Talas Beer Festival, Hamar

Jeremy presents his beers

 

Last weekend I invited myself to a beer festival. Talas is the house brewery at Basarene, the beautifully restored old covered market in Hamar, now an organic cafe/restaurant.

I knew about the brewery, they are in my book, but they don’t have any distribution ousdie their home town, so I found this a good opportunity. As Jonas from Eiker Ølfabrikk was driving, I even managed to hitch a ride.

The festival was a low key affair, with a few selected guest breweries. Some of them were local, all of them from Southern Norway.

The beers from Talas are not made for the beer geek market, aiming instead for a more broad appeal. The one I enjoyed most was the American style lager. Incredibly fruity and inviting aroma, yet light and easy to drink. In the basemanet there are a few wooden barrels with imperial stout – hope to get an opportunity to try it!

Beer from the saloon

Other local breweries were Saloon 7null4 from Follebu. I visited them a few years ago, they have invested in New equipemnt and og for a broader distribution in the near future. I did not get to sample their beers, but as they now do bottling, I hope to fix that later.

Tingnes Spiseri is located in an island in lake Mjøsa, the easiest way to get there from Hamar is by boat. The brewery is a part of their family-owned and -run restaurant. My favourite of their beers was the IPA.

Try a beer from Tingnes!

Cervisiam brought their Jungle Juice and Toxic ALEvenger, and they seemed to be very popular – they sold out fast!

Hegg Ølkompani is the new name of the brewery at Svenkefjøset in Lier. They brought two New beers, a Vienna lager and a blonde ale, both a 4.7% ABV. We are talking about beers for a broad Public here, I would say they should aim for something with more caracter to stand out from the big players.

Eiker Ølfabrikk brought a colloboration with Cervisiam, a raspberry saison. Lovely berry flavour that blends in with the beer, will be out in bottles soon. I also enjoyed the linganberry wit, brewed with saison yeast. Lots of tart/sour character, would be nice to pair with food!

Hamar is perhaps not the epicenter of the Norwegian beer scene, but events like this really contribute to expose people the wide range of flavors available. It was sold out, so I hope there will be more festivals in the future!

Why not try our lingonberry beer?

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Sjømilitære Samfund – a most unlikely micro brewery

Ten minutes walk from the centre of Horten you cross a Canal and enter the old fortress Karljohansvern. Next time I’ll spend some time exploring the area, which is now a museum, now I went straight for a large wooden building, home to Sjømilitære Samfund. This is a building belonging to a voluntary organisation, freely translated as The Naval Society, built in 1883 and retaining the old charm.

The house is now run as a hotel/restaurant by Stig Thorsen and his wife Torill. They do a lot of business functions, and they are now expanding, there is a side building under construction with more hotel rooms and conference facilities. With a central location surrounded by a beautiful park, this should have a great potential. The main building is to a large part restored to its former splendor, well worth a visit in itself.

But Stig also brews beers to be enjoyed by his guests. He only has a municipal licence, and the restaurant does not have regular opening hours for the public, this means that his beers  have been under the radar, even for most beer geeks.

The beer is brewed on a Speidel in 50 liter batches, then bottled. I was happy to be presented with a broad spectrum of brews, all with a consistent high quality.

I particularly enjoyed two of his beers:

Biblioteks, a Belgian Dubbel With oak chips in the boil. It has lots of sweetness, yet, there is enough hops to keep this in check.

Tordenskiolds Porter is well hopped, giving a complex beer. Asphalt, liquorice, molasses – and bitterness.

But the most interesting was the Vestfold Ale, brewed with floor malted grain grown in the area. This is discreetly hopped, letting the delicate maltiness be in focus. Elegant. I am very happy to see small-scale malting in Norway, I think there is a great potential that taps right into the current interest in real local food.

The overall quality of Stig’s beers impressed me, they should be available to more serious beer drinkers. Perhaps an annual beer and food event during a quiet period with advance ticket sales could be an idea? A beer festival is not a serious option with the present capacity of the operation.

 

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Horten Mikrobryggeri

I am still an optimist. I think there is room for more breweries in Norway. But most of the should be brewpubs. Like the one in Horten.

On Saturday, I was home alone, except for the cat. Nothing wrong with the cat, but as I have ambitions about visiting a fair number of Norwegian micro breweries this year, I looked at my list. One town stood out, with two breweries, and as they both responded positively to my e-mails, I set out.

