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.

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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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A beer for the hero

 

Back in 2013, beer historian Martyn Cornell told the fascinating story about The Flying Pubs. After the invasion in Normandy, the British soldiers grew tired of the local cider. The solution was to fly in beer from England.

One of the RAF pilots involved in this was a Norwegian, Rolf Arne Berg, who was killed in action in early 1945.

I briefly summarized the story in Norwegian some time ago, challenging the Norwegian breweries to make a beer to honor Berg. His 100th anniversary was last month.

I am happy to tell that this idea was picked up by Øystein Kvåle, who lives in Orkanger, Berg’s home town. Øystein is involved in several beer and aquavit projects, and he brewed this beer in cooperation with Røros Bryggeri.

The beer is an amber ale with 4.7% alcohol. It has a lovely amber color, malty sweetness and a discreet bitterness that gives a good balance.  Nutty flavor. This would not be out of place in an English pub – in England or Normandy! A fine homage for a hero – and it is his photo on the label.

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Helsinki -a beer scene that really has come of age.

Finnish craft beer at Alko

 

A few nights in Helsinki show a beer diversity you seldom find in Europe.

The rest of the Nordic countries have been going through a beer boom over the last decade. So has Finland, and a weekend in Helsinki is an opportunity to enjoy a great spectrum of beer – and a range of pubs and bars that should offer something for everyone.

Rustic cooking cooking and farmhouse Sahti at Zetor

Let’s start with the tourist trap. Just across the square from the central railway station you’ll find Zetor, a place I visited the last time I was in town. This is a huge place, decorated in what you could call a Finnish farm style, with tractors and other agricultural machinery prominently displayed. I have a feeling there were more tractors the first time I was here, but the puns on the menu still refer to Grandma’s countryside cooking, with domestic fish, meat and game as main ingredients.

By all means, go there for a meal, but try to avoid the evening rush hour, as the kitchen might be very busy. But the main reason for a visit is to try the Lammin Sahti, Finlands contribution to this panet’s beer heritage. This farmhouse beer, brewed with juniper twigs, has made a revival. They used to pour it from a plastic jug kept in the fridge, now they have nice pewter tankards serving the beer.

Also in the same central area is a quite large pub, Kajsla, that has been there for a number of years. Expect a dozen beers on tap plus large fridges prominently on display. You find craft beer from the big international names, small independent Finnish breweries, and one offs from the more established Finns.

Kajsla

A few meters away, there are two more pubs worth a visit. Black Door has the feel of an English pub, and they even have cask ale. A mixed crowd, good atmosphere, even free hot dogs if you get hungry. I had a NEIPA from the Donut Island brewery which I found a bit sweet for my liking, but there is plenty to shoose from here.

Next door is Sori Tap Room, an outlet for an Estoian brewery, serving their own beers as well as guests. 24 beers on tap. Bright and airy, with outside seating for sunny days, too. I tried their Farmhouse IPA, a very nice hybrid. Belgian yeasty funk, dry hopping adding grass aroma. A beer I could drink all night, it has both complexity and drinkability.

For a staggering range of Finish micros (as well as all the imports you crave for), head for the government run Alko shop. Their Arkadia branch at Salomongatan 1 is the place where you consider buying an extra suitcase.

If you want to get out of town, there are friendly pubs and bars scattered around the city. I enjoyed Ravintola Mulikka, a neighbourhood pub with a good selection of craft beers on tap, in bottles and cans. They have an APA brewed for them by Maku brewing – Mejlans Öl, which I can recommend. Take the tram along Mannerheimvägen if you don’t have the time to walk.

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The making of a beer quiz book

With the huge range of beer books available, I was surprised there were no beer quiz books around.

 

Last year I was in Stavanger, promoting my book with the publisher – including a beer tasting for people in the local book trade. There was also a short literary quiz, and I got the idea there and then – why not a beer quiz book?

I reached out to follow beer blogger Sammy Myklebust , who jumped right in, and the publisher Vega Forlag was positive.

