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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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

 

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2017 – a great year for this beer writer!

Wonderful view at Lindheim

 

It’s been quite a year!
I’m hardly blogging, but that does not mean I’m not busy doing beer things. 2017 has been very rewarding.
I have attended a number of festivals, done tastings and speeches, visited breweries – and written a lot.

My beer travelling has mostly been in Norway, with a few exceptions. I was once again invited by Visit Flanders to Belgium for a beer tour. We had some very busy days, meeting brewers and visiting cafes and restaurants. The highlight of the tour was a visit to Westmalle, attending mass with the monks followed by a tour behind the walls, ending up at the brewery. I have since published an article on beer tourism in Belgium, but I hope to go deeper into this material.

The walls of Westmalle

A Tripel with cheese,
in Café Trppisten

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This autumn I was travelling for work to Helsinki, and used the opportunity to catch up on the beer scene there. Helsinki is a very convenient two hour ferry ride from Tallinn, which I have to admit I had not visited before. I made a day trip to get a glimpse of the beer scene, and it is a town I definitely will get back to. A weekend in Stockholm included a splendid meal at Akkurat, which still stands out among the very best places for beer and food in the known universe.

I have not visited as many new Norwegian breweries as earlier years, but at least I can tick off Skumbag in Oslo, Gøtt in Nesbyen, Yeastside in Stavanger and Lilland Bryggerihotell in Tau on the list. But a real highlight vas getting an invitation to join beer people from around the world for a weekend at Lindheim Ølkompani this summer. I have met Ingeborg and Eivin many times over the years, but I was very happy to finally get to visit their brewery, set among the orchards of Telemark.

There are new bars opening up in Oslo, some of them take beer very seriously. Instant favorites of mine are BRUS Oslo, Occulus (Cervisiam brewery tap) and Røør, but Brygg Oslo and Håndslag also look very promising.

I have been doing beer tastings and book promos across the country this year as well, starting with an event at Gulating Trondheim. I cooperate with Håndverkerstuene on beer and food tastings, the first event for 2018 has already sold out! I did a very successful beer quiz for the annual meeting of the The Norwegian Beer and Soft Drinks Producers.

A number of Norwegian beer festivals, of which I really want to point to Ølfestivalen at Nærbø, south of Stavanger. Well organized, very laid back and friendly. They have been doing this every other year since 2009, and they keep it down to earth and local – earning money for the local sports club.

Not just one book this year, but two! A new edition of the Norwegian Beer Guide, which keeps selling well, both in book and magazine formats. Fun and interesting to do a collaboration, as I did a Beer Quiz book with Sammy Myklebust. Phone, Dropbox and one weekend of sitting down together over a few beers. A thousand beer questions, plus some about other beverages with and without alcohol. And we are still open for engagements, solo perfomances or as a duo!

The Norwegian Beer Guide is also published in magazine format in cooperation with the newspaper VG, with print run of 40.000. I also had several pieces printed in the food magazine Godt from the same publisher.

Sorry to see two good breweries give up, Grim & Gryt and To Tårn. Good beer and good people, too bad that is not enough in today’s fiercely competitive market.

Too bad To Tårn had to close

2018?

I plan to do a hardcover book presenting all Norwegian breweries again. I’d love to make more out of the quiz material, too. This could be reused in other countries, and I also hope to do more live quizzes. And the ambition is to cover the Norwegian beer scene in English a bit more again. Not much, but a bit more.

A visit to Berlin in early January. And I definitely need to visit the UK. Not to speak of Belgium. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all beer people out there.

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Beer imitating art

Oslo is no longer just a place to escape from, it is a destination in itself. The cheap direct flights to Central and Southern Europe are not all filled with Norwegians, we get a fair amount of weekend trippers who want to visit us, too.

The newly developed area Tjuvholmen was buzzing with Italian, Catalan and German in addition to us natives and the Swedes who live and work among us. In the low winter sun the views of the city and the fjord were spectacular. Particularly around the Astrup Fearnley Museum, which displays spectacular pieces of modern art, one of the very few private institutions of its kind in Norway.

Steel, concrete and glass meets wood and water, you don’t have to buy a ticket to enjoy the spectacular architecture.

A museum needs a café, and Vingen has a splendid view. To my surprise it even has a decent beer list.

Of course there is a long list of coffee drinks to be had, and there is a food menu very much in the New Nordic style. But you also find beers from Dronebrygg, Oslo Brewing Company, Lervig, Oosterrijsen and Eiker Ølfabrikk. There is even a local cider.