The old naval town Horten is not far from Oslo as the crow flies. There is no railway station in town, but a short ferry ride from Moss gets you there comfortably.

Horten is no metropolis, it has around 25 000 inhabitants, including the rural areas and smaller towns in the municipality.

Horten Mikrobryggeri is a newcomer, it opened in October 2015. The story is fairly typical – some home brewing friends deciding to go professional. This is done in close cooperation with BorreBrygg, a homebrewing supplier that’s been around for some years.

Horten Mikrobryggeri is a brewpub. I met up with Elisabeth, who is the Manager of the place, who found time for a chat, despite this being her day off.

This place has become very popular over its six months of operation. There were the usual startup challenges of having the right amount of beer at the right time, but the timing must have been just right. When I visited, they had eight of their own beers on tap at the same time, a first, they usually have one or two guest beers. They have a kitchen, although it’s not a full scale restaurant – excpect upmarket pub Food with ingredients from small  local producers.

This is no replica of a British pub, there is a modern interior playing on the maritime history of the town with a lot of wood and brass.

The beers on tap were a wheat beer, two pale ales (one of which I’d call a bitter), a pils, an IPA, an amber, a blonde and a stout. The overall quality was fine. Of course there are low treshold beers to appeal to a broad public, and there is nothing wrong with that.But there were Three beers that stood out. The Torpedo Stout, with fine notes of coffee and roasted grain. The Løs Kanon Pale Ale, with liberal amounts of Citra hops. And my favourite, the Fulle Seil Amber, with a nice malty body and sweetness properly balanced by a piney bitterness.

They have applied for a national licence, meaning that there will be a few bottled beers available in the shop they run in cooperation with BorreBrygg just around the corner. But to get the full range, you’ll have to go to the brewpub. Which is well worth the effort. If you plan to go on a Friday or Saturday evening, you should probably book a table. Best of all, go when the weather gets warmer and get a table on the pavement outside.

But, as readers of my book will know, there is another brewery in town as well. More about that next time.

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Never mind the rain, Bergen’s got beer, too

When I was invited to do a few promotional events for my book in Bergen, I welcomed the opportunity. This meant some hours in a shopping mall signing books, but also taking part in a beer tasting with an additional opportunity for book sales.

Arriving at Bergen airport, I was picked up by Sammy, who kindly drove me to my first stop, the Gulating beer shop, located in a shopping mall some distance from the city center. But we made a short detour, allowing me a brief visit to 7 Fjell, one of the craft breweries being successful, also on a national scale. No price for the scenery, they are located on a no nonsense industrial estate, but the beer they brew is impeccable. They are taking over a larger slice of the building than they are using today, so there will be a tasting room and other facilities in the future.

Helge gave me the ten minute tour. 7 Fjell is doing very well, right now the fermentation tanks are the bottlenecks of the brewing.

Helge at 7 Fjell

Onwards to Gulating, where I spent three hours signing books. Not a huge success, but a trickle of customers. The shop, however, sold a respectable amount of beer  while I was there. The emergence of at first good beer shelves in Norwegian supermarkets and then specialist beer shops selling beers below the legal limit of 4.7% is way beyond what I had expected a few years ago. The Gulating shops buy their beers directly from the breweries, meaning they can offer lower prices to the customer than supermarkets. They also have a great range of beers from the smallest breweries, which are hard to find without extensive travelling.

Gulating Bergen

A quick check in at my hotel before arrival at UNA bar and restaurant, where I was invited to present my book at a tasting of vintage Christmas beers. This was hosted by Stefan, who has a good routine of doing events like this, I tried to add my bit to the proceedings.

UNA is the place with the most impressive tap list in Bergen, of particular interest when I visited was that they had a home brew on tap. They have their own brewing permit, but so far they just have a tiny setup in the basement. Their first beer is a Light Stout – as opposed to a Dark Stout. Highly drinkable with some coffee and cocoa notes, slightly sweet. Brewed to have a broad appeal, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Across the street to the next brewpub, Bryggeriet, a part of the huge bar/restaurant complex Zachariasbryggen.  I was visiting briefly this summer, with a serious case of bad timing, it was a week before the first beers were due to be released, and none of them were ready.  I had better luck this time, even finding brewer Gareth behind the bar and ready for a chat.