The bulk of the work was done during the first four months of this year, with e-mail and dropbox as collaboration tools. We met twice, once for a working weekend at my mountain cottage, then for a few hours in Bergen to lay the last pieces of the puzzle.

We decided to divide the book into chapters, with 18 questions in each chapter, divided into three categories according to difficulty. There are 1000 beer questions with a few chapters on other alcohol and drinks without alcohol at the end.

There are chapters on major beer countries, on traditional brewing, on hops, beer festivals, fiction and non-fiction books, beer personalities, “national” beers of various countries, pubs and bars.

I’m quite pleased with the range of questions. We touch upon history, religion, travel, food, home brewing, literature, music, TV series, ethnography, biochemistry, mycology, mythology, linguistics and many other fields.

There was a CAMRA quiz books some years ago, and a Swedish board game. Maybe the market is ripe for versions of this in other countries and languages? If anyone’s interested, get in touch.

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Back to Berlin

I have visited Berlin repeatedly over the last decade, and there has been interesting beers to seek out, particularly among the brewpubs scattered around the city. At the same time, the industrial brews generally available are not all that interesting, and there are juste echoes of the old brewing heritage of the city. The Berliner Weisse that the waiter poured over syrup in your glass now comes pre-blended in bottles. But while the old is not very present, the new is moving in, and things are happening fast.

Sometimes I travel primarily for beer (and beer writing), sometimes it’s business or family holidays. This time it was the latter, meaning limited time to seek out new bars and new breweries. But I still have a few nuggets to share with you, and even a suggestion for a day out.

While Berlin has not yet seen the staggering number of breweries you can find in London, the number has been growing fast. Ratebeer lists a bewildering number of contract breweries, but there are still a few dozen bricks and mortar operations scattered around the city. Some of them have their won brewery taps, others are to be found in specialist beer bars and shops – or just in restaurants  and shops where they have managed to get in. The most concrete example of small scale – well, they call it craft in German as well, they are surprisingly eager to adapt English words – beer finding new markets is in the restaurant and bar of one of the Berlin landmarks – the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz. Three beers from contract brewery BrewfactuM are not only listed, but they are given a whole page of descriptions in the menu, a bit inaccurately identified as a Berlin brewery, but you can’t get it all right the first time. Pity I was there having breakfast…

One place close to Alexanderplatz to have a beer is Kaschk.  I’m pretty sure there is Norwegian ownership here, they have a strong selection of Scandinavian beer, and the name is a phonetic spelling of the nickname of the staple drink of Norwegians – coffee, sugar and home distilled alcohol. Never mind, they are open at lunchtime, and there are always some local beers on tap, too. Very studenty at midday, taking advantage of free wifi and decently priced coffee.

Ten minutes away is a charming second hand bookshop, dedicated to cookery books and related items. Bibliotheca Culinaria, but it is far more gemütlich than its pretentious name. It’s an Aladdin’s cave of food books,  including publications from the DDR. Some shelves of beer and brewery books, too, well worth browsing into.

And a piece of advice if you want to open a pub: Instead of buying the interior from someone who makes replicas of English or Oirish pubs, go here and buy their selection of original beer mugs. There were at least fifty different ones on display, including a number of fine ones with pewter lids on sale for ten Euro a piece. I am sure this is a good place if you are looking for more rare beer books, too. Thanks a lot to Micromaid for the tip!

That’s all for to today. But stay tuned. There is a side street beer shop with friendly natives, Stone Berlin – and a 30 liter beer glass coming up.

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Teo’s dream – the New Baladin brewery

Thirty years ago, Teo had a dream. A dream that slowly would give birth the the Italian beer revolution. A dream that has grown into a giant brewery, but is much more than that.

Thirty years ago, Teo Musso started a beer bar in his home village Piozzo. He was tired of the bland industrial pilsners on offer, and he knew there were some interesting beers out there that he could sell. His bar soon featured 200 beers, mostly imported, many of them Belgian. Hoegaarden was an early favourite.

For ten years, the bar grew in reputation and scope – and then Teo created his Baladin brewery.  The rest is history.

