Report from a near beer desert

I have visited some Norwegian airports during the last few weeks. I am not satisfied of the draught beer selection I have seen. The restaurants and bars are tied to the Ringnes brewery group in beverages. This means that Ringnes pale lager is found on tap more or less everywhere. In addition to Ringnes, you will often find Carlsberg pale lager, Kilkenny and Guinness and here and there a local pale lager from the Ringnes sortiment or a seasonal special.

There are also bottles available. Ringnes distributes Brooklyn brewery in Norway, and where available these are usually the most interesting offers. Otherwise there are bottled pale lagers like Ringnes, Carlsberg and Stella Artois on offer together with even more Guinness. Unfortunately no Norwegian craft beers are to be found on any of the airports I have been to, and that is really a shame. A tourist ought to find a Norwegian speciality also in an airport bar.

I recently had a 0.6 litre of Ringnes Pilsner at Bergen's airport Flesland. The pale lager had nearly no head and a lot of carbonation. In the nose there was sweetness and malts. I felt sweet malts and a touch of yeast in the mouth before a bitter finish with some wort and a touch of grains. This is a boring, average pale lager. The price was 94 NOK, which is nearly 11 GBP.

At Oslo's airport Gardermoen I tried Ringnes' Christmas beer. Ringnes Juleøl was a coppery beer with nearly no carbonation nor head. In the nose there was some caramel and cold coffee, and the beer tasted the same. I have tasted several better Christmas beers from Norway this year, and Ringnes Juleøl must be considered another boring beer.

I want to appeal to the bar and restaurant owners at Norwegian airports: If you have to sell beers from the Ringnes group, use your imagination and find some more interesting beers. A selection from Brooklyn brewery on tap would be a great beginning.

Three tastes of Christmas

There are many Christmas beers on the Norwegian market. One of them, Tuborg Juleøl, is brewed on licence by Ringnes. In Denmark the original Tuborg Juleøl is a traditional beer, and the release day every year is marked with big festivities.

The Norwegian version of Tuborg Juleøl looks nice in the glass with a coppery colour, some carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose I feel caramel and figs. The taste is malty with some sweetness, caramel and a touch of dates before a watery finish. This was a nice Christmas beer for its alcohol strength. It has 4.6% alcohol and is available in supermarkets.

Also available in supermarkets is Ringnes Juleøl. This is a beer with 4.6% alcohol with a coppery colour as well. There is not much carbonation, but the beer builds a medium sized head. I feel caramel and malts in the nose. In the mouth I feel toffee, sweetness and some coffee. The finish is watery. This is an average beer, and I would prefer the Tuborg Juleøl.

From Vinmonopolet you can get Kinn Julefred. This is a Christmas beer with a darker colour than the other two. In the glass this is a beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. I feel caramel and cold coffee in the nose. The beer is full of tastes. I feel both toffee, various spices like cloves and cinnamon and a touch of gingerbread. The finish is sweet with some dates. This is a very good Christmas beer, and it is among the better ones I have tried this season.

A taste of Christmas

I have tasted some of this season's Christmas beers, juleøl. Some are great, some are not. The first I tried during this session was Grans julebrygg with an alcohol content of 4.7%. That was a disappointment.

Grans julebrygg is a dark beer with a lot of carbonation, but the medium sized head disappears quickly. In the nose there is some toffee. In the mouth there is some caramel and old Coke before the taste of Belgian yeast and British washing cloth takes the lead. This is a boring beer!

The next beer was Hansa Juleøl. This was the supermarket version with 4.5% alcohol. The beer copper coloured beer was fizzy with a medium sized head. In the nose I felt some caramel. The beer had a watery feeling with some assertive toffee. There was also a metallic taste making the beer quite uninteresting.

Aass Juleøl was bought at Vinmonopolet. This was a dark beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose I felt toffee and malts, while the beer tasted of dark chocolate and some caramel before a sweet finish. Aass Juleøl was a fine beer.

Ringnes Julebokk is a strong beer at 9%. In the glass it was a dark beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. I felt dark chocolate and caramel in the nose. The beer tasted of dark chocolate and some tobacco before a finish with cold coffee. This was a lovely, full-bodied beer that I really enjoyed. I will have more of Ringnes Julebokk before Christmas!

Ægir Julebrygg is a copper coloured beer with nearly no carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose I felt cinnamon, cloves and some spices I could not pinpoint. In the mouth a taste of gingerbread took the lead. The beer was nice, but different. Still a glass is enough, as I got bored of this beer in the end.

The great lager beer test

It was the Norwegian beer blogger Lars Garshol who started it all. He did a blind test of pale lagers available in Norwegian supermarkets. The results surprised him, and they also started a very interesting thread on a Norwegian beer forum. Various posts from beer lovers and beer bloggers showed that many did not recognise certain beers they generally knew well. In other cases posts showed that people had prejudice towards certain beers or breweries, and that a beer tasted much better than they had thought in advance. The beer forum had a software update this Summer and due to no backup of data all these posts are unfortunately lost.