Bryggeriets Christmas beer

The original idea was to have a range of four fairly standard regular beers, this has evolved into six of their own beers on tap most of the time, and a wish to be more playful. I sampled Snøwit, a fairly strong wit, which I enjoyed, particularly since it was low on the coriander scale. Their Juleøl is a spiced porter.  My favourite was the Flagship IPA -a great allrounder that would work well both with food and as refreshment.  Grass, citrus and discreet maltiness.

My last stop was the third brewpub, Baran Café, where I had a nice chat with Ali. Well, technically it is not a brewpub, since the brewing is done elsewhere, but he brews his own beer and sells it in his café.  I had a beer, but I’m afraid there are no notes from its consumption. It is a quiet place to hang out, make sure you visit if you are in town.

These rambling notes do not do justice to the Bergen beer scene, but I hope it might inspire tickers and drinkers to make a visit. Bergen has established itself firmly on the Norwegian beer map.

Note: The trip was paid by my publisher, and I did not receive any compensation from the establishments mentioned apart from some beer samples.

A logo appropriate for Bergen

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Aberdeen II – two pubs to go to, two you may skip

The CASC blackboard

There is a fair number of bars in Aberdeen, my research made me have a closer look at three of them, and then I stumbled across one more..

CASC – short for Cigars Ale Scotch Coffee, was visited twice. Once during a very quiet lunchtime hour, when the very few other visitors were still into the coffee part of the name. BTW, it looks like they take the consonants seriously, too. There is a humidor that looked impressive.

The beer means a large number of fridges with bottled beer as well as 24 keg lines. Lots of English, American and German beers, even a few from Norwegian Lervig. What I missed was a wider selection of Scottish beers, but maybe they feel that there are others who take care of that side of the market.

Revisited in the evening, fairly packed with a young crowd.

This bar probably has the best selection of beer in town, but go in the early afternoon to enjoy them. Centrally located in the rustic Merchant Quarter.

Bottle Cap is a brewery and a bar. They serve very basic food, too, in case you want to line your stomach. Their own beers were underwhelming. I tried three of them, and the general feeling is that you are being served home brews that did not turn out quite all right. Drinkable, but with an aroma that was quite unpleasant. Not a must stop.

Six Degrees North is next door, but in another league. They call themselves the Belgian brewers of Scotland, but there is more to the place than that. Note that the beers are not brewed on the spot, so this is more like a brewery tap than a brewpub. Not that it really matters much.

A blackboard, which you will not see on your way in, you have to turn around and look above the doorway once you are in the main room, shows the beers on tap, including a handful of their own beers. Once seated, you can have a look at the bottle list, which includes hundreds of Belgian beers . Some of the Six Degrees beers are in the classic Belgian styles, others more crossovers like Belgian IPA and Belgian DIPA. Fine beers, and fine Belgian cooking, too. This one should be on your Aberdeen shortlist.

If that’s not enough, there is a bottle list, too.

Worth mentioning is the Triplekirks, yet another church turned into a bar. The beers were fine, but there was a studenty competition going on that was extremely noisy.

Time to call it a night, as the next day was the big event – the BrewDog brewery visit

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The return of the (Norwegian craft) lager

I was sipping a beer ( a very nice brown ale, since you ask) at Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri, one of the Oslo brewpubs, some days ago. Their blackboard shows their range of beers on tap, six of their own, the rest hand picked from around the globe. Wheat or wit, IPAs, pale ales, usually at least a sour ale, an imperial stout, maybe a barley wine.

But, for the last six months or so, they also have their own pilsener. They have always had Hansa pils, but it is not promoted in any way. An industrial alternative for those who get too scared of all this craft stuff. The Hansa pils is not selling much, though. The regulars want the home brews or the hand picked imports on the blackboard. Their own lager is another story. The barman told me they have pulled it form the menu at times to stimulate the sale of their other beers.

If you want Norwegian craft lager to take home, there are a few really good ones available from micros like Lillehammer Bryggeri and Sundbytunet, but they have a very small distribution.

Lervig started out as a lager brewery, way before Mike Murphy arrived to start making top fermented beers. Their pilsener varieties did not impress anyone back then. I’ve been told that they are much improved now. I will give them a try, but there is a lot of marketing work to be done as well, perhaps integrating a pilsnener and a few other lager varieties into their series of well designed bottles and cans.