Piozzo is one of thousands of sleepy Italian villages, among the hills in the Northwestern corner of the country. It’s lush and green here, the Alps make sure there is enough water both as rain and as rivers. The crops here are barley and maize – but mostly grapes.  Alba 20, Barolo 7, the signposts say as we approach.

I was one of a selected few beer writers invited to mark the anniversary of Baladin and the opening of the brand new brewery. Which is much more than a brewery.

The new brewery is situated on a sizeable area of land, with possibilities of growing ingredients, brewing beer with state of the art technology and the aging of beer in 14 century cellars. There is no real threshold for production here. The new brewery does not start out with a capacity far beyond the old one, but the possibilities for expanding are endless.

The bar turned into a brewpub in 1996, and the first bottled beers were sold one year later. Since then there has been a slow expansion, until this year’s move to fantastic facilities outside the village.

The investment is sizeable, 12,5 million Euro plus VAT, but then everything should be in place. Some of this is crowdfunding. This is not only for the financial aspect, it is also a way of getting the local community seriously involved.

The most impressive is the automated bottle maturing process. This is bacically a closed box. The beer is matured for various lengths of time at three different temperatures, and a robot makes sure it is moved to the correct place at the correct time. Groundbreaking beer technology, with a potential in other fields like winemaking or cheese production if you ask me. This was intended as a Horizon 2020 project, but a Spanish partner had to resign, and Baladin lost 1.5 million Euros because of that.

There is more. There is land set aside for growing barley, other grains and hops. There is a drying area for hops, and they plan to build maltings. They are establishing a magnificent garden open for the public, with stone mills, and old communal oven and cheese makers and butchers invited in. The craft of barrel making had almost died out, Baladin uses Japanese craftsmanship to build new ones and to take care of old ones. There is education, too, with a small brewery set up for students at the nearby Gastronomical University to acquire brewing skills.

Baladin is no longer one of a handful of Italian craft breweries. There are now one thousand Italian breweries – yet the growth potential is big. Craft beer still account for just 3% of the Italian market. Baladin sells half of its production abroad, and ten percent in their own bars and restaurants. There are Baladin bars in a number of Italian cities, as well as in New York.

Teo is proud of what he has managed to achieve. I have moved mammoths, he says, and points out that the Italian beer revoulution is also a cultural revolution. What is important is the next stage is to watch out for the big industrial players making beer they pretend to be craft.

I admire people who set u a goal and then work towards it for decades. Some have to throw in the towel, but Teo did not. His contribution to the European ber scene should not be underestimated.

I had expected a range of inventive beers for this launch, but I assume we will have to wait until the products from the new brewing plant have been allowed to mature, be it in the old cellars or in the new warehouse with temperature zones. One beer to look out for is a light, hoppy blonde simply called POP. Available in brightly colored cans, ask at your local beer shop wherever you live. Of course you should enquire about the Xyauyu range of beers too, aimed for a more discerning public. And there are lots of beers in between to explore, too.

And if you are in the area, there are tours of the brewery. A gallery going through the building gives good Access. There is even a shop selling souvernirs and beer.

Check out Martyn’s report on the event as well.

Disclaimer: I was invited to the opening of the new Baladin brewery as a guest, and they paid my travel expenses.

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Cheery growlers defying the dark days

Life in a city bordering on the icy northern ocean can be tough. A main street with a brewery at each end makes things more cheerful.

It’s not pitch dark in Tromsø during the last days of November. But when my plane lands slightly after noon, it is already dusk. The cold winds from the Arctic bring sleet and snow. The sensible locals wear sturdy boots with spices to navigate the icy pavements. –I suspect most shops and restaurants will have to replace their flooring every spring. There is a crunchy sound when the metal spikes meet the parquet floor.

Tromsø used to be the last outpost of civilization. A base for the trappers and explorers, traders in timer, pelts and fish. Now it is a sizeable town – for Norway – with a fair number of hotels. The locals are fond of the nickname The Paris of the North.

