Don’t rock the boat!

Some interesting stories from Colorado right now, where the supermarkets are not allowed to sell beer above 3.2% (by weight, not volume). This sounds like the watered down versions of beers you can find in Swedish supermarkets, which I can assure you is pretty bland stuff.   They used to sell some of the 3.2 [...]

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A way forward for the medium sized Norwegian breweries

The Norwegian beer scene is dominated by Carlsberg, but there are still a few family controlled breweries who dominate their home regions and compete in the national market. I have no access to their internal strategies, but there has been a discussion in  a Norwegian online forum about one of them recently. Reflecting on this, [...]

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Where no beers have gone before

The NY Bites newsletter from the Village Voice, which I never got around to stopping after my visit to NYC last year, reports that beer is turning up at the menus at the more upmarket restaurants.   Top chefs from Daniel Boulud to Thomas Keller are deigning to add beer to their menus as their [...]

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A sensible decision

For once, the local newspaper here in Oslo has done its job, questioning the decisions made by bureaucrats in charge of services for the elderly. And, for once, the local politicians in charge have acted swiftly. I won’t say beer is often in the headlines here in Norway. If so, it would often be about [...]

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A very decent shop

Sure, I’ve been lucky enough to do a fair amount of travelling over the last few years, giving me the opportunity to report first hand on the beer scene in many countries. But, as I have mentioned recently, there have been some positive changes here in Norway, too. Some of the Norwegian micros seem to [...]

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Pub closures again

Gloomy news from the British trade newspaper the Morning Advertiser – pubs are now closing at a rate of six per day. Last year, 1,973 pubs shut — 40% up on 2007 levels. Suburban pubs seem to be hit worse then others, but the figures are grim for rural and town centers as well. Indutry [...]

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Useful advice

The Eating in Translation blog asks the question When you don’t speak the language, how do you order a dish that’s not on the regular menu? You download a photo to your mobile phone. Clever. It won’t do much good when you are looking for a beer, though. In countries where they don’t understand your [...]

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Stick to beer

I assume that most of my readers, belonging to the more educated part of the global village, follow the leading academic journals in most fields. Some of you might, however, have overseen an article indicating that the intake of caffeine may cause hallucinations. Yes, that is right. Large amounts of coffee, tea, chocolate or energy [...]

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Death of a pub

There is hardly a thing such as Norwegian pub culture. We would not dream of having a pint for lunch, and the local would usual be a cafeteria connected to the local coop supermarket, where coffee is the main drink. Sure, there are bars here, too, of various shapes and sizes. Some of them are [...]

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Around here

Sure, the air here is heavily polluted on cold winter days. The air stands still, and it is filled with dust and emissions from cars and antiquated ovens and heaters. But it nice to look at…

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