A perfect beer festival

They don`t come perfect, of course. Bryggerifestivalen i Trondheim – Trondheim Brewery Festival comes close, though. It has been a yearly event since 2013, taking place on the main square in Trondheim the first Thursday-Saturday in August. This year there was a record of 60.000 visitors, by far the biggest beer festival in Norway.

10 reasons for the success:

1. The setting. In the middle of the historical center of town. Thanks to a fire in the 18^th century, this part of town has broad streets with a lot of space. The beer festival is located at the center of a food festival offering a bounty of fresh food from small scale producers. Plenty of running water for drinking and cleaning glasses. Lots of seating , both outdoors and sheltered. Very convenient for public transport.

2. The timing. A fair scattering of tourists, most of the locals are back from their holidays. Those who work nearby can drop in after work. A good opportunity to meet friends after the summer break and find your way into town.

3. The routines. There have been challenges over the years, from local authorities who refused to give a license to beer freezing because the thermostat on a container was turned too cold. Most of the bumps are removed, the venue is the same, the resources are spent making it a good experience.

4. The professional staff. The organizing team, of course, with accumulated knowledge, professional attitude and a friendly smile. Joggling spreadsheets, media, VIP visitors, food vouchers and what have you. The core staff works on this during the year, and some have been around for a long time. The security is professional and friendly, solving problems with a smile.

5. The volunteers. They work early and late, cleaning, sweeping, distributing beer kegs, making coffee, doing all the invisible work. My humble part in this is helping one of the breweries serve their beers as a volunteer.

6. The breweries. You can always argue about the selection, but this match of regional and national breweries as well as a few international guest works very well. And, most likely, the brewers themselves serve the beers and, if you turn up early, have time for a chat. 30+ breweries means there is something for everyone.

7. The beers. Hazy, smoked, bright, cloudy. Pale, red ,amber, brown, black. Alcohol free, light, barrel aged, hoppy, malty, Belgian-inspired. Kellerbier, Neipa, Quad, Biere de Garde, Weizenbock, mead, braggot, ice cider.

8. The back stage camaraderie. There is enough space to sit down, have a coffee and a snack and talk to your colleagues. If there are technical problems with the equipment, there is always someone willing to help out.  When a keg is emptied, you ring a bell, triggering loud cheers behind the counter. And if you don’t have a particular style of beer, you can always point to another brewery that might help.

9. The locals. A good mix of people. Young and old, town and country, beer tickers and something light, please. Family friendly during the day, which also means that everyone behaves. With 60.000 visitors over the three days, only a handful need to be escorted out.

Beau from Monkey Brew (above) said it well: All these smiling faces, lining up to taste your beers makes up for long winter when you swear over equipment that breaks down or beer you have to pour out.

10. The weather. Sometimes there is a shower, but the weather gods, who often ruin the Trondheim summer, usually favor this weekend.

Disclaimer – I make a beer quiz and other odd jobs for the festival, but I am not involved in any decision-making or organizing.

The home of the Abbot

De Abt is a restaurant in Ghent, airy and modern, and at first sight their boast of a special connection to Orval seem dubious. But the building has a proud history.

Down a side street, Lange Kruisstraat , but still busy enough to get filled up by locals and tourists, you find the Abt. They call themselves the only Orval brasserie in Flanders. A banner outside proclaims “No Last Supper without ORVAL”, so the focus is in-your-face.

The choice of beer is obvious – by the time you read this you will have a choice of fresh and aged Orval, but there is a nice list of other beers, too, including a local Gruit brewed without hops . There is a three course Orval menu, which comes highly recommended. The starter is Orval croquettes, made with cheese from the abbey. The main course is a chicken stew with an Orval beer sauce. The dessert is a Orval sabayon, where the sweet wine is replaced by beer.

So, this is a showcase for the beer – but is this more than a marketing stunt from the wholesalers? The beer is widely available in Belgium and beyond, and there are lots of bares with the Orval Ambassador sign on the door, some of them with plaques of a series of vintages. The beer has a peculiar character of dry tartness, due to the fermentation in the bottle with the yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis. The beer changes its aroma and flavor as the yeast does it trick. Som age their beer s for many years, but the broad consensus is that one year is enough for the character to evolve.

Orval is of course a Trappist monastery in Belgium, producing beer and cheese to finance the running of the abbey. They seem to be adaprting to the times, welcoming visitors to the historical buildings and to Sunday mass, and they even have a “Orval Youth at Prayer” gathering for 18-30 year olds in the summer.

The building that today houses De Abt was bought in the 1880s by a young entrepreneur named Karel Van der Cruyssen.

