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.

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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?

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