A weekend in Copenhagen - Guest Blog

My Father in Law spent some time travelling in and around Northern Europe so I asked him to write a "Guest Blog" on one of the many towns of his travels. Thanks Steve!  



Think of Denmark and you probably think of LEGO, Bang & Olufsen, 
Skype or even Velux Windows?  You will almost certainly think of 
high end minimalistic furniture that exemplifies functionalistic 
Danish design. The Dane Jørn Utzon even designed the Sydney Opera 
House. However you probably do not associate Denmark with craft beers.
Come to Copenhagen and it is difficult to miss the huge Carlsberg and Tuborg 
brewery and, if you come from the UK, to get the tagline “Probably the best 
beer in the world” out of your head but do not blame the Danes for that but 
Saatchi & Saatchi. However if you look carefully you will also find a healthy 
craft beer industry which shows that Danish design even produce good beers 
today.  

Navigate your way to the BREWPUB, Vestergade 29, in the city centre.  As you pass through an archway you will know you are in the right place as you can see the fermentation vessels that have given birth to some excellent beers very much in the US style. In the summer a bar is set up in the courtyard rather than having to go down into the permanent cellar bar. This summer the beers boast some international titles.  I started with a Pale Ale called Hurricane (after the aircraft) which was very refreshing after a full day of sightseeing. This top fermented golden beer uses fruity New Zealand hops combined with malt and caramel so had a light bitterness and moderate sweetness.  I then tried the US India Pale Ale, Geronimo.  This 6.5% beer proved to be very tasty with significant bitterness moderated by the caramel malts and by being mashed at a higher temperature. You could also detect citrus from the use of the American hops Zeus and Chinook.  If you like IPA you should also try the 6.2% US PowerPils ZEUS.  This is a single hop golden bottom-fermented strong larger made from the American hop Columbus and is said to have the distinctive flavour of apricot-peach and a fresh rich aftertaste. Not tried there was also a 5.6% Dark SCHLAGER which is a dark bottom-fermented lager and a 6.6% Rosebud Porter

BREWPUB have not neglected wheat beers.  Jackie K 5% is their 
new American-style wheat beer which is more aromatic and 
moderately bitter than the usual wheat beers.  Jackie K is dry-
hopped with American Citra introducing notes of mandarin and 
passion fruit but in the opinion of my wife it was no match for the 
4.9% VesterWeisse.  This refreshing, thirst quencher is ‘unclear’ 
as the high content of protein in the wheat malt makes this beer 
appear cloudy.  In my wife’s opinion this is ”Probably the best 
wheat beer she has ever tasted”.  I told you it is difficult to get a 
tagline out of your head!

Being a GABS volunteer

I was really excited to find out that GABS (Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular) was coming to Sydney, and I will post about the event next week. But as it happened, they were looking for volunteers for a session and I thought "why not?" - my logic was that I would hopefully meet a number of like minded beer enthusiasts, meet a few brewers and have a good time, so I "volunteered". 

I have to say, as the weeks counted down, I really thought to myself "why am I doing this" but looking back, I think it gave a really different angle to the event and I learned a bit more and chatted to likeminded beer enthusiasts. So I would say to other craft beer fans, give it a go - what do you really lose? A few hours, and what you can gain is so much more. 

I was at the front - handing glasses out to people as they wandered in, and stamping people who went outside to smoke etc so I didn't get to mingle with the brewers, or get too much of a feel of the event but I would say that during the break, I could work out "who's who in the zoo" and I talked to a number of people to work out which brewers were coming out on top, and what beers were to be missed. I would also say the day event was miles busier than the evening event (which was really strange!)

Certainly the biggest thing I learnt was about the punters, man people moaned over little things like branded glasses. Now it was poorly organised that they didn't have enough branded glasses for everyone, nor did they have enough "craft beer passports" (offering discounts to venues) but the alternative glasses they were offering were fine, and you go to a beer festival for the beer, not the glass the beer lives in... People were also stealing glasses from other people etc, and you just think "really?".