Among the attractions of today, there is a brewery at both ends of the main street, Storgata. One is a reborn old-timer, the other is spanking new.

Mack is the established one, with a history going back to 1877. As with many in the industry, the inner city location became too cramped, so they moved the main brewery out of town a few years ago. At the same time, they established a micro-brewery in the historical building, well integrated with a bottle/souvenir shop and next to the traditional beer hall.

The beer hall – Ølhallen – is a story in itself. This was the brewery tap, open only during the daytime. This was not for recreational drinking for the chattering classes, rather a place where seal hunters, fishermen and explorers came when they went ashore, rubbing shoulders with locals who took their noontime pint seriously.

Ølhallen still popular

The interior is still like in a time warp, with a stuffed polar beer greeting you at the entrance. The floor is tiled, easy to hose down at the end of the day. There are still a number of tables for drinking standing up. But they have put in more comfortable seating. The clientele dropping in on a Friday at the end of the office week seem to be office workers and academians, no sign of knitted pullovers and sou’westers today.

And the beer range is fantastic. The full range of Mack beers, obviously. But, in addition, fifty taps of Norwegian micro brews. Five from their own micro, the rest from Røros, Lervig, St Hallvard, Austmann, 7 Fjell, Nøgne Ø, Kinn, Ægir, Amundsen, Voss, Grünerløkka Brygghus – and local newcomers Graff Brygghus, more about them shortly.

This is one of the best tap lists in Norway, I sincerely hope they have a turnover that is good enough to keep this going. I limit myself to a glass of the saison brewed in-house. True to type, a beer properly characterized by the yeast, and where the hops and malt are firmly but politely pushed into the background.

Ølhallen is filling up as I leave, most of the locals seem to go for the Mack Christmas beer.

Marius at work

My reason for visiting Tromsø is the other brewery, Graff Brygghus. They launched their first beers just a few weeks ago, but they have been very well received. They did not have their bottling line set up when I visited, but they have a good alternative – selling growlers. When I walked by, there were 15 persons patiently waiting in line to fill up their two liter glass kegs. They filled 150 kegs on a Friday afternoon, most of them with new glassware. They have four of their own beers available, and from what I observed, the customers come back to try them all. This is a way of distributing beer which is fairly well spread in North America, in Norway there are just a few others – Lindheim, Voss and Northern are the ones I know of. It is a good way to get your beers out of the brewery and into peoples’ homes – but they also make great gifts and, most important, they make people talk about the brewery.

Lining up for the growler fill

I come back a few hours later, when there is a pub night at the brewery with yours truly invited to talk about my book and do some signing. I was very happy to get an invite from Graff, as they were one of the spanking new breweries included in the book. In fact they were not actually brewing when the book went to print – but I took the chance to give them a two page spread.

Graff Brygghus is run by two young men, Martin Amundsen and Marius Graff. Marius is barely in his twenties, but he has won homebrewing competitions well before he was of legal drinking age. They have set up their brewery in an old wooden house that has been used for various workshops for a century or so. Into this they have set up brand new brewing equipment from Portland Kettleworks.

The beers get their inspiration from the US West Coast, too, hop forward brews without going to extremes. My favourites of the evening were a grapefruity red ale and the seasonal Advent, brewed with just the right amount for rye malt.

These two guys really impressed me. They have attention to detail, they have the technological know-how – and they brew great beers from batch number one. While some of the founders of the Norwegian craft beer movement may be stepping down, there are new ones ready to fill their shoes. I think I have seen the future of Norwegian brewing. His name is Marius Graff. Remember I told you so when his beers turn up in Stockholm, Berlin or London.

 

A few words from the author

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Ôlbloggstafett: Tre ölminnen från tiden innan jag själv drack öl

I’ve been challenged. By Magnus. Three beer memories from before I drank beer myself. This is a Scandinavian concept, so this post will be in Norwegian. I’m not sure if Google translate will be very helpful.

Jeg begynner å bli gammel. 55. Og jeg drakk min første øl da jeg var 15. Så mine minner må da handle om perioden rundt 1970.

