I did not set up a list of favourites from the Copenhagen Beer Celebration, even though both the 20 year old sour ale from de Struise and the spontaneous blueberry from Mikkeller were standouts.
In the weeks after the events, I have particularly enjoyed two beers.
RyeKing from the Copenhagen brewery Amager Bryghus was one of the beers I picked up at Ølbutikken. It has an intense flavour of liquorice and liquid sour Russian rye bread, a little salt and a deep bitterness. There is a malty body that is able to cope with all of this and balance it in a strange way.
Charcoal in the dry finish. Mouth-watering, and a great candidate for further barrel aging.
The other one has mixed origins. Italian Gypsy brewery Revelation Cat brew their lambics in Belgium and then transport them to Italy for aging and blending. Their Islay lambic has a clean whisky aroma, and when you sip you find a lovely lambic laced with peaty smoke. Exciting – I won’t claim that his is a major trend for beer in 2012 (though I told you barrel aging would be the Big Thing), but this certainly shows that there still are new roads to explore. Nice sour tail and a smoke flavour I haven’t really felt since my last packet of John Player’s Special several decades ago.
Available at Schouskjelleren, Oslo, right now, I’m sure it will also pop up in London, Copenhagen and Rome.
I hope you’re right. This comment from Ron Pattinson at Fuggled.net made me feel a bit depressed.
Gotta agree on RyeKing. Brillant beer. Have u tried RyePorter from Amager. A favorite of mine; http://allbeer.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/amager-bryghus-rugporter/
No, I haven’t tried their RyePorter yet. Someone should import their stuff to Norway!
I’m making up a batch of garlic brownies right now for those who can’t get enough innovation.
[...] innovative beers — nothing barrel-aged, for example, has made our list of favourites; our mouths do now water at the idea of an Islay lambic; and we’re nonplussed by the very idea of black [...]