Looking back now, I knew about GABS, a bit through blogs, brewers emails etc and also by being in Melbourne, by chance, last year and we went to it! Now many punters knew of it from similar experiences to me, but the majority had no real understanding of what it was really about as the advertising wasn't great - for example many didn't know that the brewers brewed beers specifically for the event, so it was a spectacular in brewing as much as it was a spectacular in trying new breweries - I think the organisers must of thought that people knew about it from Melbourne so understood the concept... As I was chatting to people, I would inform them about this and many saw the event in a new light and enjoyed it a bit more, (saying that many others couldn't care less and were just there to have a good time!) but I reckon next year, the Sydneysiders need to be better informed - otherwise the point of the event will always be lost...

Volunteers learning their role at GABS Sydney 2015

The quiet before the storm! GABS 2015

So I just stand here? No, go over there and stuff glasses!! ;)

So while I thought the event could of been better organised and prepared for, I did enjoy it, and enjoyed being a volunteer and learning the other side of the event - and I could guide the friends I went with in the evening on the layout, must do talks, must do brewers to visit etc. There is also an element of luck on your role - if you get to support the 'Craft Beer Uni' you listen to the talks and learn more,  so maybe it could be good to rotate volunteers around in and around the event as they are volunteers opposed to cheap labour... but if you have an interest in craft beer, and a half day free, I reckon consider volunteering for a craft beer event - you do gain from it. 

Next week I will tell you how awesome the event was when you are actually a punter and can drink at the event!

Mornington brewery (MP Brew)

So as I said a few weeks back, we were in Mornington Peninsular, and had a great time enjoying the range of local beers on offer, but we managed to actually pop into the MP brewery, on the last day for a few beers and share pizzas and stories before heading in different directions. 

Beautiful sunshine, but the outside was in shade...

Is it a bar, is it a brewery? No it's a brewery bar! or Yes! It's a brewery & a bar! whatever answer you prefer...

So, after a wander around downtown Mornington, we hopped in the car to the industrial estate that is home to MP Brew. It is worth the drive as I always love to see the breweries and get a feel for them as it is a little window into the operation and their aim - is it a tiny brewery like Batch  Brewery (Inner West Sydney) that is deliberately small and community focused? Or is it like Little Creatures (Fremantle, WA) which was always aiming to get good beer onto the big stage. Well MP Brew seems to be half way - it is still a small operation, but with potential to expand and be more and more as its presence expands (you can start to slowly find MP in Sydney for example).    

The Witbier

The wifey loved the Witbier as it was a true Belgian style beer - light body, little to no head, with a fruity and spicy combination that makes it an easy beer to drink. Interestingly, the local breweries here seem to be quite traditional in the beers - i.e. if it is a traditional style beer, they breweries are true to the tradition; unlike Sydney-sider / Melburnian brewers who experiment with everything. The acid test for the wife when drinking beer is, "would you order it again or would you go for a coopers?" and the answer was she would happily order this again...

The Sorachi

So while MP were true on the witbier, they really experimented with the Sorachi, a "Japanese hopped Kolsch". So as you can see, this is a light bodied beer, with a short head that stayed. It seems a number of brewers around the world is experimenting with Sorachi Ace Hop, and I can see why, it seems to give it a lighter and more lemony flavour to a kolsch, but I can't help think they were trying to make it like a light saison with the sweet upfront and refreshing fruit smells unfront that dies of to a slightly bitter finish. While I enjoyed it, and thought it was interesting to try, I can't say I hugely too bothered about it as a beer. Don't get me wrong, I will happily drink it, and I really wanted to try it as it is a new hop for me, it's just I am not sure what they were really going for here with the beer style.

