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.
Risingsbo is a Swedish brewery. The Risingsbo 1856 Premium 3.5 is a fizzy pale lager with nearly no head. In the nose there is malt and sweetness. The beer tastes sweet with some apples and grass. The finish is watery. This is an average lower alcohol beer that does its job when you are thirst in the sun, on the beach, or after a work-out. In all it is an average lager beer.
Perlenbacher is one of the Lidl supermarket chain's beer brands. It was called Bergadler earlier. The Perlenbacher Premium 3.5 is another pale lager. It has some carbonation and a small head. There are hardly any aromas from the beer, but in the mouth I feel a touch of grass and apples. The beer is watery, and it has some hops and yeast in the finish. A boring beer.
Tuborg Pure Gold 3.5 is also a pale lager. In the glass there is some carbonation and barely a head. In the nose I feel sweetness and a tiny touch of citrus. The taste in this watery beer is of malts and some grass, but there is also a metallic touch. Hopefully it is from the can, which has a cool design.
BrewDog is the (in)famous Scottish brewery. On their website they call themselves a brewery that "makes innovative, progressive and exciting full flavour beers". The special Swedish 3.4% alcohol version of '77 Lager is not neccessarily such a beer. In the glass this is a pale beer with a lot of carbonation and a small head. In the nose there is some fruit cocktail and yeast. I feel biscuit, grass and some grapefruit in the mouth together with a watery feeling. The finish is bitter with some yeast. It is the best of all these beers, but it is a shadow compared to the ordinary '77 Lager.
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.
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.
Tuborg's flagship is Grøn Tuborg (green Tuborg), which is a pale lager. I have fond memories of vacations spent in Denmark enjoying Grøn Tuborg with friends or as a thirst quencher in Summer.
While visiting Copenhagen earlier this month I ended up near the old brewery site in Hellerup. The premises are still used as offices, but the beer and soft drinks are being produced in Fredericia in Jutland.
Being in Hellerup it was neccessary to try some Tuborg from tap. A little cafe in what used to be the bottling building had both Grøn Tuborg and Tuborg Classic as draught beers. Unfortunatly they were out of Tuborg Classic, so I ordered only Grøn Tuborg.
Grøn Tuborg was a pale lager with little carbonation and a little head. In the nose I felt a grainy and malty touch. Grøn Tuborg had not that much taste. I felt it was somewhat watery with a touch of butter before a malty finish with a hint of apricot. The beer is OK, but there are loads of pale lagers I prefer to it.
At Copenhagen airport there are several bars. One of them is Bryggeren. It has a nice selection of bottled beers, and from tap you could earlier this month drink Carlsberg, Carl's Special, Grøn Tuborg, Tuborg Classic and Tuborg Julebryg.
I wanted to try out the Tuborg Classic from tap. This is a beer that is widely available in Denmark, and cans with it advertise that it has a fuller pilsener taste.
The bartender gave me a half litre of Tuborg Classic in a Carlsberg glass. The colour is golden, and the beer was fizzier and had a larger head than Grøn Tuborg. The nose was dominated by malts. In the mouth the malts took the lead with a bready feeling and some hoppy bitterness. The beer was also more fullbodied than Grøn Tuborg.
My choice is clear. If the selection is Grøn Tuborg and Tuborg Classic, I will go for the latter. It has a better taste, and it is much more interesting to drink.
Dashing through the December streets of Copenhagen, I see that there is time for a beer or two before I need to be at the railway station. As I am walking through Strøget and getting closer to Rådhuspladsen, I know where to go: Bryggeriet Apollo next to Tivoli.
At Bryggeriet Apollo most tables are occupied, and there is a queue of people waiting to be shown a table. I have no time for waiting, so I decide to walk on towards the railway station.
In one of the streets next to the station I find Vertshuset Pinden. Pinden looks like a typical Danish inn with brown tables and a decent supply of Danish beers and schnaps. Unfortunately there are no draught beer at Pinden, but I sit down and order a bottle of Carlsberg's Carl's Special.
Carl's Special was one of several beers Carlsberg started brewing some years ago that Danish beer drinkers could vote on. It won the vote, and it has been on the market since. In the glass this is a copper coloured beer with nearly no carbonation and a small head. I can smell malts and coffee from the beer. In the mouth there is a taste of cold coffee and some dark chocolate. This is a lovely beer, and it is one I can recommend.