Dronebrygg is closely associated with art, they are even located in the basement of Kunsternes hus, a foundation for promotin contemporary art. Some of their beers are connected to art events, others more mainstream.

On tap at Vingen was Dronebrygg Tennissball IPA. A hazy NEIPA at 6%. Lovely flavor of freshly squeezed grapefruit, refreshing and moreish. Nothing highly sophisticated here, just simple pleasure. Long bitter finish.

With temperatures below freezing, it is easy to find outside seating. Come summer, I’d grab a chair when they open. There is even a small public beach just around the corner.

 

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Getting around the prohibition

I’m not sure if this is genuine or not. From my own family here in Norway there is a tale of a prescription from a veterinarian for a bottle of Cognac for John Forbord’s sick horse.

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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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Some beer notes from Cyprus

I spent some days in Cyprus earlier this month. There are good beers to be found, but don’t expect much of the local brews.

This was no beer trip as such, but obviously I kept my eyes open for interesting beers. I last visited ten years ago, and what I found was a brewpub in Limassol brewing just one pale lager .

I’m sorry the photos in the old post are no longer visible, Photobucket is charging a stiff yearly fee for sharing photos which are not worthwhile.

This year I stayed in Larnaca – with a one day excursion to Nicosia. I start with my apologies to the brewpub Pivo in Nicosia, it was way above 40 degrees the day I came to town, so I had to return to the coast before opening time. I have every reason to believe they have good beers.

So. The 1900 Art Café Bar has a bar downstairs and a restaurant upstairs, crammed with posters and paintings. A fairly typical Cyprus menu, I had a very nice lamb and spinach stew. A good selection of Belgian beers, some other imports, but the only domestic beer was KEO. A fine place, I hope they can encourage some domestic breweries to make beer for them in the future.

The main beer bar in Larnaca is the Barrel House, tucked away in a courtyard off the pedestrianized Ermou street. A quiet spot in the afternoon and early evening, getting more noisy later. A well curated beer list, including a few Greek craft beers.  De Molen, Flying Dog, Kaapse, Kees, Thornbridge and De Dolle are among the breweries in the menu. And they are quite explicit: Please note we do not serve beers such as Amstel, Budweiser, Carlsberg, Corona, Fix, Heineken, Keo, Leon, Stella Artois etc. I hav a Viven Master IPA, brewed at De Proef for Beer Development Viven. A light, fruity beer, quite sweet. They could have called this a Belgian Blond instead, but it’s a nice beer.

Free snacks on one of our visits, a deli counter with meat and cheese if you want to eat more. Very good service. Ask if they have something new that’s not in the beer list.

A few yards away is the wine shop Cava Spiritology, which also carries some beer. There are splendid Belgians like Westmalle Tripe and Roedenbach Grand Cru, but also some Cyprus craft beers. I tried a few, but they were not too impressive. The brewery is called True Ale, they have five beers, of which I tried their Blonde Ale at 2,5% and  their Pale Ale at 3%. It is difficult to brew good low alcohol beers, I think they would be better off going for stronger beers. The shelf life of this Ale is virtually limited It says on their bottles. It is most certainly not, especially not in this climate.

Nevertheless, there are good beers to be found here, including a premium, well hopped lager from the Greek Delphi brewery. It is a very good shop for wine also, ask for recommendations. I bought a few bottles of an excellent Lebanese wine we had earlier at a seafront restaurant – the meze at Maquam al Sultan was the best meal in town.

Then to the big disappointment – The Brewery. Presenting itself as a brewpub in a prime spot in town, they even offer a sushi/Thai buffet once a week. I was very disappointed by both the food and the drink.

There is what looks like brewing equipment on the first floor, but on closer examination it is fake and dusty. It turns out they have never brewed beer on the premises at all. Our waitress tells us they buy the beer from Germany. On the plus side you get a sampler set of the beers for free, but the beers were all very dull. Pretending to have a range of nine beers, and pricing those at three times the going rate of domestic brews is not acceptable. The buffet was not up to much, either, even when the restaurant was half full, the cooks struggled to keep up with demand, and the cooking was very basic.

I can recommend Larnaca as a holiday destination. The beaches are clean, the service is generally very good, the food is of high quality (though there is a tendency to deep fry similar to Scotland) and people speak good English. And the widely available national lagers, KEO and Leon, are pretty good, I found that Leon had a bit more flavor. There are import beers, too, including some cans with pretentions. Like in Italy, some people think that a German-looking Omlaut is a sign of quality. Insëlbrau was the local example.

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