A Hansa Christmas

I have tried three Christmas beers from the Norwegian brewery Hansa. Hansa Julebrygg is available in two versions. The stronger one is available at Vinmonopolet, but the version with a lower alcohol content is available in supermarkets.

I started out with Hansa Julebrygg in the 4.5% version. In the glass this was a dark beer with a nearly black colour. There was some carbonation and a medium sized head. I felt malts and cold coffee in the nose. In the mouth there was caramel and watery coffee before a boring finish with a touch of sweetness. This was a rather boring beer.


The stronger Hansa Julebrygg has 6.5% alcohol. This was a dark beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose there was some caramel. The beer was somewhat sweet with plenty of cold coffee, a touch of caramel and a good body. This was absolutely the better of the two Julebrygg versions.

Hansa Juleøl is the ordinary strong Christmas beer from the Hansa brewery. The version bought at Vinmonopolet has 6.5% alcohol. In the glass this fizzy beer had a copper colour and a small head. In the nose there was caramel, while the beer tasted of more caramel, some malts and a touch of sweetness. This was an average beer, and I prefer the stronger Hansa Julebrygg to this beer.

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.

A citizen's pub

Skostredet street in Bergen has had a renaissance during the last few years. Shops and cafes have popped up, and now and then there are markets days offering buyers everything from jumble sale goods to modern art.

Folk og røvere is among the newer establishments in the street. This is a pub owned by a group of 46 friends who have tried to make a pub concept that the owners believe that the city of Bergen needs.

I liked the atmosphere at Folk og røvere. The music played was quality rock from the seventies and eighties, and the cute waitress was both charming and nice talking to. But what about the draught beer in the pub? Folk og røvere only sells Hansa pale lager from tap. I have had my share of Hansa during my years as a beer drinker, and these days I usually buy other brands when I want a pale lager.

Hansa Pils was with the usual pale colour, a lot of carbonation and a small head. The nose was malty and sweet with a touch of flowers. In the mouth I felt more malts, some sweetness and a malty finish with a hoppy twist. It was better than I expected, but Hansa Pils is still among the average lager beers.

Folk og røvere also sells bottled beers from various breweries, but it would be great if some of them also were offered on tap. Nowadays a good pub should be able to have more than one draught beer. That also goes for Folk og røvere.

Overshadowed?

Biskopen is situated in the beer district of Bergen. On the other side of the street you can find Naboen, and within a minute's walk you can find either Baran or Henrik.

The bottle selection is very nice at Biskopen, and there are also more draught beers than in most pubs in Bergen. Hansa takes care of the pale lagers together with Heineken, while Murphy's delivers both stout and red ale. It is also interesting to note that Biskopen also sells the local Waldemar beers. On tap you can find both the wheat beer and the brown ale at the moment.

I was not looking for something special, so I settled down with a pint of Murphy's stout. As always, it is a good stout. The beer has been reviewed here earlier, so I did not make any tasting notes. Instead I enjoyed the beer and the pub.

Biskopen is an excellent taproom, but the draught beer selection could have been more interesting. When it is crowded at Naboen, I sometimes think that the two pubs should have swapped beer taps. Biskopen often has a better atmosphere, while Naboen has the better draught beer selection. To have a tap dedicated to an IPA from for instance Ægir or Nøgne Ø could be a wise move from Biskopen's management, or perhaps a rotating tap could be a good idea?

Elephant's secret

I was not recommending the pub Elefanten in Bergen after my first visit in 2009. This week I was back, and I had a much more positive experience. That also means beerwise. On the other side of the street you can find Henrik, and very near excellent beer destinations like Naboen and Baran can be found. Why should Elefanten be an alternative?

The answer is draught beer from Kinn brewery in Florø. These days Elefanten has two Kinn taps in addition to draught beers like Hansa Pils, Hansa Bayer and Erdinger weizen. There are also some interesting bottled beers available. This means that a beer interested person should also take a look at Elefanten during a pub crawl in Bergen. If for instance the Kinn beers at Naboen are not to your liking, it is worth to check out the available draught beers at Elefanten.

On my visit I had a 0.33 litre glass of Vestkyst, which is Kinn's IPA. The price was 82 NOK, which is about 9 GBP. Vestkyst was a cloudy, nearly golden beer with nearly no head no carbonation. I felt apples and yeast in the nose. In the mouth there was grapefruit and pepper before a hoppy and bitter finish. I liked it a lot, but I felt it was way too bitter compared to a bottled version I enjoyed at home a few days earlier.

