacks outdoor seeting.

Outdoor seating can be found at Henrik, where you now and then have exciting beers from tap. In December the Danish Mikkeler brewery was present on the taps with their Beer Geek Bacon. This was a dark beer with nearly no head. In the nose I felt coffee and a touch of yeast, while it tasted coffee, tobacco and dark chocolate. A lovely beer.

Earlier this week a beer from BrewDog could be found on one of Henrik's taps. I had some bottles of 77 lager in Sweden last year and liked the beer quite a lot. It was also very good as a draught beer with a nose of grapefruit and straw. In the mouth there was orange, malts and a touch of grapefruit before a nice and not too bitter finish. Another lovely beer.

During the last two weeks I have visited Kontoret several times to try some of the Ægir beers. They have not been available due to weather conditions near the brewery, and the management at the pub has decided not to make other beers available on the taps. Thus I ended up with a glass of Old Speckeled Hen this week. This beer with a toffee based nose is OK, but I prefer the Ægir beers to it. In the mouth Old Speckeled Hen is creamy with toffee and malts dominating. It is a nice ale, but nothing more than that.