Copenhagen, Autumn 2013

My wife and I bought tickets to Copenhagen to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary and to attempt to get some rest for the first time in a couple of years (daughter palmed off to the in-laws....). A fantastic compromise destination - my wife is a Scandinavian design nut and I remembered that there's a relatively well thought of beer company based there, with a couple of their bars too. Luckily for me, my wife is quite fond of hoppy and tropical IPAs so I was able to convince her that the Mikkeller Bars would be a good bet for a decent evening out.

And so it proved. It helped that Mikkeller have been instrumental in the conversion of beer from a male dominated sphere into a much more inclusive and heterogenous thing - Les Femmes Regionanles were specifically commissioned to design their flagship bar in Vesterbro precisely to help divorce beer and drinking beer from it's dingy and overtly masculine connotations. I'd not seen the 0.2l, long stem wine glass servings before - a great touch to soften the drinking experience as well as guarding against excessiveness. Without wanting to be patronising, the wine glasses 'gimmick' really put me at ease by making me feel less guilty about dragging Vicky to yet another craft beer bar, especially one on an anniversary celebration. She was surprised and impressed by them too, to an extent that I think she may have felt more that the whole experience was a niche, rare and desirable thing to do in a foreign city rather than just a simple visit to a trendy bar.

It was a saturday night and the bar was busy, but not oppressively so. I was always served quickly and never felt pressured to rush through asking the bar staff what a particular beer tasted like. The clientele were varied: beer geeks old(ish) and young (the yellow glare of Untappd visible on the peripheral as you walked through the bar), tables of women only, tattoos and beards alongside retired couples, people staying for only one or two drinks, people spending almost 1hr on 0.2l of liquid, no shots, no shouting, no banging on tables, no falling over, just gentle hubbub of relaxed conversation, the occasional beer suggestion from a stranger at the bar, flowers on the table, candlelight and understated yet swiftly efficient and welcoming bar staff.

Individual beer list as follows:

Crooked Moon

Nelson Sauvignon

Yeastus Christus (Tool)

Big Mofo Stout (Collab with Brodie's - easily my beer of the trip.)

Blackheart (Three Floyds)

Black Hole

Kihoskh Ipalot (bottle takeaway near our apt in Norrebro)

American Dream (sensational lager. need more of this.)

Amager Bryghus/Mikller Collab (10.5% Stout)

We visited Mikkeller and Friends on a Sunday night and it was dead. Too clean (which was to be expected as it was clearly much newer than the flagship) and too bright. Closer to our apartment in Norrebro though.

We paid another visit to the Vesterbro bar before we left (I had yet another Mofo stout. What an amazing beer - a supercharged Brodie's Dalston Black). Rather than a fridge (or 2) they had a bottle room - a beer geek's wet dream:

Another beer plus to take away from our trip was the taste of draught Carlsberg - amazing! Absolutely a world away from what we get in the UK, I had a pint of regular and the 'special' (the darker version) with a dinner and lunch (smørrebrød) respectively: fresh tasting, refreshingly light with a strong streak of (very possibly) hersbrücker running though it. They tasted for all the world like a farmhouse lager, danish style and they were absolutely delicious.

My 100th post on this blog! Feels like a good centenary post this one. Thanks to all my readers!

Weird Beard Co, Holy Hoppin' Hell #1

My first experience of this line from Weird Beard was when I had the #2 version out of a plastic cup, courtesy of a tap takeover at the Look Mum No Hands pop up (part of last summer's Neighbourhood Festival at the South Bank). That one was a hefty 9.5% (iirc) which might possibly have been a bit to much, the alcohol being pretty obvious. The bottle photographed above was a take away from Beer Rebellion. It might not have been strictly speaking super-fresh, but was great nonetheless - Rio Riva, Lilt and pineapple flavours, a decent viscosity tempered with an appropriate level of carbonation.

It's not the drink, but who you're with: on another occasion, I shared a bottle of this with 2 friends (also at Beer Rebellion - basically a quadruple shot measure each?) one of whom is familiar with US style beer, the other a Belgian beer freak. The beer tasted better than I had experienced it before and my 2 esteemed colleagues loved it.

Weird Beard Co, Boring Brown Beer

Maxed out IBUs from Weird Beard on this one methinks - Chinook is primarily used as a bittering hop I understand? Not really my cup of tea I don't think. Pleased to get a chance to sample it though.

Weird Beard Co, Black Perle

I drank this in the evening after visiting the Look Mum No Hands pop up (Weird Beard tap takeover) on South Bank and drinking a couple of halves of strong, over-hopped IPAs, so probably wasn't best placed to appreciate the subtleness of this drink properly. Poor forethought on my account probably, as this was my first ever milk stout. Not much body (obv?) but a decent enough chocolate/coffee taste.

Weird Beard Co, Mariana Trench

First discovered on cask at the Westow House Beer Fest, I was impressed by the fresh and powerfully zesty nature of this beer for its low abv: a lot more impact than a traditional British pale ale - largely due, I suspect, to 'modern' (US style?) hopping techniques. In a bottle it was marginally less impressive, which is to be expected I suppose. However, still a great tasting session beer, that, in a 500ml bottle, represents great value for money. It was better after it warmed a little and had a long, satisfying bitter aftertaste.

Weird Beard Co, Five O'Clock Shadow

A 1967 Shelbey Mustang imported into West London. This WCIPA from the chaps at Weird Beard pours a dark copper and the dominant flavour is a thick and dank hop resin, like some overly ripe, sticky, brutal skunk hybrid delivered with a West Coast swagger. The strength of this drink is revealed when sucked against the gums, but otherwise, really quite refreshing for it's abv. My wife had quite a bit of this!

Weird Beard Co, Fade To Black

This'll be the first in a series of write-ups on the Weird Beard beers (their website not working too well on Chrome or Firefox, I think Safari works better). My notes went through a relatively threadbare stage for a while (laziness most probably) and all they say for this beer is "redchurch hoxton stout". Then they say "ooh - addendum: fruitiness by the halfway point." Clearly quite unhelpful. (There was rye in this too btw.) I suppose the upshot is that I've had better BIPAs. Which of course is not to say that this one was bad, rather that I've developed a preference for the Brodie's style BIPA: heavier on the fruit than the meat.