Icelandic
Beer and Viking Helmets
Dear Dr. M. Bibes:
Once, on a big-night out, my
friends and I found ourselves in The Great Beer Palace in Chicago for their “Viking
Helmet Special”, which consisted of drinking 6 beers on tap and then receiving
a free plastic Viking Helmet. Of
course, we all proceeded to earn our helmets and wear them about for the rest of
the evening. Recently, I came
across this helmet and now I am ashamed. I
mean, I know Vikings are from Norway & Iceland, but I honestly have no idea
what kind of beer they drink. Help
me, please.
Signed,
I Want To Wear This Helmet Again Proudly
Dear Acronym That Means Nothing:
This seems like a 2
part question: tell me about beer
in Iceland and tell me about beer in Norway.
Unfortunately, I received your letter on a Wednesday and the “Two For
Tuesday” special has already finished. So,
in this response, we’ll only cover beer from Iceland.
You can still wear your Viking helmet, but you may have to break off one
of the horns.
Iceland
is an island in the North Atlantic, just below the Arctic Circle.
Roughly the size of Kentucky at approximately 40,000 square miles,
Iceland (or Ísland in the native tongue of
Icelandic) has a population of less than 300,000 compared to the 4 million
people living in Kentucky. Iceland
was settled by Vikings from Norway and Sweden around 900 AD and the Icelandic
word for “Beer” is “Björ” (note that the ‘j’ is pronounced like
an English ‘y’).
Beer
was illegal in Iceland until 1989. Yes,
this is not a misprint. Iceland,
like the USA, underwent prohibition in the early part of the 20th
century. Our friends in Spain & Portugal helped resolve this
situation in the 1930s when they unilaterally stated that they would accept no
more Icelandic salted cod (fish & fish products are Iceland’s largest
export) unless Iceland agreed to import red wine.
Iceland’s response was to agree and the door was open.
Iceland also had a history of producing a rough home-spirit called
Brennivín (tastes like Aquavit) and the push was also
made to legalize hard spirits. Somehow,
beer slipped through the cracks and remained ‘prohibited’, although I am
told it wasn’t especially illegal to have it, just illegal to buy or sell it.
Nevertheless,
the brewing industry in Iceland is relatively new and unfortunately for the beer
drinker, none of the beers that I’ve tried are spectacular, being mostly
average lagers with a strong adjunct flavor.
Beer in Iceland is also very expensive, costing 600 ISK (Icelandic kronur)
which is approximately US$ 10 per 0.5 liter draft in bars. Beer is sold by the drink in bars, restaurants & hotels
and is available for take-out at the duty free shop (a good idea hint, hint) and
in Vínbuðín
(liquor stores). Beer is not
available in convenience stores or grocery stores and the liquor stores have
some relatively unfriendly consumer hours – closing by 6 pm typically – so
be prepared. Also, beer is priced
by strength as well, so note that some ‘malt liquor’ type beverages at 8%
alcohol will be more expensive than a better made beer with alcohol level of 4%.
Lastly, you may find a beverage labeled “Pilsner” or Malt available
in the grocery or other stores and think that I have erred in my information.
However, if you look closely, you will find that both products are
essentially ‘near-beer’ offerings with an alcohol content so low that they
are offered outside of the liquor stores. The
pilsner is a standard lager-type near-beer, whilst the Malt is just that – a
darker beverage that is so sweet from the malt content, that I had difficulty
finishing a half glass of the syrupy stuff.
There
are two main breweries - Vifilfell Hf based in Akureyri and Egil Skallagrimsson
Olgerdin based in Reykjavik. Note
that I will only comment on brands that I have personally tasted, which is most,
but not all of the brands produced. Brand
wise, Vifilfell produces the following products:
·
Thule – a 5% yellow lager, named after the mythical Northern
locale of Ultima Thule, which some scholars purported Iceland to be when it was
first discovered.
·
Víking Lager – (note the accent mark over the
‘I’ so that Vík is pronounced to rhyme with thick; yes, it doesn’t sound
as fearsome, but that is the pronounciation).
This is the base Víking
beer in the green label at 4.6% alcohol. If
you’re thirsty, its liquid.
·
Víking Gylltur – or ‘Golden’, this is the
premium version at 5.6% alcohol. The
taste is very similar to the lager.
·
Víking Lite – 4.4% ‘light’ beer.
For those Vikings who worry when their chain-mail vests begin to feel a
little snug. No worse than
Miller/Coors/Bud light, but then again, I only drink those if they’re very
cheap.
·
Víking Jolabjör – meaning ‘Christmas
Beer’ as ‘Jola’ is phonetically similar to ‘Yule”.
This is a slightly darker beer than the others mentioned above, with a
bit more body. Still, its drinkable
for the novelty value as its brewed only near the Christmas season.
Brand-wise,
Egil Skallagrimsson, a large beverage producer, offers the following products:
·
Egils Gull – or “Gold” is the 5% flagship brand, a standard
lager of little distinction.
·
Egils Lite – see the entry for Viking Lite above.
Supposedly a different beer, but I would be hard-put to tell the
difference in a blind taste test
·
Egils
Maltbjör – this
is different from the ‘Malt’ that I mentioned earlier.
This is a dark 5.6% alcohol beer, with higher malt content, heavier body
that Gull, and a different taste. Look
for the björ at the end of the word to make sure you’re
getting the real version.
·
Egils Pilsner – this is where it gets
confusing. There is a pilsner
available in some bars/liquor stores that is a real beer at 4.5% alcohol.
This is not the same pilsner that you would find in a grocery store or
snack bar.
·
Egils Sterkur – Sterkur means strong and this
is a 6.2% malt liquor. I think OI
800 would be a better name, but perhaps Old Iceland was already taken.
·
Egils Paskabjör – or Easter beer, this is a
5% lager brewed for the spring season. The
mouthfeel is a bit thicker than Gull, but the taste is not dramatically
different.
·
Þorrabjör – pronounced ‘Thorrabjör’
this is a beer produced for the Þorrafest.
Þorrafest roughly approximates the period leading up to Mardi Gras and
gets translated into English as the Rotten Food Festival (not a direct
translation). In the pagan days,
the end of winter saw the Icelanders dipping into their larders and eating food
that was not ‘fresh’. Everything
was salted, pickled, cured or perhaps a bit rotten by this time of the year.
With the advent of Christianity and the concept of Lent, the Icelanders
realized that the timing was approximately the same and so they eat their
traditional foods in a feeding blowout leading up to Ash Wednesday.
Þorra beer is brewed as a Vienna Red style for this festival, but with
the taste characteristics a bit muted.
Besides
the beers listed above, there are a few offerings from each brewery that I have
not tried, for example Viking’s version of the Easter Beer and Egils’
version of the Christmas beer. Tuborg
Green, normally a Danish beer, is also contract brewed in Iceland, and not
surprisingly, tastes very similar to Tuborg Green brewed in Denmark.
In
the typical bars in Iceland, you will commonly find 4-5 beers – the Tuborg
Green, Egils Gull, Thule, Viking Lager & Viking Gylltur.
You also occasionally run into a Grolsch or a Heineken.
There are several pubs in Reykjavik where you can also find, Guinness,
Beamish, etc, but note that once you are out of the capital city, the beer
selection tends to diminish greatly. In
the liquor store (and the one with which I am most familiar is the one in
Kringlan Mall in Reykjavik), you can find most of the beers noted above, plus
heavy representation from Danish Breweries, such as Tuborg (the Gold in addition
to the Green), Carlsberg, Faxe, Thor & Giraf.
Enjoy
your Viking Helmet.
-Dr.
M. Bibes