A touch of black beer

If you leave the tram at Olaf Ryes plass square in Oslo, there is just a short walk to Grünerløkka Brygghus. No, it is still not a proper brewpub, but it has several interesting beers on tap.

I started with a glass of the house beer, Kjell Pop Single Hop. This nice India Pale Ale brewed by Nøgne Ø was a good way to start the visit. I then looked at the beer menu and ended up ordering Løkka Svarthumle. This was another house beer. This time we talk about a Black IPA brewed by the Norwegian Kinn brewery of Florø.

I have said it before in discussions on the internet that I hate that term. Read it, please: Black India Pale Ale. You can not have a black beer that is pale. It is impossible! So any brewer reading this: Use another term! You can not sell liquid ice cubes, can you?

But I digress. Løkka Svarthumle was a black beer with a medium sized head and barely any carbonation. In the nose there was coffee and hops. The beer tasted of coffee and some grapefruit before a finish with assertive coffee. I liked this beer, and I went on to have another glass of it.

Grünerløkka Brygghus is one of the pubs a beer interested visitor to Oslo should check out. The atmosphere is fine, and there is a good draught beer selection where the house beers are the icing on the cake.

Grünerløkka Blues

Something has happened in Norway during the last few years. There is an interest in beers that go beyond the ordinary pale lagers, and many pubs and bars now have a decent selection of bottled beers. There has to be an interest for these beers among the guests, and I am happy to see beer menus expanding with more available beers than before. There is no mumbo jumbo doing this for any proprietor. They just have to buy the beers, and any bar owner can do it!

Myself, I rarely bother drinking bottled beer at a bar. Usually I can buy it myself and drink it at home. I prefer drinking draught beer. Therefore I like it when a bar expands and gets hold of more beer taps. It is also a treat when a pub gets a house beer brewed especially for itself.

I had an hour to myself before attending a meeting in Oslo. I chose to take the tram to the Grünerløkka district, as there are several interesting pubs there. Among them you can find two brewpubs and also some with house beers. I chose to visit Grünerløkka Brygghus. The pub's name tells that it is a brewpub. It is not. Grünerløkka Brygghus started up in 2010 aiming to be a brewpub, but so far only beers from outside the building have been available there. But they have house beers brewed for them by Nøgne Ø, and I really liked the Kjell Pop Single Hop I drank there last year. This time around there were no possibilities to check out the beers at Grünerløkka Brygghus. The pub was closed, and it would open a few hours later. OK, I thought. Then I will try Aku Aku Tiki Bar further down the road.

But no such luck. Aku Aku Tiki Bar was also closed. That was a shame, as I wanted to taste the house beer. It is a pale ale brewed by Nøgne Ø called Aku Aku Lemongrass Ale. It is only available a a draught beer, and it is a rather rare beer as this bar is one of the very few places to sell it. Two letdowns so far. Would there be more? Was I just way too early in the day to drink other draught beers than pale lagers from Ringnes and Frydenlund in this area of Oslo?

At the square further down the street I saw Parkteatret. Once this was a big cinema, but these days there are concerts there. The former lobby is now a bar. It has a great retro look with leather chairs and sofas. I enjoyed being there. And as a bonus there were interesting beers on tap!

I chose Dobbel Dose from Haandbryggeriet. This cloudy beer had barely any carbonation nor head. The nose was very fruity with lots of grapefruit. In the mouth sweetness and bitterness met in a great balance. I felt fruit cocktail and grapefruit before a partly bitter finish. This was lovely! A great beer.

Time was up. I rushed down the road to catch the next tram heading downtown. There was work to be done.

Two more Christmas beers

2012 is here, but there are more Christmas beers from 2011 to write about. Ægir Julebrygg is one of them.

It is available in several versions. Ægir Julebrygg 4,7% is a copper coloured beer with nearly no carbonation and a medium sized head. There are aromas of some toffee and cinnamon. In the mouth I feel toffee, honey and some grass. I get no Christmas feeling from this beer. It is unfortunately a boring, average beer.

Nøgne Ø Underlig Jul is much more interesting. It is nearly black in colour and has barely any carbonation. It has a medium sized head with lots of aromas. I feel cinnamon and various other spices. In the mouth a combination of sweetness, ginger bread, dates and a lot of sweet spices meet. The beer is full of flavours, and many tastes are difficult to pinpoint. The finish is partly bitter with more dates. This is lovely!