I wish Elefanten good luck with the venture into craft beers from draught. Suddenly the elephant pub has become a dark horse!

A taste of Waldemar's

Waldemar's is Hansa brewery's microbrewery label. The microbrewery is based in Hansa's old brewery buildings near the city centre of Bergen. There is also a restaurant at the premises that specializes in pairing food and beer, but it has never been open when I have been in the area.

Some of Waldemar's beers can be found in selected pubs in Bergen and other Norwegian cities. I am fond of the wheat beer, that unfortunately is not sold in bottles nor cans. But here and there you can find it as a draught beer.

For Waldemar's Brown Ale it is a different story. This beer is widely available in Norwegian supermarkets. It is a copper coloured beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. I feel aromas of caramel and a touch of yeast. In the mouth there is some toffee and hoppy bitterness before a watery finish. This is a beer that can be described as inoffensive. It is nice, but not among the better beers of its style.

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.

Jacob and Waldemar

Jacobs Bar & Kjøkken calls itself Bergen's only gastro pub. This combined restaurant and bar is situated in the Kong Oscars Gate street, and is known to have an excellent kitchen. The bar looks nice, and it is placed in a room with good space and nice, high bar stools.

There are many bottled beers available at Jacobs, but as always I was looking for draught beer. Jacobs Bar & Kjøkken offers three beers on tap: Hansa pale lager, Waldemar brown ale and Waldemar wheat beer.

Waldemar is Hansa's micro brewery based in the old brewery at Kalfaret near Bergen's city gate. Hansa also produces some Waldemar beers to be sold in cans in Norwegian supermarkets. These beers are brewed in Hansa's new brewery at Kokstad south of the city centre.

I started with trying Waldemar brown ale. I have tried the canned version earlier and I was not impressed. The draught beer version was better, but it looked more like a Czech golden lager than a brown ale in the glass. There was some carbonation and a medium sized head. The nose was sweet with caramel, while the taste was fruity with some lemon and toffee before a bitter and watery finish with a touch of grapes. I liked it. It is an average brown ale, and it was much better than what I feared.

Then it was time for the wheat beer, Waldemar hveteøl. This was another cloudy weizen with banana aromas. In the mouth the bananas took the lead with some bread and a hint of mint. This was a lovely wheat beer, and it is one I would love to try head to head with a Paulaner or Weihenstephaner weissbier. It is much better than Erdinger's efforts and worth while checking out.

I will be back at Jacobs Bar & Kjøkken. The Waldemar beers are not that easy to find on tap, and this wheat beer is a gem. I hope Hansa will market it in bottles soon. In the meantime it can be found at Jacobs at 74 NOK for 0.4 litres of beer. That is nearly 8 GBP.

Irish in Bergen

I sometimes get e-mails about my blog posts. One of my readers told me recently that I should visit his favourite pub in Bergen, Scruffy Murphy's. He told me that it is a pub with a great atmosphere, a fine draught beer selection and good live music now and then.

I took the challenge and entered Scruffy Murphy's. Scruffy Murphy's is an Irish themed pub, and it looks like hundreds of other Irish pubs all over the world. The pub is stretched out over two floors, and I decided to sit down upstairs enjoying a great view over Bergen's harbour and fish market.

There was no live music the Saturday I visited, but there was English Premier League soccer on the TV screens. The dozen or so visitors on the first floor seemed to have a nice afternoon. I had fun watching a typical rainy day in Bergen.

To go with the pub visit, I decided to have a draught beer. Scruffy Murphy's offers Hansa pale lager, Kilkenny, Newcastle Brown Ale and two Irish stouts on tap - both Guinness and Murphy's. I decided to take a stout and chose Murphy's. The waiter served it to me in a Guinness glass. I wonder what an Irishman would say about that in his local pub in Dublin. Anyway, Murphy's is a good stout, and I was served a beer with very little carbonation but with a solid, creamy head. The beer had nice tones from coffee, and I enjoyed it. The price was 91 NOK for a pint. That is nearly 10 GBP.

Scruffy Murphy's is a good example of an Irish pub outside Ireland. The draught beer selection is half decent, but an extra tap tower with a Norwegian craft beer or a rotating keg would be an asset for this pub.

U?