Det var et annet Norge. Et Norge uten oljerikdom, som fremdeles var preget av gjenreisning etter krigen. Og øl var ikke på noe hverdagsbord.

– Mine foreldre drakk lite. Men på juleaften drakk de en pilsner og en akevitt eller to. Lysholm Linie. Ølet var E.C. Dahls Pils, av den enkle grunn at det var det eneste som var i salg i Trondheim. Privateiede bryggerier hadde delt landet i regioner der de hadde monopol.

– Det ble også brygget øl til jul. Men ikke ordentlig øl. Tomtebrygg var et malt- og sukkerbasert kit som ga et musserende, alkoholsvakt og søtt brygg som kunne drikkes av hele familien. Så kunne man sikkert tilsette annet gjær og få omdannet mer av sukkeret. Men det gjorde ikke vi.

– Men det mest spennende ølet har jeg bare hørt om i etterkant. Min fars familie kom fra Skatval, som fremdeles er kjerneområdet for gårdsbrygging i Norge. Da hans mormor og morfar kjøpte gård og flyttet tre-fire mil vestover til Strinda, til det som i dag ligger innenfor grensen til Trondheim kommune, tok de ikke bryggetradisjonene med seg. Det er her mine minner skulle ha vært. Om brygging til bryllup og slåttonn, jul og barnedåp. Om bingen med røykmalt på låven som var klar om det skulle være behov for å brygge til en begravelse – gravøl.

 

Stafetten går videre til et annet medlem av Skandinaviska Ölskribenters Förening- Stefan. Han skal skrive om Den perfekte ølpub.

#ölbloggstafett2015

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Aberdeen I – The Grill, Union Street

I thought I would stick to Norwegian beers this spring, book writing and all. I was wrong. When I got an e-mail telling me BrewDog wanted to fly me to Scotland to visit their brewery, I was not difficult to persuade.

So, last Thursday, as the pubs were opening, I found myself on Union Street, Aberdeen. One of the places on my list was just a few minutes from the hotel, and it came recommended by the taxi driver that took me in from the airport.

The Grill does not look like much from the outside. It probably had a more elaborate sign, perhaps windows with frosted glass and more trimmings some decades ago. Some details of hops and grapes shows that this was more upmarket in another age.

A look at their web page – I was surprised they had one, shows a long history, the name unchanged since it opened as a restaurant in 1870. Their claim to fame, however, is of another kind:

When the pub reopened after the 7-month long refurbishment, (in 1925) John Innes hung a sign in the window which said “ No Ladies, Please”. For nearly 50 years this remained the policy, despite an invasion by female delegates attending the Scottish Trades Union Congress at the Music Hall in April 1973. This demonstration made front page headlines in the national press and the police had to be called to disperse the thirsty ladies!

It wasn’t until December 1975 that women were officially served in The Grill, following the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975. This was followed sometime after by the construction of a ladies toilet in 1998.

Going inside, it is a well kept pub. Nothing fancy, but tidy and clean. No signs of any food, let alone a grill, though, this is a place for drinking. A place dominated by regulars, good atmosphere, where people are greeted on their way in and their regular is poured right away. Local beers on several hand pumps.

I ask for an American APA from the Windswept brewery. The adult lady tending the bar asked if I had tried it before, and offered me a taster. This was apparently a bit outside the mainstream of their beers. It was pouted expertly, topped up and served with a fine head. The cask gives smoothness, but there was a fine bitter mouth feel, too. Malt, caramel, oranges, discreet pine. And APA? The cask treatment makes it difficult to say. An ESB with American hops is perhaps more correct.

A quite small bar, I looked in later, and it was more packed in the after work rush hour. Personal and attentive service. Some serious drinking old men, some reading their paper, some chatting. Not the cheapest place in town, but certainly not the most expensive.

I liked this place. No pretensions, polite service, well kept beer. But I would not be surprised if it was replaced by a fake Italian place with over priced coffee the next time around. I don’t know if Union Street will keep its name either, come to think of it. Go while you can.

A proper pint

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