A Dane and a Christmas beer

Back in Norway it was time to try out some of the local watering holes. One afternoon I was walking the streets of Bergen, I ended up once again at Kontoret. As mentioned in an earlier post, Kontoret now offers six draught beer taps. I chose a Christmas beer from Nøgne Ø.

Nøgne Ø Julesnadder has 4.5% alcohol. In the glass this was a brownish beer with a small head and nearly no carbonation. I felt some caramel and yeast in the nose. The beer tasted of dates, variuos spices, yeast and some coffee in a watery finish. I liked this beer, and it is one of the better Norwegian Christmas beers with less than 4.7% alcohol.

From Kontoret I went to the nearby Henrik pub. As usual the beer selection is great for a Norwegian pub in both draught beers and bottled beers. This time around I found a new beer available on tap from the Danish brewery Beer Here.

Beer Here Executioner IPA was a somewhat cloudy beer with a nearly golden colour. The beer had nearly no head nor carbonation. In the nose I felt grapefruit and some grass. The beer was lovely. It tasted of grapefruit and blood orange before a bitter finish with some grains. I really liked this IPA, and I hope to find it when I visit Denmark next Autumn.

Kollaborator and more

During the lasts weeks I have been to Kontoret in Bergen twice. On my first visit I had Ægir Harvest Ale from tap. The beer was very cold, and due to this it felt not as tasty as from bottle.

Harvest Ale was a coppery beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. There was fruit in the nose. In the mouth I felt fruit cocktail and malts before a finish with some toffee and grains. It is a fine beer, but I prefer it served at a higher temperature.

At my visit last week the Kollaborator beers were available. These are Doppelbock beers brewed from the same recipe by Ægir and Nøgne Ø respectively. I had a large glass of Ægir's version and a taster sample of Nøgne Ø's version. The two dark beers looked more or less the same, and I felt it was difficult to distinguish the two beers' noses. There was some chocolate in both.

I liked the Ægir version of Kollaborator the best. In the mouth there was chocolate and a lot of sweetness before a partly bitter finish with a touch of nuts. The Nøgne Ø version was not so assertive in taste. It was less sweet as well, but there was some plums in the finish I did not pick up in the Ægir beer.

Kollaborator is a fine example of cooperation brewing. I know there are more brewing projects like this coming up from several Norwegian breweries, and I hope they will be interesting.

A fine sour beer

I usually end up at Henrik at some point during pub crawls in Bergen. Henrik is one of the better pubs in town, and it also has a fine selection of bottled beers and some draught beers. From tap there are always three beers with a connection to Nøgne Ø. Usually these are brewed by Nøgne Ø or imported to Norway by the Grimstad based craft brewery. What draught beers that are available on these taps, changes all the time. Therefore it is always a bit exciting visiting Henrik. I was not in the mood for a lager beer nor a Guinness, so I found out that I wanted to try one of the beers from the rotating taps. I saw that one of them offered a sour beer from the Belgian Cantillion brewery and ended up choosing it.

Cantillion Rose de Gambrinus was a nearly red beer with a small head and some carbonation. There was raspberry and a touch of cherries in the nose. In the mouth I felt not yet ripe berries, some gooseberry and cherries before a sour finish. This was a nice and refreshing beer, and it is the best sour beer I have tasted so far.

From single to double

Once again in Oslo, a visit to Grünerløkka Brygghus is a must for me. As always the beer bottle collection is excellent with many interesting beers available. In addition to this, there are 13 draught beer taps with several great brews. Norwegian breweries have a good presence on the draught beer list with beers from Aass, Nøgne Ø, Ægir and Kinn represented.

The house beer at Grünerløkka Brygghus is still not brewed on the premises. Instead it is Nøgne Ø who delivers Kjell Pop Single Hop. These days it is supplemented by another house beer. This is also from Nøgne Ø and is called Kjell Pop Double Hop.