But the one to look out for is further north on the west coast. Kinn has announced that they are reducing their range of beers to concentrate on a core range. But among those core beers, there will also be a pilsener. Knowing the quality of Espen’s beers,  I’m sure this will be a winner. But they might have to consider the price level. I’m not sure how much the Norwegian consumers are willing to pay for a bottle of pils, however good it is. We are used to drinking our pale lagers in larger quantities than the darker and stronger beers, so it’s a matter of keeping the price of a six-pack down to a reasonable level.

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Bierhaupstadt Berlin Beer Guide

I was very happy to receive a book in the mail just a few days before Christmas, a bit too late for a review to help the holiday sales.

The Berlin beer scene has seen much the same as in London, an explosion in the number of micro breweries, beer bars with an interesting range of brews and beer shops.

I have tried to document some of this on my blog over the last decade, but a comprehensive guide was really needed. And that is what we’ve got.

Markus Raupach and Bastian Böttner has written a bilingual guide to breweries, beer gardens, brew pubs and beer culture in Berlin. The German text is longer, but the information in English is likely to be what you need to navigate.

There are 24 breweries in Berlin (including Potsdam) now, so a weekend is not enough to cover them all. At least you have a tool to do your planning.

Lots of nice color photos. Published by GuideMedia Verlag Bamberg. Be sure to get one before you go!

You can order from their web site.

Meieri im Neuen Garten, Potsdam

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Not so cozy any longer at London Fields Brewery

A convicted cocaine smuggler who runs London Fields Brewery has been arrested on suspicion of tax evasion after a dawn raid at his home. Jules de Vere Whiteway-Wilkinson was detained after officers from HM Revenue and Customs arrived at his house in Stoke Newington to question him about allegations that he has been failing to pay VAT at the London Fields Brewery. This is according to the Propel Newsletter. Whiteway-Wilkinson has run the brewery since his release from a 12-year prison sentence imposed in 2004 for his role as the leader of a cocaine-smuggling gang that supplied drugs to celebrities and music industry figures.

I have to admit that when I was in London a year ago, the tap room at London Fields was one of the highlights of the weekend. Oh, well.

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Norwegian brewery bonanaza continues

I have looked into the crystal ball. I see 50 new Norwegian breweries in 2015.

There are around 120 active breweries in Norway today, I guess about 20 of them established during 2014. But things are not slowing down. My guess there will be 50 new breweries with a public licence to sell their beers in 2015.

 

I have gone through public records, newspaper clipping, Facebook pages etc. Here are 38 new breweries who are likely to start brewing in 2015, listed by county. As usual, they are scattered around the country, most of them starting up as very small scale brewpub ventures. I welcome all corrections to the list, and hope there is a fair number of omissions, too..

 

Some of these have a local licence to sell beer in-house only, others have a national permit and may sell their beers through shops, bars and restaurants. Note that there are a few destilleries starting up, too, they are not included, neither are cider makers. Nedre Foss Gård in Oslo will , as far as I know, have both a brewery and a distillery.

 

Daglighallen Mikrobryggeri in Trondheim. Already open!

Akershus

Ale by Alex, Fet

Wettre Bryggeri, Asker

 

Buskerud

Aja Bryggeri, Tranby

Eiker Ølfabrikk, Mjøndalen

Skjenkestua pub Drammen

Svensefjøset, Lier

Nøsterud Gård, Svelvik

Låven Mikrobryggeri, Sylling

 

Hedmark

Kolonihagen, Hamar

Ølkjillarn, Folldal

 

Hordaland

Inside Voss Rock Cafe, Voss

Bergen Mikrobryggeri/Fribryggerlogen

Nøsteboden, Bergen

Modalen Ølbryggjarlag anno 2014, Modalen

 

Møre og Romsdal

Korn Bryggeri, Eresfjord, Nesset kommune

Bjørkavåg Brygg, Fiskarstrand,

Smøla Mikrobryggeri, Smøla

 

Nordland

Mormors Hus, Bøstad, Vestvågøy

 

Nord-Trøndelag

Eldhuset, Haugum Gård, Overhalla

Berg Gård, Inderøy kommune

Winkelmann Bryggeri, Hegra

 

Oppland

Villtotningen, Kolbu

Sve Gard, Vågå kommune 

Oslo

Nedre Foss gård, . ”Bellonahuset”