Outside a large U is hanging as a sign post. What kind of place is this? As I get closer, I see that this is one of the newer bars in Bergen. But why a U? I find out later. The bar is called Ujevnt, and it uses the first letter to advertise for itself.

Inside Ujevnt is a cozy place with nice bar stools. But I feel very little ambience. There are some people in the pub, but they keep to themselves. Some interesting beers are available from bottle, but I want to check out the draught beers. I find the local Hansa pale lager and bayer together with Heineken lager and Murphy's stout. The selection is not impressing, unfortunately.

The Hansa and Heineken beers are usually boring, so I end up ordering the stout. It is brought to my table in a non-branded glass. As usual, this is a black beer with a thick and lasting head. There is nearly no carbonation, and there is nearly no aroma from the beer. There is not that much taste either. I find some coffee and chocolate with a hint of bitterness. An average beer, but still one of the better stouts available on tap in Norway.

I will not be a frequent visitor to Ujevnt. The pub felt sterile, and the draught beer menu was both boring and uninteresting. A tap or two with Norwegian craft beers is my piece of advice for the management at Ujevnt.

A nice waiting room in Oslo

Oslo Central Station (Oslo S) is the main railway station in the Norwegian capital. It is centrally placed in Oslo with tram, metro and bus connections nearby. The railway station is also the terminus for the Airport Express Train, Flytoget.

Oslo S has several cafes and restaurants. In the oldest part of the station, Østbanehallen, you can find two pubs. The most interesting of them is Kristiania. Named after Oslo's former name, Kristiania used to be the large waiting room at the railway station. These days it is a combined restaurant and pub.

Kristiania is based in a big and spacy room. The ceiling is high above, and the interior seems classy and beautiful. Some of the feeling of being at an old railway station is kept, and it is interesting sitting at the bar enjoying the architecture.

Like most pubs in Norway, pale lagers are kings at Kristiania. Draughted Hansa beer from Bergen and Heineken made on licence in Norway seem to be the biggest sellers based on the evening I was there earlier this month. From tap there is also Murphy's stout and Erdinger wheat beer together with a beer of the month.

On my visit the monthly beer was Samuel Adams' Boston lager. I like this beer a lot, and it was the best draught beer offer at Kristiania that day. In the glass this was a golden lager with some carbonation and a nice head. I felt grapefruit in the nose, while the taste of toffee, grapefruit and a touch of lemon dominated in the mouth before a bitter finish. This was a lovely lager, and I hope to find it soon elsewhere in Norway.

Kristiania is the best place to drink beer at Oslo Central Station. The pub has a nice atmosphere, and the beer offers are better than what many other pubs and bars in Norway have on the menu.

Beer tasting round-up

Looking through my tasting notes, I see that there are many beers I have tasted that I have not written about on this blog. Therefore this post will focus on six of those beers.

Hansa Premium is one of the most popular pale lagers from the Norwegian brewery. This is a fizzy beer that builds a large head that dissolves quickly. It has aromas of grass and wheat, where the wheat malt dominates. In the mouth it is watery with a wheaty touch before a somewhat hoppy finish. This is a nice session beer, but I would prefer it with a fuller body.

Beck's is one of Germany's best selling pale lagers. I have had it earlier both from bottle or tap, but this was the first time tasting Beck's from can. It is an inoffensive pale lager with an aroma of malts and sugar. In the mouth hints of sweetness and some malts dominate the palate before a semibitter finish with some hoppiness. This is an average pale lager that I feel is on the boring side.

The pale lager Småland from Sweden is a much more interesting beer. This is a beer that has tastes of toffee, biscuit and bread. It is a lovely lager, and I feel it is the best Swedish produced lager I have tasted.

Zeunert is also a very good Swedish pale lager. In the mouth it is a malty beer with a touch of hops before a partly bitter finish. The spirit based taste found in several Swedish starköl beers if fortunately not to be found in Zeunert.

Fuller's ESB is one of the British bitters available at Vinmonopolet in Norway. It is a very good beer with a nose of fruits, lemon and some yeast. The beer has not much carbonation and builds a medium sized head. In the mouth there is some caramel and some citrus before a finish with toffee taking the lead. Lovely!

Innis & Gunn is also British. This is a pale beer with little carbonation and a medium sized head. There is toffee in the nose, while the beer has a distinct taste of caramel and toffee. I liked this beer for a while, but then I got bored of it. A bottle is more than enough, as the taste tells me that this is no session beer.