Karel ran a successful construction company,  but he had wider ideas.Together with a self-employed colleague, in 1883 he founded the first middle-class organisation in Belgium. ‘Dieu et Patrie’ or ‘God and Fatherland’, which united the Ghent middle class with the Ghent bourgeoisie.. The organisation needed a club room for its activities. Karel acquired the building in the Lange Kruisstraat as a result. It became the meeting point for the Ghent middle class and small entrepreneurs.

Dieu et Patrie lives on to this day – The Union of Independent Entrepreneurs (UNIZO) is a Belgian association of entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises and liberal professions, with over 80 000 members.

Bu the good times came to an end.

. Karel joined the Belgian army when the  First World War broke out in 1914 He soon rose to the rank of second lieutenant, and he convinced the sons of many Ghent entrepreneurs to follow his example. Many lost their lives in the conflict.

At the end of the war, Karel Van der Cruyssen was commanded for his bravery, making him one of the most decorated soldiers in Belgium.

After the war, Karel was never his old self again. In 1919, he moved to Normandy, where he joined the monastery of Notre Dame de la Grande Trappe. He was ordained priest six years later. From then on, Karel van der Cruyssen went by the name of Marie-Albert Van der Cruyssen. In 1926, with some fellow Trappist Cistercian monks he returned to Belgium with the task of rebuilding Orval Abbey. This 12th-century abbey was completely burnt down during the French Revolution and had since remained in ruins.

Brother Marie-Albert travelled the length and breadth of the country to collect donations and finance the reconstruction. However, Ghent entrepreneurs had not forgotten him and dug deep in their pockets to help fund the project. Ultimately, the Ghent middle class donated one fifth of the necessary capital.

Donations were not enough to run the Abbey. The Trappist monasteries aim to earn their own money, and support the local community instead of being dependent on them.  Marie-Alberts experience as a businessman came in useful. He set up a brewery in the abbey in 1931, followed by a cheese factory a year later.

Five years after founding the brewery, Marie-Albert Van der Cruyssen was ordained 53rd Abbot of Orval, making him the first abbot of the reconstructed Orval Abbey. In 1950, Marie-Albert resigned due to serious health issues and died in 1955. 

The present restaurant opened in 2015. If you want to get a feeling of the heritage of the building, you should contact them in advance and ask for a tour. Because the building has lots of historical artifacts connected with Karel Van der Cruyssen, the Dieu et Patrie, the Orval abbey and the beer.

There are photos, posters, diplomas and medals, there are beer bottles and glasses from various decades.

Silent monks and modern marketing

A series of blog posts.

Last month I found myself on Mont de Cats. In other parts of the world, it would not qualify as a mountain; the summit of the hill is 164 meters above sea level. It has nothing to do with cats, either, even if the Flemish name is Katsberg. It is named after a Germanic tribe, the Chatti – who used to live around here back in Roman times.

“Around here” means Flanders, but on the French side of the border. The hilly landscape is a continuation of the Hevuelland on the Belgian side.

I digress, but this is the first of a series of digressions.

I aim to write about abbey and monastery beers. This is complicated territory. Some are genuine brewed behind the walls of a monastery, overseen by monks. Some are brewed for an abbey, but are produced elsewhere. Some of them pretend to have connections to an abbey which does not really exist. One bottleneck in front of me as I am typing this says Anno 1134. Well, something might have happened in 1134, but I doubt it had anything to do with beer and brewing.

So – back to Mont de Cats. This is a very popular area for a day out for people in the region, hiking or cycling. The Trappist abbey of Mont the Cats is on the top of the hill, and they make cheese, which they sell directly to the public. But they have a beer as well.

It is, however, not brewed on the premises. The beer is actually made in another Trappist brewery, Chimay. So, it does not formally qualify for having the Trappist logo on the bottle, but it is well worth trying. There is a café across the road from the abbey where you can try it, but it is also widely available elsewhere.

The beer is a copper colored with caramel sweetness balanced by spicy notes and discreet hops.

Another brewery lends its name from the same hill – plus two others – 3 Monts. This is a family brewery located in Saint-Sylvestre-Cappel. They have a range of five beers, some of which are available on both sides of the border.

Clear glass bottles only suitable for water

It is well known that beer should be bottled in coloured bottles – there might be differences between brown and green, but both reduce exposure to light. The brewery industry konws this very well, so it is particularly strange that they often use clear glass bottles for summer seasonals.