Kjell Pop Double Hop is a cloudy beer with a nearly brown colour. In the glass there is hardly any carbonation, and the beer has a small head. I feel grapefruit in the nose, while the beer tastes of more grapefruit, pepper and grass before a very bitter, hoppy finish. I liked this beer at first, but it became much too bitter for me.

Grünerløkka Brygghus has become one of the pubs I always visit in Oslo. But when will you start brewing your own beer and become a real brewpub? The Norwegian word brygghus really means brewery house in English.

Nøgne Ø's pils at Grünerløkka Brygghus

Last year Grünerløkka Brygghus started up in Oslo. It was planned to be a brewpub, but for the first months it only sold beers brewed elsewhere. The house beer, Kjell Pop Single Hop, is made for the pub by Nøgne Ø.

These days the situation is the same. On my recent visit, there were no in-house brewed beers available. Still, the pub is a great place with a more than decent menu of bottled beer and 11 draught beers.

I was looking forward to another glass of Kjell Pop Single Hop, but the draught beer list made me choose another beer. Nøgne Ø has been making a pils for the last year or so, but I had never been in a pub having it available before now. Of course, I had to try the pils.

What is a pils? Sure, most of you blog readers know about Josef Groll and his efforts to make a new beer for the citizen's brewery in Plzeň (also known as Pilsen) in 1842. Well, Nøgne Ø's pils is not a typical emulation of that beer. It has another taste profile, and I did not feel any Saaz hops. Sure, a lot of beers are called pilsners, but only beers brewed in Plzeň or with the same recipe should have the name.

After this little preach, I must confess that I really liked Nøgne Ø's "pils". It was a cloudy beer with a nearly golden colour. There was nearly no carbonation and a small head. In the nose I felt some citrus, while grapefruit took the lead in the mouth with a touch of apple. The finish was bitter and lovely. I liked the beer a lot. It should have been called Nøgne Ø lager, though, but I understand why Nøgne Ø uses the name. Nearly all breweries call their pale lagers pilsners, but a brewery that is so good at making their own versions of various beer styles like Nøgne Ø should be careful calling their pale lager a pilsner the way I see it. This is not an emulation of Pilsner Urquell, but it is still a very good beer.

Grünerløkka Brygghus is a great pub in Oslo. Do not miss out on it if you walk the streets of the Norwegian capital or somehow get on Oslo tram number 11. It is easy to find the pub at Thorvald Meyers Gate street near the Olaf Ryes plass tram stop.

Non-alcoholic delight?

The Norwegian Nøgne Ø brewery has been promoting their StUten beer for some time. This is a stout. The catch is that it is a non-alcoholic stout.

But how does it taste? Very good, actually! The beer is black without carbonation and with a medium sized head. In the nose I feel tobacco and some coffee. The tobacco is very present in the mouth with a touch of cold coffee and a tiny bit of grains. This is not a full bodied beer, but it is filling without being watery. It is very good non-alcoholic beer, and it is one I prefer to for instance Clausthaler or the Norwegian Munkholm. Even BrewDog's Nanny State and the Czech Birell is no competition. Nøgne Ø's StUten is a great beer!

Another round of beers

It is a good time being a beer drinker in Norway these days. There is always a new beer to try out at Vinmonopolet, and the same goes for the shops and supermarkets. It is a pity paying Norwegian prices, though. Some beers at Vinmonopolet cost more than 100 NOK, and buying them at a bar is no cheap experience. My bottle of Kinn's Dampen mentioned below had a price tag of 150 NOK. That is nearly 17 GBP.

Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew is a beer that has received a lot of praise from beer bloggers. I was excited about the beer when I saw it in the glass with a tempting brownish colour. The beer had some carbonation and a small head. In the nose I felt coffee, cocoa and some smoke. The smoke dominated in the mouth with a touch of malt. I have been drinking some smoke beers that I have enjoyed. Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew was unfortunately no winner for me. Actually, I felt it was boring and onedimensional. The beer is strong with 11% alcohol.

Ægir Brime is a red lager, according to the label. It is a copper coloured beer with a large head and some carbonation. In the nose there is yeast and cold coffee. In the mouth I felt malts and a touch of dark chocolate, The beer is somewhat watery, and it has a semibitter finish. I liked it, and just like the label told me it was refreshing. I would prefer it with a fuller body.

