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 18th 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 ..read more

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 ..read more

It is well known that beer should be bottled in coloured bottles – there might be differences between brown and green, but both reduce exposure to light. The brewery industry konws this very well, so it is particularly strange that they often use clear glass bottles for summer seasonals. I looks like white wine is the latest victim of similar packaging. Researchers from Italy and Greece have studied wine in clear glass bottles compared to coloured bottles. It took only one week under supermarket light for wine to lose a signficant part of its aroma, the same wine kept for months in coluored bo ..read more

Credit where credit is due. Thanks to Vinmonopolet for their efforts to revive old lager styles. We have splendid access to NEIPA in all its incarnations here in Norway. We also have a very fine range of classic Belgian beers, including trappists and lambics. The best sellers in Vinmonopolet are mostly stronger versions of the pilsners totally dominating the market, with some German wheat beers that also have respectable volumes. The traditional Norwegian strong beer, the Bock, had a comfortable niche in the market before strong beer was transefered to Vinmonopolet about forty years ago. The l ..read more

The last two decades have given us a large number of breweries in Norway, peaking at almost two hundred. Some hobby projects have come and gone; but now the number of quality brewers is dwindling. Let’s look at some of the reasons. Energy bills. While the energy prices have hit all across Europe, we were probably taken more by surprise than most.  Our hydroelectric power plants have traditionally given us plenty of cheap electricity, now we face prices on the European level in most of the country. This has been a blow for many industries, but some of the breweries were hit really hard. F ..read more

With a new beer book out, there are promotional activities which I generally enjoy. Sure sitting down in a bookshop to sign a hundred copies is a bit tiring, but I also get to meet people who are seriously interested in beer, As the book is focused on Trøndelag, the central region in Norway, I had to travel there. It’s the area where I grew up, though I have lived in Oslo for mamy years. The main launch event was at the E.C. Dahls brewery in Trondheim, with both beer people, family and friends and the book trade in attendance. Last week I went back again to meet two groups who had invited me t ..read more

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 tr ..read more

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 ..read more

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 (De ..read more

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 ..read more