I looks like white wine is the latest victim of similar packaging. Researchers from Italy and Greece have studied wine in clear glass bottles compared to coloured bottles. It took only one week under supermarket light for wine to lose a signficant part of its aroma, the same wine kept for months in coluored bottles.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35787181/

Back to the Bock

Credit where credit is due. Thanks to Vinmonopolet for their efforts to revive old lager styles.

We have splendid access to NEIPA in all its incarnations here in Norway. We also have a very fine range of classic Belgian beers, including trappists and lambics.

The best sellers in Vinmonopolet are mostly stronger versions of the pilsners totally dominating the market, with some German wheat beers that also have respectable volumes.

The traditional Norwegian strong beer, the Bock, had a comfortable niche in the market before strong beer was transefered to Vinmonopolet about forty years ago. The legislators had some hope to kill off strong beer altogether, and they almost succeeded. We were saved by European legislation, opening for imports of more interesting beer.

Vinmonopolet runs a series of tenders for various product groups be it orange wine or miro destilled gin.  So also for beer, and this has currently resulted in a nice bunch of bocks. There are various interpretations of the style,

This beer style has not been totally gone. A few of the traditional lager breweries keep their beers in production. Ayinger Celebrator is readily available. And every year there are Christmas beers brewed true to style. On occasion, there is even some barrel aged stuff.

Now it is up to the drinkers. If we want to have this style regularly available, we need to buy it. Repeatedly. These beers may not taste like Black Forest Gateau – but you could actually serve it with your favorite cake or dessert instead.

A cold winter

The last two decades have given us a large number of breweries in Norway, peaking at almost two hundred. Some hobby projects have come and gone; but now the number of quality brewers is dwindling. Let’s look at some of the reasons.

Energy bills.

While the energy prices have hit all across Europe, we were probably taken more by surprise than most.  Our hydroelectric power plants have traditionally given us plenty of cheap electricity, now we face prices on the European level in most of the country. This has been a blow for many industries, but some of the breweries were hit really hard.

Falling demand

Some of the breweries did very well during year one of the pandemic, particularly the ones selling bottled and canned beers. The border to Sweden was more or less closed, so the consumers had to buy what was available on the domestic market. This surge in demand did not last, and it is hard to scale down again.

The big ones strike back

We still have some traditional lager breweries in Norway, and they dominate the market completely. They supply fridges and other equipment, they service tap lines etc. And while they were slow adapters, they have become more innovative over the years. This means that they brew a fair number of beer styles, including hazy IPAs, wheat beers and beers with fruit (or, usually, fruit aromas.) This means that they can deliver a more or less full range of beers, both for supermarkets and for the more general restaurant, bar and hotel market. Hansa Borg, one of the major lager breweries, has acquired Nøgne Ø, meaning they can offer genuine craft beer to their customers. Carlsberg has developed E C Dahls as their craft beer brewery in Norway, and they also import Brooklyn beers as well as other storing brands from the Carlsberg group.

Lack of retail outlets

We have a total of three supermarket groups in Norway, all with Norwegian owners. If you can get national distribution for your beers in one of them, you can get some sales volume, but the shelf space has dwindled. Beer has given way to other types of beverages such as cider, hard seltzer and pre-mixed drinks. Alcoholic beverages in supermarkets have a limit of 4,7% ABV, the rest is sold by the state alcohol monopoly.

The chain of beer stores called Gulating went bankrupt last year. It is up and running with new owners, but very few of the stores make a profit. And breweries are hesitant of delivering beer to them, there is a risk of not getting paid.

National legislation

Other Nordic countries have adjusted their alcohol monopolies to make it easier for small producers. In Sweden, you are allotted shelf space in the shops closest to the brewery. Finland has opened up for direct sales from the breweries and takeaway beer from bars. In the Faroe Islands, the breweries are allowed to run their own retail outlets for beer under 7%.

There are occasionally attempts to liberalize the policy in Norway, but we seem to be stuck with the present legislation for the time being. A recent proposal was voted down in the parliament just a few days ago.

My favorite book promotions

With a new beer book out, there are promotional activities which I generally enjoy. Sure sitting down in a bookshop to sign a hundred copies is a bit tiring, but I also get to meet people who are seriously interested in beer,

As the book is focused on Trøndelag, the central region in Norway, I had to travel there. It’s the area where I grew up, though I have lived in Oslo for mamy years.

The main launch event was at the E.C. Dahls brewery in Trondheim, with both beer people, family and friends and the book trade in attendance.

Last week I went back again to meet two groups who had invited me to come and visit them.

Norbrew is the Norwerian home brewers’ assosication, and they have an annual event at Klostergården, a lovely place on a tiny island in the Trondheim fjord. Klostergården is a B&B, cafe and brewery, and has splendid food and beer. I addition, the home brewers brought along some of their best beers for the others to taste, and the level was very high.