I had a bottle of St. Austell Proper Job IPA right after I had finished a glass of Ægir IPA. That told me that the Ægir IPA was the better beer, but Proper Job is also a very good IPA. It has a golden colour, and there is some carbonation. The head is medium sized, but it dissolves quickly. In the nose there are hops and citrus, while the beer has a dominant feeling of lemon with a touch of apples. The finish is partly bitter with a hint of grapes.

Kinn Dampen is a steam beer from the tiny Norwegian brewery. I have unfortunately lost my tasting notes, but I liked nearly everything with this beer except for the finish. I felt the sour finish with some pines was not to my liking, but I will try it again at a later point in time.

BrewDog Nanny State is called an insanely hopped imperial mild on the label. In the glass the beer is copper coloured with a medium sized head. There is very little carbonation, and the beer has aromas of grapefruit. In the mouth Nanny State is watery. I feel some grapefruit and a touch of pepper before a bitter finish. This is not the best beer I have had from BrewDog, but I know I will drink it now and then. It has 0.5% alcohol and is thus considered alcohol free. Therefore I know which non-alcoholic beer to drink the next time. It will be Nanny State!

Henrik and Nøgne Ø

Henrik is one of my favourite pubs in Bergen. One of the reasons is that there is always a draught beer there that I want to try out. Usually this is one of the beers from one of the three Nøgne Ø taps. Most of the times this is one of Nøgne Ø's own beers, but now and then this could be a beer from a brewery Nøgne Ø considers as a friend brewery like Mikkeler or BrewDog.

During the last month I have had two visits to Henrik. On one of the visits Nøgne Ø's porter was on tap. I have tried it before, and I remembered it as a nice beer. In the glass this was a black beer with nearly no carbonation and a small head. There was some coffee in the nose, while the beer had flavours of cold coffee and dark chocolate before a bitter finish. I liked it a lot, and I consider Nøgne Ø's porter a very good beer.

On another visit I had Nøgne Ø's IPA. This is a beer I drink now and then from bottles at home, and I consider it a much better beer now than when I reviewed it on this blog. Over two years have passed, and IPAs are no longer extreme beers to my palate. The draught version of Nøgne Ø's IPA was somewhat unclear in the glass. It had a copper colour and there was a medium sized head. In the nose I felt grapefruit, and the grapefruit took the lead in the mouth with some pepper and a hint of herbs. The finish is bitter with a touch of orange. These days I like this beer, but I prefer IPAs with a less bitter bite to it.

Henrik is a great pub. If you are in Bergen, it is worth checking out.

Back to Baran and Cacti

After my first visit to Baran Cafe earlier this year, the cafe has become one of my favourite beer temples in Bergen. Friendly bartenders, a nice atmosphere and an excellent selection in draught beers with 16 taps. That some of them are dedicated to craft breweries like Haandbryggeriet, Nøgne Ø and Ægir make Baran a must for visitors to Bergen. In addition to this Naboen and Henrik are nearby, so the Engen area of Bergen has become a mecca for beer lovers.

On my recent visit to Baran Cafe I wanted something simple and ordered a lager. Not just any lager, actually, as I decided to have a Pilsner Urquell. Sure, it is better on tap in the Czech Republic, but it is probably the best lager beer you can get on tap in Norway.

From the visitor statistics I see that many visitors these days look at my post about Cacti Art Cafe in Bergen. A new visit was therefore neccessary to see if the cafe had changed during the last months. Cacti Art Cafe has a reputation of having many beers available, but this month I only found three draught beers. Just like in August these were Bitburger, Mack Arctic Beer and Erdinger wheat beer.

Of course the bottled beer menu is large at Cacti Art Cafe, but I am interested in draught beer. I can drink bottled beers at home. Therefore I ended up with Mack Arctic Beer from tap. This is a nice Norwegian pale lager with a distinct nose and body with a grainy character. It was as expected at Cacti Art Cafe, but I should have chosen the Bitburger. It is a better beer.

Cacti Art Cafe has a better draught beer selection than most pubs in Bergen that normally only sell Hansa or Ringnes pale lagers. But to have exciting draught beer, I prefer other places than Cacti Art Cafe. Baran Cafe is one of them, but it is on the other side of Bergen's city centre. But if you want bottled beers in that neighbourhood, why not try Bar Barista at Stølegaten street? It has an exciting and cozy atmosphere that Cacti Art Cafe lacks.

