BARS AND BREWERY'S; COPENHAGEN

COPENHAGEN

I am going to have a go at finishing my blog of my recent trip. I always seem to run out of steam right at the end of these escapades and then take too long to get back to it . Never mind. From Stockholm I went by train to Denmark, not a hard trip particularly but really it would be a help occasionally if these railway stations would hire some human staff to give a bit of direction.

BREWPUB

OUTSIDE THE BREW BAR

DOWNSTAIRS AT THE BREW BAR

PIGS CHEEKS AT THE BREW BAR

The first place real beer place I went to in Copenhagen was the Beer Pub, which was just off the main tourist strip, not all that easy to see from the street as it was behind an archway The pub has a courtyard dining area with its own bar, the main restaurant was down stairs to the cellar level, I stayed upstairs and sat at the bar. The beers available, or at least the ones I had were an Amarillo, an American Red Ale and a Vesterweiss, a wheat beer; a barley wine called the Roadster. I have had a look at their website and it looks as though they have changed a couple of their beers.

I went back a couple days later to have a meal there and had the pigs cheeks which were highly recommend to me by the barman. This is the first time I have eaten pig’s cheeks and so didn’t know what to expect, it was well worth the effort because they were very good.

Having a very pleasant and cheery barman helped make this establishment worth the visit

MIKELLER BAR.

 OUTSIDE MIKKELLOER BAR

INSIDE MIKKELLER BAR

This place is something. it had twenty beers on tap, ten Mikeller beers and ten guest beers

It was very crowded as to be expected and very small, a collection of small rooms that you have to go down half a dozen steps to get to and it reminded me a bit of the Brewdog Bar in Scotlaned 

As I bought my first beer the bar man asked it was my first visit so I told him where I came from and despite it being very busy he came over and we had a chat about the beers and Mikkeller in Australia and all night they appeared to take an interest in what I was drinking and what I thought of the beers, most of which were pretty high in alcohol and got higher as I worked through the list. I managed most of the Mikkeller beers but left the guest beers on th off chance that I would make it back but as it turned out I didn’t.   

I started with a Mikkeller Vesterbrown Ale _ hoppy but not over the top hop

Then a Mikkeller Vesterbao Terrific araoama Great Grape fruit and very refreshing

Then a Vestrerbro Wit ; Not overly yeasty

These first three beers were only available in the Mikkellers bar and the Vester is a reference to the district the bar was in

Then came a Mikkeller Marathon an IPA. This was not my favourite up to this point, I thought it was a dryer and hoppier and more bitter than I prefer

At this stage I wrote myself a note in my book that all these comments are my own as there was no detailed notes on the beers and so I was left to my own devices and as such others may see it differently.

Then I tried s Mikkeller/Bridge Roads collaboration the Dark Harvest . This beer was the one that was brewed in Australia and sent to Denmark. I will have to try the same beer brewed in Denmark and then sent to Australia. I have a long list of notes on this but will see how they compare if I ever get a chance to

Then things started to get a bit heavy as the alcohol was starting to get up in the 10% plus range

The next beer was a Mikeller CUT CA PH BAi which as you would have already guessed by the name was an Imperial Stout, almost chewy and stuck to the glass.

After this came a Mikkeller Blackhole though at 13% was 3% higher than the last one I thought it was lighter in body and easier drinking but probably sneakier – no head to speak of and had a nice finish. By this time I thought it best to stop and anyway I had had nine of the ten Mikeller beers – I didn’t try the light beer at 1.9%, the reaming draft beers were guest beers, surely worth the effort but there is only so much I can do in one night.    

VESTERBRAU AND TIVOLI

There is not much to say about these two places as neither had a beer of interest as far as I was concerned. The Tivoli is a restaurant with a very small brewery on site which seems to produce only the one very ordinary lager

The Vesterbrau, just across the street was pretty much the same

In my opinion these places were both incredibly lazy and made no real attempt to be anything other than mediocre.

I was having a particular grippe at the time because these places couldn’t seem the grasp the idea of varying glasses sizes and it was a bucket sized glass or nothing. I am of the opinion that it should be possible to get beer in smaller glasses that might suit the drinker who is going for variety rather than quantity. If a place has half a dozen taps of different beers which these places didn’t then it becomes too much to drink in litres or even half litres and be able to enjoy  the difference let alone move to another place

There was another brewhouse in this area but I never got into and anyway they didn’t seem interested in custom if it wasn’t dining. This didn’t bother me all that much because there were a lot of other places on my list that I could go to.     

NORREBRO BREWHOUSE or BEER and BABIES

 OUTSIDE NORREBRO BREWRY

 FIRST FOUR

 
BABY BREWERY

This place as the name suggest was on the northern edge of town a brewery restaurant.

 This is the first brewery I have been to that was full of babies as there was a “do” going on in the restaurant. A baptism party or something and there were mobs of Scandinavian yummy mummy’s and their babies having a knees up leaving a fleet of prams lined up in front of the tanks 

They had eight beers on tap and I used the tasting board option and had them all . The beers were all decent beers – all better than the commercial offerings in Scandinavia but I don’t think there were any standout outs.

Ravensborg Red –Easy to drink

Pacific Summer Ale – Maybe a bit misnamed for this part of the world , a sessions beer, a  Bombay Pale Ale. Not overly hopped a fudge caramel taste

Forars Bock – chocolaty straight away not a big lingering finish

New York Lager- I thought this was thin and watery and boring,  which thought I had to keep to myself as the staff were pushing it as their beer of choice

King Country Brown - I have no notes for this one and I seem to recall it was not available so I would have doubled up on on of the others.

Kongen of Denmark - apparently this was named after the King I don’t know if he liked it – if he did he has odd tastes, my notes describe it qas a candy beer – liquorice on a stick very sticky and smells like a sweet shop. I wouldn’t have had two of them

Woodceller - A dry beer with lots of tannin, hoppy and medium bitters

So there endeth the lesson

There are plenty of good beers in this part of the world, their fair share of great beers, some terrific breweries and bars, like everywhere else I suppose it just takes a bit of research and planning to find them     

The stand outs for me on this trip where of course the tree breweries that I had especially gone to visit but there were also the  pubs and bars that went up to making the trip a big success and I would suspect hard to beat in the future. However   I am starting to think about the next attempt.