I have also done the blind test, and it was really interesting to see my results. Lars Garshol had used five different pale lagers in his test. I forgot to buy Grans pilsner, so I ended up with pale lagers from the Czech Bernard brewery and from the Norwegian Aass, Hansa and Ringnes breweries. All beers were served at the same temperature in the same kind of beer glasses.

The first beer out was a pale lager with some carbonation and a small head. I felt some apple in the nose. Otherwise there was nearly no aromas. In the mouth there was apple, yeast and a touch of hops in the finish. This was a boring lager that I thought was Aass.

The second beer also had a pale colour. It had some carbonation and a large head. In the nose there was some malts. In the mouth I felt malts and a touch of pears. This was an average lager that I felt was better than beer number 1. I thought that this was brewed by Ringnes.

The third beer had a nose of dried flowers and some butter. In the glass it had some carbonation and a small head, but it was a little bit darker than the other beers. This beer had a fuller body and a malty taste before a partly bitter finish. I felt this was the best beer so far, and I thought that it was the Bernard lager.

The fourth beer was paler than beer number 3. There was some carbonation, but it had a small sized head. In the nose I felt malts and some hops. In the nose the malts took the lead, but it had a boring finish that called for some hoppy bitterness. Still, this was a nice pale lager although I preferred the third beer. I believed that this beer was brewed by Hansa.

Then it was the moment of truth. I had recognized both Bernard and Aass in the test, but I had thought that Hansa was Ringnes and vice versa. The result sheet from this blind test thus looks like this:

1: Bernard. 2: Ringnes. 3: Hansa. 4: Aass

Blind tests are good tests, and I will call all beer bloggers to do more of them. Perhaps you will find out that not all pale lagers taste the same, and that one of the lagers brewed by a large brewery actually tastes better than you believed? It is also a way of checking out beer prejudices and a good challenge for the palate.

Two beers at Oslo airport

I had left the city centre of Oslo to catch a plane at Oslo's Gardermoen airport. This time I was early at the airport, so I sat down at the Christiania bar to have some beer.

As always the draught beer selection at the airport leaves something to be desired. At Christiania you can have Ringnes, Carlsberg or Stella Artois pale lagers. Are you ready for some ales, there is Kilkenny and Guinness from tap.

I would not have any of these beers, so I checked out the beer bottle selection. There I found some beers I had not tried earlier. The Ringnes brewery distributes some of the Brooklyn beers in Norway, and I wanted to check out Brooklyn East India Pale Ale.

In the Ringnes branded glass the Brooklyn East India Pale Ale had some carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose I felt grapefruit. I found grapefruit, sour oranges and some spices in the mouth before a semi bitter finish with some passionfruit. This was a lovely beer!

There was also time for a Jacobsen dark lager. Jacobsen is Carlsberg's mini brewery, and I have enjoyed some of the other Jacobsen beers earlier. The dark lager was not a favourite. It was a dark beer with nearly no carbonation and a small head. Except for a tiny hint of coffee and caramel, there was no aroma. In the mouth the beer felt watery with some caramel. I felt it was boring.

As I went to my flight, I had once again the same feeling: Why is it not possible for Oslo airport to sell some Norwegian craft beers? And why not as draught beers? The airport is the largest in Norway, and many tourists travel through it. This could be a nice place to show the better beers of Norway to visitors.

Best beer in Norway?

The marketing department at Ringnes are waxing lyrically on a beer can. According to a survey, Ringnes new pale lager Ringnes Platinum was the best beer. On the beer can this is repeated in a logo: Ringnes Platinum is the "best tasting lager in Norway". No less. And in English text as well.

I really had to taste Ringnes Platinum. In the glass this beer has a nice golden colour, but it is a fizzy lager with nearly no head. In the nose there is some malts, sweetness and a touch of grass. In the mouth this is a sweet, malty beer with a medium body. The finish is malty with a hoppy touch. It is by no means Norway's best beer nor Norway's best lager. I would call it an average lager and a beer I will not buy frequently.

I will not be buying Pinkus Hefe Weizen that much either. This German wheat beer is a cloudy and fizzy beer in the glass, but there are nearly no aromas. I feel some sweetness, and in the mouth it is boring as well. There is that typical bready weizen taste and a touch of yeast, but otherwise this beer is very watery. I prefer Paulaner's hefeweizen, and I will continue buying it. Pinkus Hefe Weizen is a lesser product, the way I see it.

Back at Oslo airport

After a few days in Oslo, it is time to move on. I take the train from Oslo Central Station to Oslo Airport Gardermoen. If you are in a hurry, you take Flytoget (Airport Express Train) and spend about 20 minutes on the train. For nearly half the price, it is possible to take the local train to Eidsvoll and get off at the airport. It takes slightly more than 40 minutes, but paying 110 NOK instead of 190 NOK is worth it.

There are many bars and restaurants at the airport, but I prefer the sports bar O'Learys. This is a Swedish chain with many sister bars on train stations and airport in Sweden.

The drinks menu at O'Learys at Oslo Airport.

