The Holiday Season Is Less than 300 Days Away. Time to Stock up on Norwegian Beer! 

Dear Dr. M Bibes:

I love the Christmas season.  I love it all – the lights, the shopping, the decorations, the trees and the constant juxtaposition between Judeo-Christian beliefs about a Messiah and the redemption of mankind and the secular view about extolling the virtues of family via the accumulation of commercial goods.  What with Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Diwahli all vying for attention with presents and credit card bills to come, I find the frenzy of the season so exciting, it makes me want to touch my elf.  Speaking of Santa, elves and other pagan beings, I am reminded of your last article on Norwegian beer, which was prompted by a letter discussing Ragnarok.  I was disappointed that you had not tried more varieties than you mentioned.  Now I am very sad.

- Signed, Happy Happy Happy Sad, Happy Happy Sad Sad, Happy Sad Sad

Dear Acronym That Means Nothing:

In keeping with the Christmas spirit, I will not comment on the inferences I could make from your letter, but will only respond factually.  I suppose that if I were to truly keep with the seasonal spirit, I would also pen an article about seasonal winter beers, but my heart was troubled that you think my Norwegian beer experience incomplete.  Thus, I will provide a small update on the Norsk beers that I have sampled since I wrote my last article.  The overall description of the breweries is a repeat, but I have omitted the details of the specific brews previously discussed.  I am adding notes about 16 additional varieties of Norsk beer, denoted in bold type and all sampled in early 2006.

The Norwegian word for beer is Øl, pronounced a bit like ‘ool’ in tool, and is clearly related to the word ale, even though it refers to both ales and lagers.  The word for brewery is bryggeri.  The various types of øl include:

Fatøl – the Fat refers to Vat and basically means draft beer in a pilsner style.  They do have some brands that bottle 
this beer, but really this is no stranger than Miller Genuine Draft in a bottle.

Pils, Pilsner, Pilsener, and Pilsner Øl – these refer to the standard 5% alcohol lager/pilsner beer.  Various spellings may be used.

Bayer Øl – Bayer is an area in Germany and this beer is stylistically a dunkel or dark lager.

Bok Øl – this is the Bock beer style.

Gull – this word means Gold.  Some brands use the word Gold instead and this style is basically the pilsner with 1-2% more alcohol.

Jule Øl – this is the Christmas beer and there are various brands produced seasonally.  You will see both Jule Øl as well as a few versions of Jule Bok.

Lettøl – this literally means light beer and light beer means no alcohol.  It does not mean lower calories, it means no alcohol.  

Spesial Øl – A special beer, but the one version I tried seemed very ordinary to me.

Sommer Øl – these are the summer beers.  Unfortunately, I have not tried any of these.  

Carlsberg from Denmark owns 100% of the Ringnes Group in Norway.  Ringnes maintains its own brands, but if you look closely, you will notice that Ringnes now owns a lot of the other Norwegian breweries as well.  Chances are that when you drink a beer in Norway, most likely you are drinking something from the Ringnes Group, especially considering that they also do in-country brewing for Tuborg, Carlsberg & ye olde Budweiser.  With that in mind, let’s walk through the list of Norsk Øl that I have sampled.

·  Aass Bryggeri – This brewery is located in Drammen Norway just to the south of Oslo and is reportedly the oldest   
   brewery in Norway that is still producing. 

o        Aass Bock – Previously discussed.

o        Aass Fatøl – Previously discussed.

o        Aass Pilsner – Previously discussed.

o        Aass Havorn Pilsner – Havorn means ‘sea eagle’ and this new pilsner features such fowl on the label.      
   At 4.5%, this is a bit weaker than the normal Aass Pilsner, but the taste is not dissimilar.

o        Arendals Pils – Previously discussed.

·    Borg Bryggeri – This brewery is the other large brewery conglomerate in Norway. Hansa-Borg controls the Borg brands, the CB brands, the Hansa brands and perhaps some others that I may not know about.  Borg Bryggeri is in Sarpsborg Norway and makes a full range of products.

            o        Borg Bokøl – Previously discussed.

o        Borg Pilsner – Previously discussed.

o        Fredrikstad Pilsner – This beer checks in at 4.7% and is interchangeable with many of the other    
    pilsners.  I found this in an Ol Shop, not in a bar.