While we drank we eat many good pizzas, and talked about our long weekend away, and I have to say it was the perfect relaxed atmosphere for a group of friends to chat away, hassle free. Good wood fire oven pizzas and brewery bars seems to be a winning combination, while all these carbs may not be ideal for the ladies (it was only them that raised this point), it sure worked for me... 

Before we all departed, the non drivers had one more beer and it had to be the MP Pale to finish the weekend off - an American Pale Ale which is just a cracker, really easy drinking beer, fruit driven upfront with a solid head and just enough malt backing up the beer to make it a great balanced beer. I am a little over Pale Ales, as the aussie market is flooded with them, but when you have a great Pale, you remember why the market is full of them, as it is just a great beer style. I reckon MP Brews Pale is a beer that can 'do the cross over to mainstream' as it is so well balanced. Don't be shocked if you see this appearing more and more in your local...

Overall, a great brewery to hang out with friends, and definitely to have a few MP Pales over a pizza and laughs... 

Mornington peninsula, the brewery tour!

Well everyone knows that Mornington Peninsula is a great area for a few days R&R and also a great place for wine tasting - what many may not know is that it also has a few great micro/breweries too! 

A group of us went for a long weekend and after a day of wine tasting, the boys would launch into a few beers to have a break from wine and it was a great pleasure buying local craft beer here! 

The main three are Hix, Red Hill and Mornington Peninsula Brewery. I think it would be tough to work out which was the best, but I think the overall favourite beer of the group was the Red Hill Pilsner - it was a little sweet, offset with a bit of malt and hops and a really light body, but had a little more flavour than a number of pilsners so it was absolutely perfect in between or after drinking wine.  

The Hix Pilsner was a perfect classic Pilsner, like you would find in central and eastern Europe - the guys haven't tried to make it into some ale / pilsner mix that you often find a lot of aussie breweries do, so if you a fan of classic Pilsener, check it out! The fact that that they call it "Pilsener" as the Czechs do is really all you need to know to gauge how it tastes!

The Red Hill Wheat Beer will be a  love it or hate it beer for Aussies - wheat beers over hear are more Witbiers in my opinion, which marries in with the pale ale tastes that Australia loves. I was a real fan of this beer - the fruit tastes and sweet fruit smell is lovely, it has that nice cloudy heavy body that I like in a wheat beer but the taste is more like a Hefewizen; i.e. unfiltered, solid with a hint of bitterness and a bit more lighter than say a Witbier.

Red Hill

Wheat cloudy beer

I have a separate review of MP Brew as we also managed to head along to the brewery for beer and pizza, but as a general note - the APA was amazeballs... 

4 pines

Is it a Microbrewery or is it a bar selling beer from a micro brewery? That is the question... Especially that 'big brother' has opened in Brookvale - http://4pinesbeer.com.au/venue/brookvale-brewery/ 

I suppose the question you will ask is, "what's the difference?" Well, I am glad you ask... The wife and I met some friends here on a Saturday night, and it was rammed! There was no way I could ask the bar staff questions, or really get a feel of the brewery part of 4 Pines, and I suppose that's the point of a brewery bar for me - it is the peeping window into the breweries philosophy and I think it is something that Batch Brewery really gets. 

4 Pines is a Micro Brewery apparently, and if you look close, there are 4 pine trees in the sign as well

The 4 Pines bar, right at Manly Wharf

Considering its small size, it is amazing it manages to fit in a brewery as well!

Pints of 4 Pines Pale Ale

As for the beer, the Pale Ale is a more golden colour, with a smooth taste and a slightly malty finish. The fruit masks the malt so the after taste is a bit of a surprise! It is a really good session beer. It was a lot better than I was expecting - Pale Ales seem to be the "anything beer" and as a result there are a lot of basic Pale Ales in the market in my opinion.

The Kolsch is full of wheat with little head and light body, just as it is traditionally made but for me, the first taste was a little too sweet for me (although it dried out on the finish). 