As it is December, the Danish Christmas beers are on the market. At Pinden they have Tuborg's Julebryg. This copper coloured beer with little carbonation and a large head is a disappointment compared to Carl's Special. The beer has nearly no aroma, and it has a sweet taste. There is some malts and hops in it, but it is clearly a less interesting beer than Carl's Special.
Pinden was a nice neighbourhood boozer. I had a nice time there before I moved on to catch my train. But on my way I stopped at a newsagent to have a beer to drink on my train. Guess which!
Hansa juleøl is the weaker version with a lower alcohol content than the traditional Christmas beer. It is a copper coloured beer found in supermarkets. There is some carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose I feel some caramel and a touch of malts. In the mouth there is little taste, but the caramel and malts are still there. In addition to this the beer feels a bit watery. This is not my favourite this year. It is just an average juleøl.
Grans julebrygg is also found in supermarkets. This is a better beer than Hansa with aromas of licorice and malts. In the mouth there is caramel and some burnt notes. This is a nice effort, but not among the better Christmas beers in Norway.
Erdinger Schneeweisse is a German wheatbeer brewed for the holiday season. In the nose I feel some malts and a touch of yeast. Typically for the Erdinger beers I have tasted, there is not much taste. I feel some fruitiness and hints of banana and cloves in a watery beer. Schneeweisse feels boring, and I prefer other wheatbeers to this beer.
Tuborg juleøl is the Norwegian variant of the Danish Christmas brew. It is brewed on licence by Ringnes, and it is a coppercoloured beer with some carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose there is some caramel, and in the mouth I feel toffee, cinnamon and a touch of licorice. It feels a bit watery, but it is the best of these four Christmas beers.
While visiting Trondheim I wanted to check out some of the British pubs. The first I entered, was Three Lions Pub in the city centre. My visit was during the world cup, so most guests were watching football on the screens. This is probably one of the better places to watch sports in Trondheim, as the atmosphere was great.
Beerwise Three Lions Pubs are among the better ones in Norway. In addition to bottles, you can find several draught beers. The local Dahls pale lager is supplemented by other pale lagers like Carlsberg, Tuborg, Carling and Stella Artois. Ale drinkers can enjoy Old Speckeled Hen, Newcastle Brown Ale, Guinness and Greene King IPA. I was ready for an IPA that day, but unfortunately the tank was empty. Instead I ended up with a forgettable pale lager that took away my thirst.
Not far from Three Lions, you can find a Scottish pub. Macbeth was a calmer place than the English pub, and I felt it had no atmosphere.
On tap there was Heineken pale lager, Newcastle Brown Ale, Murphy's Red and Guinness. I was not tempted by any of the beers, so I asked the bartender if they had any Scottish beers. After all, they call themselves a Scottish pub.
He had one Scottish beer, Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA in bottles. I had not tried that beer before, so I ordered a bottle. In the glass, this was a copper coloured beer with little carbonation. In the nose I found malts and citrus. The citrus was also present in the mouth with a nice bitterness. I liked this beer a lot, and I hope this so called Scottish pub can offer a Scottish beer like this also as a draught beer.
I will probably not be back at Three Lions or Macbeth on my next visit to Trondheim. There are better places for beer lovers in Norway's third largest city.
But I did envy the ones sitting down having a glass of beer in the warm weather. Next to the famous Tivoli gardens, you can find Bryggeriet Apollo. This is a brewpub with a varied offer in beers. Most people sitting down at Bryggeriet Apollo enjoyed their pilseners, and it looked really good.
Inside Tivoli Gardens there are several food stands and restaurants. Most of them offer draught beers from Danish breweries like Carlsberg, Tuborg and Royal. In addition to this there is also a little brewpub on site, but I did not see it during my short visit.
Instead I found a German inspired beer garden called Paulaner Biergarten. Paulaner's draught beers were naturally present, and I would love to have tried both the weissbier and the Oktoberfestbier from the menu.
As always, Tivoli Gardens are full of people in Summer. It is a great place for children, but there is also much to do for adults. With both a German styled beer garden and a brewpub, Tivoli is an interesting site for beer travellers.
Not far from Town Hall Square (Rådhuspladsen), I found another interesting place for beer hunters. A little pub called Brewpub, also had their own microbrewery on site. Brewpub makes several beers, but most interesting was that they based their food menu on dishes and beers that fit together.
Sure, I need to go back to Copenhagen. And next time I will use public transport.