·     Christianssands Bryggeri – This brewery, also known as CB, is located in Kristiansand on the southern coast of Norway and is a member of the Hansa-Borg group.  As with Borg, this brewery offers several varieties of beer.

o        CB Bayerøl – Previously discussed.

o        CB Pils – Previously discussed.

·      Dahls Bryggeri – This brewery is located in Trondheim and is now part of the Ringnes Group.  From this brewery I have tried the following 4 varieties.

o        Dahls Pils – Previously discussed.

o        Lysholmer Ice and Lysholmer Spesialøl – Previously discussed.

o        Nordlands Pils – Previously discussed.

·      Frydenlund brands – Once a separate brewery, it was acquired by Ringnes and the original brewery was closed.  After Ringnes, this seems to be the brand most widely available within Norway.

o        Bayerøl – Previously discussed.

o        Bokøl – Previously discussed.

o        Juleøl – Previously discussed.

o        Pilsener – Previously discussed.

·     Hansa Bryggeri – Part of the Hansa-Borg group, the Hansa brewery is in Bergen on the western coast of Norway.

o        Hansa Bayerøl – Listed at 4.5% alcohol, this Bayer has decent color but not much in the way of taste.  It doesn’t have a bad taste, just very little taste.

o     Hansa Fatøl  – This is a 4.7% alcohol, light bodied pils.  Draught beer in a can.

o     Hansa Ice – Also listed as 4.7% alcohol, this beer is more blah than the Fatøl.  It doesn’t even have the extra alcohol that certain countries’ ice beers have.  Blah.

o    Hansa Pilsner – Another 4.7% offering from Hansa.  See premium below.

o    Hansa Premium – Another 4.7% offering from Hansa.  Honestly, I wish I had opened all of these beers at once and done a blind tasting.  The containers were labeled differently, but without this bit of assistance, I’m not sure I could tell much of a difference.

·   Macks Øl Bryggeri – This brewery is in Tromsø, which is up above the Arctic Circle in midnight sun land.  It seems this brewery is still independent for the time being. 

o        Mack Arctic Beer – A 4.5% lager.  This beer had a dry finish which did differentiate it from some of   
   the other pilsners that I sampled.

o        Mack Bayerøl – Previously discussed.

o        Mack Bokøl – Previously discussed.

o        Mack Brown Ale – With a slightly sour finish, this 4.7% brew turned out to be quite decent.

o        Mack GullMack – Previously discussed.

o        Mack Haakon Spesialøl – A 4.7% lager which didn’t differentiate itself from the pilsner by any 
   memorable stretch.

o        Mack Hvete – This is a 4.7% hefe-weisen in a can complete with pouring instructions.  Not a   
   particularly robust hefe, but I will still give Mack a mark for trying styles outside the typical pilsner.

o        Mack Ice Øl – This is a 4.5% lager with no body and no taste.  Sigh, stay away from Norsk ice beers.

o        Mack Muse Pils – I think Muse means mouse, based on the label.  I also think this is supposed to be a ‘
    cheap’ beer.  In reality, it is a 4.5% pils that tastes no better nor worse than other pils.

o        Mack Pilsner – Previously discussed.

·      Ringnes – Based in Oslo, this brewery sells many varieties under the Ringnes name.  I have tried the following types.

            o        Akairyu Lager – This is a 4.2% Asian style beer (i.e. dry finish), which was very watery.  Blah.

o        Extra Gold – Previously discussed.

o        Juleøl - Previously discussed.

o        Jule Bokkøl – Previously discussed.

o        Nunavut – This is a 4.5% Vienna Red style beer.  Nice to see Ringnes branching out, but it would have been even nicer with a maltier & hoppier taste.

o        Pilsner – Previously discussed.

o        Weiss – A 4.5% witbier.  Not bad for the style, although on the milder end of the spectrum.

Beer is available in restaurants, bars, øl shops and liquor stores, but is not available in grocery stores, corner shops, or gas stations.  Liquor store hours seem to vary town by town but in general are not open into the night. 

Skøl to everyone (yes – Norwegian for cheers).