They had a Rye Ale as a cellar door tap and I tried to order a pint, but the waitress let me know the alcohol content - 8.4% so that was given a wide berth; on a night out, anything at 6%+ is out the window for me. I had a taster and it was nice, but as you would expect, you can really smell the alcohol on it. I was gutted as I really do like a Rye Ale to be honest, a really nice trend in the Craft Beer scene at the moment... 

The two girls had wine, and they both liked the range on offer, so it's a great place to go with friends or couples, opposed to a brew bar like the Lord Nelson, which lets be honest here, is a great pub for the boys...

So to sum it up, great bar to meet friends, but maybe go to the Brookvale site to get a flavour of the brewery opposed to this brew bar. If you local bottleshop has the Pale Ale, it's definitely worth a go...

Community Beer - grow your own beer!

Grow your own beer...

So I have a good friend in Walthamstow, North London UK and he was telling me about a community project that he is part of- to grown your own beer - you grow the hops and then it is collected, brewed and then you are given beer back! Here is some info -

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/11/how-to-produce-your-own-community-beer 

http://cultivatewf.org/walthamstow-beer-needs-you/ 

What an amazing idea, as it is community based and gets to the heart of local, good craft beer.

While obviously home brewing would be amazing, this is a great first step for many to get involved in!

So Sydney, who's up for reproducing this over here??

Bridge Road Brewery, Beechworth Victoria

So I hope everyones Easter was awesome, we had an amazing time in and around Beechworth in Victoria, home to great little vineyards, farms and gourmet foods and of course Bridge Road Brewery! 

This is a cracking brewhouse that pumps out a huge array of beers of high quality! The beers are categorised for people that may not be too familiar with craft beers, and the volume of weird and wonderful styles of beers being produced these days, making it a great way for people to say what they like in a beer and then being able to use the menu to pick something.

Thats a lot of beers, but did you notice the IPA - you can choose your own hop as well!! Awesome!

While the brewery did have a Weizen and a Saison, what was on offer was a large array of IPAs and Pale Ales - I get the feeling that the brewers were trying to say, "lets take pale ales / IPAs and have fun playing about with them" whereas places like Batch Brewery (NSW) is taking the opposite approach - lots of small batches of a huge amount of styles of beer, i.e. "lets try as many new styles of beers as possible". There is no right or wrong, better or worse, it is just interesting to see how brewers are developing their approach.     

Lots of staff, lots of seats, inside and out, lots of beer, a decent wine list and great pizzas. Yip sounds like it's a place that will succeed!

It was a cool night when we went, so we wandered in and hunkered down for a night of pizza and beer (although the wife did move onto a local wine). The pizzas were great, and helped make a great casual night out. 

As for the beers, the wifey enjoyed the Weizen, it was a big wheat style beer! With a big body on it which was great for a cool night. 

The Fat man, red suit, big sack was a classic American style beer - sweet to start with, light to medium body with refreshing malt finishes. If you an American living in Aus, this is the sort of beer you will miss when you head to your local. I think the closest style of beers would come from Matilda Bay, brewed in Port Melbourne.  

The new age pilsner was good. It's a pilsner, you happily drink it - it is just not going to be the most memorable beer in your life [but many times in life, that's the sort of beer you want!]

The Single hop IPA was the star, I had the galaxy which was excellent. It had this lovely citrus hoppy flavour upfront, medium to full bodied and a ever so slight malty / stone fruit bitterness aftertaste to remind you of what you just drank. Great beer (I tasted the Summer, which was also really nice, but maybe a bit too sweet for me - it starts a bit like a cider and then finishes like a malty IPA!)

Single hop IPA (Galaxy) in front, and the Weizen in the back...

New age pilsner.

The best beer name in the world.

While most people won't find their way to Beechworth (but you should; its a great place) there is a chance that your local bottlo will stock a Bridge Road Brewery beer. Based on our night here, I would recommend you give it a try - your more usual styles of Ale, but brewed slightly differently and made really well...