(English summary at the end)

Alle mikrobryggerier er ikke velsignet med en flott beliggenhet, selv om det ikke nødvendigvis har betydning for kvaliteten på ølet. Det brygges mye godt øl i anonyme industriområder der det er lite aktuelt å innrede et lokale for skjenking av brygget.

Samtidig er det en utfordring å skille seg ut. Det er mange som brygger de samme øltypene, og selv om original design på etiketten og lokal oppslutning kan bidra til salget, er det jo flott om man har en historie å fortelle og kan knytte øl til historie, tradisjoner og lokal mat.

Klostergården Håndbryggeri fyller alle kriterier for hvordan disse faktorene bidrar til å skape unike produkter.

Beliggenheten er øya Tautra, som har broforbindelse med Frosta, Trøndelags kjøkkenhage. På eiendommen er det til og med en klosterruin som viser forhistorien for dette kulturlandskapet. Ved siden av gårdsdrift konserverer man frukt, bær og grønnsaker. Det tilbys overnatting, og det er servering av mat og drikke både innendørs og utendørs.

 Brygger Jørn Andersen kan by på en rekke ølsorter i butikkstyrke som man kan kjøpe med hjem. Wit, porter, pale ale, bitter og blond. Flotte øl, som kan måle seg med det beste av øl med denne styrkegraden.

Norsk alkohollovgivning gjør det ikke mulig å kjøpe med de mest spennede ølene – så de må man smake på stedet. En imperial stout hadde en flott lakriskarakter. En Dobbel IPA var velbalansert og forførende lettdrikkelig.

Men det som var verdt turen alene var en flaske Sorn, hentet opp fra kjelleren slik at den ikke skulle være kjøleskapskald. Jeg har ventet lenge på at noen skulle gjøre øl brygget på stjørdalsmalt mer tilgjengelig, og her er det endelig et slikt eksempel. 25% av malten i dette brygget er altså røykmalt fra Stjørdal. Det er klart at det setter sitt preg på ølet, men samtidig er det balansert. Røyk, sot og sødme gir en spesiell smaksprofil – håper at tilgangen på malt gir mulighet for å brygge dette i kvanta store nok til å tilby dette både til polutsalg og serveringssteder i regionen. Sorn er brygget i samarbeid med Inderøy Gårdsbryggeri. 

Den største utfordringen i dag er å få brygget nok øl til å få dekket etterspørselen. Nytt utstyr gjør at man kommer opp i batcher på 1000 liter mot dagens 350. Og for den tålmodige kan det opplyses at man også er i gang med eget brenneri, som planlegger lansering av whisky om tre år. Og innkjøp av eikefat gjør også at vi kan glede oss til fatlagrete øl i tiden fremover.

Jeg spiste ikke middag på stedet, men den nylagde fiskballen som raust ble servert som en smakebit fra kjøkkenet gjør at det absolutt står på programmet neste gang.

At the most scenic spot you can imagine, in the middel of the Trondheim fjord, with green meadows and monastery ruins, you find Klostergården Håndbryggeri. Besides farming and brewing, there is also a café, a shop with local food, including beer, and some rooms for rent.

Brewer Jørn Andersen offers a broad range of beers. The ones below 4.7 % ABV are available in the shop, the stronger beers have to be consumed on the premises.

This region has a long tradition of farmers brewing their own beers, malting barley grown on their own farm, smoking the malt to give a unique flavour. Klostergården brews their won version of this, adding 25% of this smoked malt in the Sorn beer. The result is, of course, a compromise – you do not get an over the top smoked beer, but a balanced, quite sweet brew with lots of character with plenty of smoke and soot both in aroma and palate.

Klostergården is approximately a one hour drive from the main North-South road between Trondheim and Northern Norway. It is well worth the time, and the accommodation is reasonably priced if you want to indulge in the stronger beers. Expanded capacity will hopefully give at least a regional distribution for the beers. And if you want something truly exotic, their first batch of whisky is maturing in oak barrels, due to be released in April 2016.

Det er nå spennende bryggeplaner i så godt som alle fylker i Norge, og mange har tatt steget over i regulær produksjon. Det mest spennende fylket er vel det som mange hadde trodd var en bakevje i forhold til alkoholholding drikke, nemlig Sogn og Fjordane. Fra før har to av de fem veletablerte mikrobryggeriene med nasjonal distribusjon tilhold der, og så kommer Balder Brygg som et interessant tilskudd. Øystein Meland er en av ildsjelene bak, og han kan fortelle om lange hjemmebryggertradisjoner i Sogn, som gir godt grunnlag for å etablere et bryggeri.