St. Hallvard

 

Sogn og Fjordane

Tya Bryggeri, Øvre Årdal

 

Sør-Trøndelag

Moe Nedre, Leinstrand, Trondheim

Kystbryggeriet Frøya, Dyrvik

 

Troms

Senja Handbryggeri

Stangnes bryggeri Tranøy

 

Vest-Agder

Hunsfos Bryggeri, Vennesla kommune

Farsund Brewing Company, Farsund

Bryggerhuset (Bekkereinan), Kvinesdal

 

Østfold

MikroMeyer, Spydeberg

Mølla Brygghus, Fredrikstad

Taraldrud gård, Marker kommune

 

Svalbard

Svalbard Bryggeri, Longyearbyen

Trappers Brewhouse, Longyearbyen

 

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Norske mikrobryggerier 22 – Norwegian micro breweries 22 – Saloon 7null4, Follebu

(English text at the end)

20 minutter med buss på gode veier bringer deg til Follebu i Gausdal kommune, et sted jeg må innrømme jeg ikke hadde noe forhold til fra før. Jeg prøver imidlertid å følge med på alle etableringer av mikrobryggerier i Norge, så jeg visste det var aktivitet på stedet. Saloon 7null4 er navnet, og da jeg tok kontakt på e-post ble jeg ønsket velkommen. Jeg fikk til og med tilbud om å bli hentet på bussholdeplassen, noe som kom godt med på en sur oktoberettermiddag.

Jeg blir tatt imot av Amund Heggen og Vidar Kalløkken, som entusiastisk forteller om puben og bryggeriet.

Amund har kontroll i baren

Dette er en hobbyaktivitet for de tre involverte, men det betyr ikke at det ikke er lagt ned mange arbeidstimer i prosjektet. Bryggeri og pub er innredet i et uthus, der både låve og fjøs er tatt i bruk. Man kan bare gjette hvor mange timer som er brukt til nedvasking, snekring, isolering, maling og innredning. Her er det plass til opp til 400 gjester, og det er travelt fra nå og frem til nyttår med julebord og andre arrangementer. Det serveres Ringnes pils også, på en typisk kveld går det 250 liter eget øl og litt mer Ringnes.

Det er av og til åpne pubkvelder, men det lokale markedet er begrenset, så det aller meste av omsetningen er lukkede selskaper.

Fra melk til øl – Vidar har hovedansvar for bryggingen

Bryggeri og lagringstanker er også preget av ombruk, men det er bestilt nytt utstyr fra Kina som vil gi bedre kapasitet.

Vidar er den som driver mest med brygging, og han kan tilby smaksprøver på et stort spekter av øl. Her er det lyse lagerøl, men også pale ale, IPA, en red ale og en brown ale. Dette er ikke ekstremøl, men varianter som skal treffe et bredt publikum – og det har de lyktes med. Det er spesielt imponerende at nivået er så godt når Vidar forteller at ingen av dem har drevet med hjemmebrygging før de satte i gang!

Ølene ble tatt godt imot på en ølfestival på Tretten i sommer, et av dem ble faktisk kåret til publikumsfavoritt.

Så langt er ølene bare å få kjøpt på deres egen pub. Men det ligger en søknad om løyve hos Helsedirektoratet, og da satser man på å levere på flaske til utesteder på Lillehammer. Et sted å spørre er Nikkers.

En spesialitet de serverer i tillegg til ølet er meskebrød – et velsmakende flatbrød bakt med mesk fra bryggingen. En idé for andre bryggerier?

Det begynner å bli en del bryggerier i dette området nå, man kunne kanskje vurdere litt organisert ølturisme?

Mye arbeid når fjøs skal bli til pub

20 minutes by bus from Lillehammer brings you to the small community Follebu and Saloon 7null4. Three enthusiasts have started a brewpub in an old barn. It is a small scale operation, they have all kept their day jobs, but with new equipment coming in, they hope to expand a bit. There is a licence pending to sell beer to others, and they have a few places in Lillehammer ready to sell their beers.

They brew a wide range of beers, lager, pale ale, IPA, porter etc. This is not the place to come for extreme beers, but what you get is fresh, tasty and with more flavour than the industrial brewers usually offer.

They brew 250 liter batches, mostly with an ABV of about 4.5%. Well worth a visit, but get in touch with them first, as they do not have regular opening hours.

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