Klostergården

Norbrew invites an external lecturer every year, this year I had the honor. My presentation was based on a number of illustrations in the book, but I also raised some questions left unanswered in my research. We had a very good discussion afterwards, and the whole weekend was good fun.

The other group was Dahls Ølet Venner, a sort of fan club for the E C Dahls brewery. This is a group of men, mostly retired, with relations to the brewery going back several decades. Most of them have worked for the brewery in various functions.

There was a very warm welcome in ths group as well, and I had tailored my presentation to the audience, showing lots of ads and promotional material from the vaults. The group has their own club house in the attic of the brewery, and they have rescued a number of historical items. There has been a brewery in the building for 120 years, som there is quite some heritage to take care of.

Malt mill from 1901

I had brought an extra suitcase filled with books – but I ran out of them on this last evening. I was happy to return to Oslo with orders for another dozen books!

A merry crowd in the Dahls attic.

Back to the beer blog

Even grumpy old dogs can learn new tricks. With my latest book, I feel I have achieved some ambitions. I’ll try to explain over a few blog posts.

The physical result is out now – in bookshops across Norway. Between the Burgundy books and the gin books.

I’ll try to explain the title Trønderøl. Trøndelag is the central region in Norway, recently merged into one county. It has around 450 000 inhabitants, called trøndere.

So simply, this is a book about the region and its beer. It covers the current beer scene, including an in-depth part on present day breweries. With two summers in a row with travel restrictions, I have been able to visit almost every brewery in the region, some of them several times. I could have left it at that, but I wanted to dig deeper. I knew there was a rich history, that was hardly documented. And there were lost breweries – what information could I dig up?

A taste of Africa, or a beer to drink down by the elephants

My wife visited Southern Africa earlier this year, including a few days in Mozambique. She as kind enough to bring back a can of beer. It`s called Mac-Mahon or 2M, brewed by SAB in South Africa for Cervejas de Mocambique. We have almost the same climate here in Norway at the moment, so it`s an appropriate time to open it.

It is a decent lager, quite fruity, with more flavor than most African beers I have encountered. Oranges, a hint of apricots. It could have done with some more hop bitterness, but this would be a nice beer to be sipping while watching lions and elephants. After a while, even a crocodile.

Going North for a beer – the Bådin Beer Festival

The group of friends behind Bådin Brewery shows that in this age, you can run a successful brewery just about anywhere.

The town of Bodø is the second largest in Northern Norway, that means a population of 50.000. A group of childhood friends had the wild plan of setting up a brewery there back in 2012. The timing was close to perfect. They now have two full time brewers, with the other pitching in when needed. And it was all hands on deck when they arranged their second beer festival in the brewery last weekend.

A merry crow of breweries were invited, most of the Norwegian, but Ugly Duck (Denmark), Hawkshead (UK). Birra del Borgo (Italy) and De Glazen Toren (Belgium) contributed very well to the occasion.

Matt from Hawkshead serving his brews

Bådin has become a pride of the town, with their beers available in most supermarkets and bars. It should come as no surprise that their beers have a high drinkablility, the local market is too small for the more sour and wild end of the spectrum.

And this was what the festival was all about, too. Drinkable beers and good conversations, the brewers themselves serving their brews to a public still finding out what this beer trend is all about. There was a good mix of guests, the large majority of them local. Young and old, men and women.

A dozen breweries or so means you can get around the most interesting beers in a session; or maybe two.

I had the pleasure of interviewing most of the brewers from a small stage, an informal chat of around ten minutes each, which I felt worked very well.

The highlight of the weekend for me was having breakfast in the hotel with the amazing Jef Van den Steen from Glazen Toren with him telling anecdotes from the beer world, including his friendship with pioneering beer writer Michael Jackson.

Bodø is above the Arctic circle, meaning the sun was away for just a few hours in the night. It’s a great starting point for exploring the area, including the Lofoten islands. You can go on boat trips or hike in the mountains. I hope they will make the effort to have a festival next May as well.

There are good air connections, and the organizers can probably help you find moderately prized accommodation. See you in Bodø?

Jef explains what Belgian beers are all about

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The line up:

Bådin

Bryggeri 13

Voss Bryggeri

Ugly Duck

Hawkshead Brewery

Salikatt Bryggeri

Wettre Bryggeri

Qvart Ølkompani

Aja Bryggeri

De Glazen Toren

Grünerløkka Brygghus

Birra del Borgo

E.C. Dahls Bryggeri