O'Learys at Gardermoen are not to be recommended for their beers. There are way too few beers to choose from. From tap there are Ringnes and Tuborg pale lager together with Guinness stout and Kilkenny. In bottles you can find Carlsberg, Tuborg Lime Cut, Budweiser and two beers from the Brooklyn brewery.

I like Brooklyn lager, but Brooklyn Brown Ale is a new beer for me. There is no doubt, so I order the ale. In the glass, Brooklyn Brown Ale is a nearly black beer with nearly no carbonation and a large head. There are aromas of hops and dark chocolate. In the mouth I feel chocolate and some cold coffee, before a finish where very dark chocolate take the lead. This is a very good beer, and I will try it again.

As I leave the bar to get to my flight, my thoughts are again with Norwegian breweries. Why can they not have a presence in the bars on Norway's largest airport? This should be a showcase for beers from Nøgne Ø, Haandbryggeriet, Ægir and/or Kinn to name a few.

Another airport beer

Are you travelling to Oslo by airplane, you will in most cases travel to Oslo airport at Gardermoen. The airport, which opened in 1998, is situated about 50 kilometres north of Oslo. The airport is the biggest airport in Norway and it is built with a single terminal.

Oslo has several times been called the world's most expensive city, like in this newspaper story. If you feel the Norwegian capital is expensive, prices at Gardermoen are even higher. The restaurants and bars at the airport have prices that the national tourist agency should be ashamed of. It is no fun for a foreigner visiting Norway being quoted a price of about 160 NOK for a hamburger with fries or 100 NOK for a roll with prawns and Norwegian caviar, for instance.

Beerwise the airport is a boring place. The Monolitten restaurant is a good example. Only two draught beers are available, and you can choose between Carlsberg or the local Ringnes pale lager. The Carlsberg beer is probably brewed on licence by Ringnes, but the waiter did not know for sure.

I had a 0.4 litre of Carlsberg at Monolitten. It was priced at 66 NOK or nearly 7 GBP. The pale lager had a small head and some carbonation. I felt malts and grains in the nose, while it had a malty taste before a bitter finish. This beer was first of all a thirst quencher. I prefer other lager beers to it.

If I were a tourist to Norway sitting down at Monolitten, I would wonder why this restaurant at Norway's national airport only serves pale lagers. A place like this could be a great showcase of Norwegian craft beers. The restaurant has its name from one of Norway's most known statues, the Monolith by Gustav Vigeland. It should also show some of the better aspects of Norwegian drinking cultures. This piece of advice is for free: How about a little viking hut with draught beers from Ægir, for instance?

Anniversary: Beer saga #100

This is the 100th post here at Beer Sagas, and I will do a presentation of some Norwegian pale lagers. Some are interesting, some are boring and some are new in the shops this year. But as far as I know, they are not available outside Norway.

I will start with a beer that has been on the market for more than 20 years. If you buy it is shops, Hansa fatøl is only available in cans these days. Fatøl means draught beer, and it is quite an inconsistency calling a canned beer fatøl. In the glass this is a fizzy beer with a medium sized head which dissolves quickly. There are some flowers and sweetness in the nose. In the mouth I feel some malts and hints of sweetness. It has a half bitter finish with a watery feeling. It is a nice session beer, but it will fall through in competition with for instance Czech golden lagers.

Lade Gaards Brygghus Pilsner looks wonderful in the shops. It is a nice looking bottle with a beautiful oldschool label with an interesting writeup about Norwegian medieval history in general and Lade in particular.The beer is brewed by Grans brewery of Sandefjord. Grans is infamous in Norway for its cheap lagers, and some of them are absolutely not to be recommended.

Lade Gaards Brygghus Pilsner is brewed by barley and Czech saaz hops. The water used is from the famous Norwegian well Farris. I must say that this made me very interested in the beer. The nose is flowery, but the taste was not very good. There is a nasty metallic taste to the fore. Yuk! There are also some malts and hints of hops before a watery feeling takes over.

This is a boring lager that I will not spend money on in the future.

Ringnes is Norway's largest brewery. It has several beers on the market, and Skjærgårdspils is a seasonal offering meant for Summer. The name can freely be translated to English as "coastal pils". In the glass this is a pale lager with some carbonation. There is very little aroma, and the same goes for the taste: Some malts, a hint of bitterness and that is all. Another boring lager, but it will probably be a good session beer for a long night of eating fresh prawns and crabs.

Ringnes Classic is based on an old recipe. It is a golden lager with a solid and large head. There is some carbonation, and in the mouth I feel yeast and some malt. In the mouth, this lager beer has a feeling of bread and sweetness dancing with hops. This is a very good lager beer that is among the better offers from Ringnes.

With this being post number 100, it is time to look forward. What is to expect? Well, there will be updates now and then, but I can not promise how regularly. I also have a large backlog of tasting notes right now, and I hope to get up to date soon. I am not through with posting from my visit to the Czech Republic last month, and there are also some Norwegian pubs I have visited during the last few weeks. Therefore you can expect a combination of posts with focus on Czech and Norwegian beers in the next month.

I enjoy writing this blog, and I would like to thank all of you readers for taking the time to read it. Cheers, everybody!

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.