Oslo's new brewpub

In October Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri opened its doors, making itself the second brewpub in Oslo. Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri is on historic brewery ground in the Grünerløkka neighbourhood. The area around the brewpub used to be Schous brewery, which was founded in 1821. Schous brewery was later bought by Frydenlund brewery, which again was bought by Ringnes in 1978. In 1981 the brewery business came to a close for Schous.

Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri is based in a cellar. The brewpub is like a big cavernous beer hall with bricks on the walls and ceiling. On my visit last week, the brewpub was full of people, and it was difficult finding a table. I felt the pub was noisy, but perhaps it would feel different if I was part of a group there?

The two bartenders did a good job, and the female bartender took time talking about the pub and the beers available. Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri has a good selection in bottled beers, and on tap there were five beers. Two of the beers were brewed on the premises, but Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri also offered Nøgne Ø's Wit and Imperial Stout while Haandbryggeriet's Pale Ale also was available.

I started with one of the brewpub's own beer. This was the phonetically incorrectly named beer [aj pi ej], which of course is an IPA. In the glass this was an unclear beer with a copper colour. I felt some orange and bitterness in the nose. In the mouth there was grapefruit and lemon before a partly bitter finish with a touch of grains. This was a lovely beer, and I felt it was one of the better Norwegian IPAs I have tried.

The other draught beer from Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri on my visit was called Batch #10, with Vinterøl (Winter beer) as an extra description. In the glass this was an unclear, dark brown beer with some carbonation. In the nose I felt dry roasted nuts and dried coffee. The taste was of cocoa, cold coffee and a touch of spruce shoots. This was a nice beer, but the [aj pi ej] is the better beer of these two.

If you go to Oslo, you must not miss out on Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri. This is a great brewpub with promising beers. I would love to see [aj pi ej] as a bottled beer and taste it head to head at home with IPAs from Kinn, Ægir, Nøgne Ø and Haandbryggeriet. That could be a fabulous night of beer tasting! In the meantime I promise to be back at Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri later this year.

Brewpub without brewery

Beerwise, Oslo has been getting more interesting during recent years. Some exciting pubs and bars have opened, and craft beers are easier to find both in bottles and on tap. These days there are three brewpubs in Oslo. Grünerløkka Brygghus is one of them, and it started up last Autumn. The pub is situated in the hip and trendy Grünerløkka area, where you can find many bars and restaurants.

It is easy to get to Grünerløkka. Tram number 11 from the city centre takes you to the Olaf Ryes plass tram stop two blocks away from the brewpub. But there is a catch about Grünerløkka Brygghus. The brewpub has not started brewing so far, so the beer menu consists of beer brewed elsewhere including a good selection of bottled beers. There is also a food menu with sandwiches and solid pub grub. On Fridays the pub has a special offer on oysters.

Grünerløkka Brygghus has nine draught beers. On my visit last week, you could drink Samuel Adams Boston lager or pale lager and bayer from Aass brewery. Ale drinkers could enjoy Old Speckeled Hen or be more bold trying out BrewDog's Punk IPA or Nøgne Ø's Imperial IPA #500.

The real deal at Grünerløkka Brygghus are two beers brewed especially for this pub. Haandbryggeriet's Løkka Steamer was not available on my visit, but I had a chance to try Nøgne Ø's Kjell Pop Single Hop. Served in a red wine glass, Kjell Pop Single Hop was an unclear copper coloured beer with some carbonation and a little head. I felt a touch of hops and citric acid in the nose. The taste was dominated by grapefruit, but the beer also had a watery feeling. This IPA was a very good beer, and I felt it was much more sessionable than Nøgne Ø's other IPAs.

Grünerløkka Brygghus is a must for visitors to Oslo. The pub has a great atmosphere, and I enjoyed being there. On the evening I was at Grünerløkka Brygghus, the place was packed and it was difficult to find a table. It looks like the pub is very popular in the neighbourhood, and the draught beer menu is good and varied. I recommend this brewpub, and I hope to be back in the future trying Grünerløkka Brygghus' own beers.