Balder Brygg holder til i den vakre Leikanger ved Sognefjorden. De er, som de fleste bryggeriene her til lands, dratt i gang på dugnad av entusiaster. I dag har bryggeriet to ansatte på heltid, men regner med å øke dette når de i august har etablert anlegg for flasketapping og kan øke distribusjonen. Så langt har ølet blitt solgt i nærområdet og utvalgte steder ellers på Vestlandet, men man satser nå på å nå bredere ut. Det har også vært forespørsler fra Sverige om levering av fatøl.

Balder Brygg har valgt en nisje som skiller dem fra Kinn og Ægir. De brygger først og fremst lagerøl. Smakfulle lagerøl med ulik alkoholstyrke. Ærlig håndverkspreget øl med fin maltkarakter. Vel verdt å prøve, om det er Sognapils, Sognalager eller Vårøl. En porter har de også funnet plass til i sortimentet.

The new breweries in Norway are not confined to the bigger cities and towns, but are spread across the county. The region Sogn og Fjordane, famous for, you guessed it, its fjords, can already boast of being home to two of the big five among the Norwegian micro breweries, Ægir and Kinn. They also have an interesting newcomer, Balder Brygg, located among the orchards of Leikanger.

So far their beers have only been available on the west coast, but they go for national distribution.when they install a bottling line during the summer.

They focus of lager beers with a range of alcohol strength and character. But we are talking premium lagers here, with a rich malty character well balanced by hops.  They have a very decent porter in their range as well.

My beer photos tend to be of the optimistic kind, capturing places I am happy to visit, here or abroad.

There are other kinds of beer photos, with fog instead of sunlight, with poverty and despair instead of hope.

Der Spiegel presents a series of photos from a book by Harald Hauswald. The book, Ferner Osten or The Far East, is a portrait of the last years of the DDR. Grim and powerful images by one of the few photographers in East Germany with access to Kodak film.

The nearest option was a large establishment decorated in blue and white. The Berlin outpost of the famous Munich Hofbräuhaus, a stone’s throw from the Alexanderplatz at Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse.

This is a huge place, very quiet in mid-afternoon. A huge menu, not surprisingly with a pork bias. Eight beers on tap, plus a seasonal if you’re lucky.

Staff dressed up in Bavarian costumes, wooden benches and tables. Taped yodel and polkas when I was there, but there is live music every night.

This is probably crammed with stag parties and buses of tourists during hight season. Wikipedia tells me there are dozens of Hofbräu franchises around the globe, the one in Berlin one of the newest. Think McDonalds for adults.  And I suppose you are supposed to sing along, at least after midnight.

But the beer is good. Better than the standard Berlin beers. And there is outside seating when the weather allows.

Don’t miss the souvenir shop. I’m sure many have bought stuff there they have regretted when sobering up. But the rubber ducks in dirndl are awesome.

In addition to the Berlin U-bahn, which is an underground network, there is also the S-bahn, which in the central areas of the city is elevated above street level, giving splendid views . Well, there is not much time to enjoy the view from Hauptbahnhof to Bellevue, it’s the next stop. Cross the bridge and walk up a short street, and you find the Berlin Bier Shop.

Friendly and polite service. Once again my apologies for my German. The vocabulary is coming along fine, thank you. But the nuances of grammar and the use of the polite Sie instead of du leaves a lot to be desired. Other visitors don’t need to worry. They even use English on their web pages.

This is a must stop on a Berlin beer tour. A serious beer shop. Like Johnny’s Off Licence in Rome or Ølbutikken in Copenhagen.

This shows, that, for all the talk about craft taking over the world, it is all about pale lagers. The only exceptions, Newcastle Brown Ale (64), Falcon Bayersk (65), Brooklyn Lager (74) and Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer (88) are not something I’d go out of my way for, either.

This also show the contrast between the Swedish and the Norwegian markets. The beers below 4.7 % would be sold in Norwegian supermarkets, so you’ll not find them in the Vinmonopolet stores. And the super strength lagers are hardly to be found here.  I suspect the Norwegian tramps either smuggle strong beer from Sweden or stick to vodka.

Call me a snob, but I pass on the red rhubarb flavoured cider (82).

If you set up a scale of nostalgia for the DDR, I would not be far from the origo. But approximating zero is not equal to zero. The Nikolaiviertel in Berlin Mitte is something the regime should be credited for. This quarter was, as most of the city, reduced to rubble in 1945, and it took quite some time before they got around to restoring it.  The restoration did not just set up some big slabs of concrete, this was an attempt to recreate the oldest part of the medieval city for Berlin’s 750th anniversary in 1987.

What we find today is a charming collection of restored and replicated houses with lots of outside seating at the riverside cafes in sunny weather. During the winter, you find cozy old-fashioned restaurants and Kneipen, most of them more on the rustic than on the high dining side.

On a cold and dark evening in January, Zur Gerichtslaube offers a range of local and regional dishes. This restaurant is located in was used to be an old courthouse. I have a feeling that the present building is pretty new. Their web site informs us that all in all the Gerichtslaube was reconstructed three times and relocated twice, but it is rather vague about dates after 1482 or so.  But the illusion works well, you have the feeling of entering a place with roots going back to the middle ages here.

The food leans heavily towards the Sauerkrauft school of cuisine, but there are vegetarian options, too. With just a few days in town, I wanted to try something beyond sausages, and the Grosse Abendplatte, the large evening board seemed to be the thing. Meatballs, smoked venison, cured deer sausage, cheese, pickles … there was even a herb Schnapps included. Very pleasant, but the cheese selection was not particularly inspired.

The beer list is not particularly long, but there are two beers brewed especially for them. The Schöffenbier is an unfiltered pilsener or Helles, light bodied with some flowery hops, soft and pleasant to drink. There is also A Schwartzbier, which has the same problem that most of these dark lagers have in the region, it is all about caramel,

Polite and friendly service, mixed crowd. I have a feeling this is packed with tourists in the summer, so it is probably best to book a table. 

I certainly recommend a visit. You can have a snack and a beer if you’re not up to a big meal. Expensive? More so than the place off Alexanderplatz where you get a huge pig’s knuckle and a beer for 10 Euros. But then you get quite another experience.

According to a campaign in the Danish newspapers, there will be 1450 new jobs in Denmark if the taxes on beer and soft drinks are cut by half.  They will buy their cans and bottles at home instead of leaving their money at the border shops in Germany.

I am not able to find any signs of this in the reports of a new government package of measures to boost growth in Denmark.

Because there are other factors, too. If you compare to most countries, the taxes are pretty low today. And the Danes do eat and drink far too much for their own good already. What is good for Carlsberg is not neccecarily good for Danish public health.

And I wonder if those who paid for the ad considered how many Danish jobs are dependent on the border trade from Sweden and Norway. Probably around 1450.

Many European cities can boast of food markets filled with stalls of proud producers. I have not seen them all, but I tend to seek them out, in Florence and Gothenburg, in London and Barcelona.

Berlin can boast of a number of them, although some have obviously been destroyed by war, neglect or urban developement. The Eisenbahnhalle in Kreuzberg has long traditions, but it only in the recent few years that this has been revived, focusing on local produce and everything green. And one of the local producers is a brewer, Johannes Heidenpeter.

The market is only open on Fridays and Saturdays but, alas, I was only arriving on a Sunday. Well, there is always Facebook.

I asked if there was any way of trying their beers during mys visit, without being too optimistic. I got a message back from Johannes, saying that he would be brewing on Monday and would be happy to have a chat over a beer when he was finished. Would six o’ clock be convenient?

Of course.

The market hall was easy to find, and Johannes invited me down to the basement, where he was finishing his brewing for the day.

Johannes  started the brewery in September 2012. He has no formal brewing background, but has been a home brewer for quite some time. He brews 300 liter batches, which may be stretched to 450 liters by using the equipment to the maximum. Most of the beers are sold on tap from his tiny bar in a corner of the market hall, though some are hand bottled for people to take home. Business is expanding, meaning he gradually spends more time brewing and less on what he calls his pay job.

The beers fit in well with the general concept of the market – local food where the producers have direct contact with the consumers.

There is, obviously a challenge in offering inventive beers in a market where the day-to-day choice is between a Dunkel and a Helles. Johannes aims to have, as a standard, a pale ale that is not too extreme, but it is still a departure from the German norm. He is constantly adjusting the recipe, the version I got to taste had Cascade as the dominating hop. It had a fine spectrum of flowers and herbs and a splendid drinkability – just the type of session beer you should find in a place like this. I also tried a poster, soft and smooth, yet with lots more character than the bland big names.

The aim is to brew full-time, and there are plans for various events – a small beer festival is also in the making.

Heidenpeters is a brewery that stands out among the micro breweries of Berlin, daring to think outside the box. It will be interesting to follow in the years to come, I will certainly be back the next time I’m in town.

Get in touch if you plan to visit. There are a few hand bottled beers available, but they tend to sell out, so ask Johannes to set aside some for you.

If I have gotten some of this totally wrong, I apologize. Most of the conversation took place in German, and I must state my admiration for the brewer who opened his doors and carried on patiently while his guest struggled to get his message across with total disregard for grammar and polite use of the language.

Cooking up a new batch of Heidenpeters beer