Bergen Ølfestival 2015

I've just returned from Bergen with the annual Bergen Ølfestival (BØ) fresh in mind, here follows my fairly subjective recount of the biggest beer festival in Norway.

This year the festival was held September 4 and 5 at Koengen, a large open space normally used for music concerts right next to the historical Bergenhus Fortress. So the location was amazing, with the walls of the old fortress making a natural wall around much of the festival grounds. It also gave the festival some much needed extra space, to erect more beer stalls and receive more visitors than last year.

A little background
When BØ was first held in 2012 it was just a small appendix to the regular food festival in Bergen, then hosted by Bryggen Tracteursted. The festival was held at the same location in 2013, but by then it was clear that BØ had grown too large for the location, as I mentioned in a blog post that year, so in 2014 the festival was moved to a slightly larger venue in Østre Skostredet. However, even in its first year at Østre Skostredet, it was clear to me that the venue was too small for the popular beer festival, so I was both relieved and happy when I found out that Koengen would be the venue for 2015.

As already mentioned, Koengen is commonly used for hosting large music concerts because it can easily accommodate 10-20 thousand people. Thus before going to Bergen I envisioned a wide open field with a lot of unused space, but when I arrived I saw that the many beer and food stalls, the ticket and token boots had taken up a lot of the space, making the area feel more intimate but also prone to crowding if a lot of people should arrived.

Still, the extra space gave the festival a more spacey feel than it had last year and it handled the throng of visitors fairly well, especially given that some 21 thousand people visited the festival the two days it lasted.

Some of the 21 thousand visitors to Bergen Ølfestival 2015

BØ 2015
The 2015 festival was the first with an attendance fee, of 60 NOK, which came in addition to the starter package; for 100 NOK you received a 20 cl tasting glass and 3 tokens. Subsequently tokens could be bought at a special stall by the entrance, four tokens for 100 NOK. Because the queue in front of the tokens stall grew astronomical in the afternoon on Saturday it was smart to buy a good lump of tokens at the start of the day; I went for 30 tokens on Friday which lasted me well into Saturday since most beers at the festival cost just 1 token while a few of the stronger ones cost 2.

In all, 35 Norwegian breweries attended this year, ranging from industrial sized Ringnes, Hansa Borg, Mack and Aass to small microbreweries, such as Little Brother Brewery who produces batches of only 80 liter. This is the complete list of attending breweries:

1. 7 Fjell Bryggeri (Bergen)
2. Amundsen Bryggeri (Oslo)
3. Austmann Bryggeri (Trondheim)
4. Bådin (Bodø)
5. Balder Brygg (Leikanger)
6. Baran Bryggeri (Bergen)
7. Berentsens Brygghus (Egersund)
8. Bryggerhuset Veholt (Skien)
9. Dronebrygg (Oslo)
10. Ego Brygghus (Fredrikstad)
11. Eiker Ølfabrikk (Mjøndalen)
12. Færder Mikrobryggeri (Tønsberg)
13. Fjellbryggeriet (Åmotsdal, Telemark)
14. Grim & Gryt Økobryggeri (Hareid)
15. Grünerløkka Brygghus (Oslo)
16. HaandBryggeriet (Drammen)
17. Hansa Borg Bryggeri (Bergen and Sarpsborg)
18. Kinn Bryggeri (Florø)
19. Klostergården Håndbryggeri (Tautra)
20. Lervig Aktiebryggeri (Stavanger)
21. Lindheim Ølkompani (Gvarv)
22. Little Brother Brewery (Oslo)
23. Lysefjorden Mikrobryggeri 
24. Mack Bryggeri (Tromsø)
25. Nøgne Ø (Grimstad)
26. Nøisom Craft Beer (Fredrikstad)
27. Northern & Co (Fedje)
28. Qvart Ølkompani (Kristiansand)
29. Ringnes (Gjelleråsen)
30. Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri (Oslo)
31. St. Hallvards Bryggeri (Oslo)
32. Sundbytunet (Jessheim)
33. Voss Bryggeri (Voss)
34. Aass Bryggeri (Drammen)
35. Ægir Bryggeri (Flåm)

These breweries offered more than 300 distinct beers, on bottle or tap, so there was never any worries of running out of new beers to try. Even the large industrial breweries had brought along new and limited releases, such as Ringnes Røykbokk - a smoked doppelbock. So I had prepared a shorthand list before going, of about 30 beers I felt I had to try, just to make sure I didn't miss something exciting in the heat of the moment. I pretty much stuck to that list.

The organizers had cleverly employed the whole length of Koengen to spread out the breweries, coercing people to spread out too, which was very important to avoid long queues or big crowds. This worked really well on Friday, when 6,300 visitors paid to enter the festival, but on Saturday, with a total of 15,100 visitors, it became a bit too crowded for comfort. At peak hour some 3,600 people were inside the gates, resulting in fairly long queues and the slowing down of people trying to move from one beer stall to the next. One of the brewers told me he had been sent out to get some food, it had taken him 15 minutes to walk about 200 meters! So, yes, it was a bit packed.

The Northern & Co stall early on the first day of the festival

Like other big festivals, it pays to come early, which is what I did. On Friday this gave me plenty of time to visit all the beer stalls and chat with most of the brewers, before they got too busy pouring beer. On Saturday this was more difficult because people arrived earlier and in much larger numbers.

Any exciting new beers?
In this era of endless crossovers between beer styles and wild experimentation just about everything is allowed in brewing, from making black saisons to adding saltwater or seaweed. There was a lot of interesting new beers at the festival, some I would label interesting rather than good, and though I don't claim this to be the complete list it should give you an idea of the variation.

Austmann La Shaman Aztec Stout is a 7.8% is a dry stout brewed with smoked chipotle chilli peppers, habanero chilli peppers and raw cacao beans in collaberation with Yves Leboeuf of Brussels Beer Project. It wasn't as spicy as I feared, more of a warming sensation in the aftertaste, but it sported a lovely cocoa flavor with a peppery intensity. Pretty good too!

Kinn Til Bøvels is an abbey tripel, like the regular Kinn Bøvelen, that has been refermented with brettanomyces wild yeast and aged with raspberries to give it an overall tart, fruity character that smelled lovely and had a dry, refreshing taste to it with a slightly warming bite from the 9.6% abv.

Klostergården Devil's Apron Stout is a creamy and elegant 6.5% stout brewed with salt water and the seaweed Devil's Apron which gives name to the beer. I found the flavor very elegant with a hint of salt but still with a good stout character. I quite like it.

Klostergården Gildaskáli SALT is a 6.5% abv traditional ale brewed with myrica gale ("pors" in Norwegian) and sea water. It had a mild sweetness to it that went well with the green, slightly tannic herbal character of myrica gale. Pretty good actually!

Schouskjelleren Pushkin Real Good Rom Vanilla Cask is a 9.6% abv (possibly stronger, according to the brewer) imperial stout, aged on rum barrels and served from cask at the festival. It was a rich beer with fine vanilla and rum flavors but still with plenty of the original imperial stout bringing along chocolate and fine espresso notes. One of my favorites at the festival.

Ægir Ryllik Saison is a 6% abv saison brewed with yarrow (known as "ryllik" in Norwegian), resulting in a very refreshing saison with a herbal character and slightly sour. It was a surprising beer and one I quite enjoyed.

There were others too, but I fail to trust my tasting notes (or more correctly my taste buds after a long day), so let's round this off here.

What about the new breweries?
As usual I tried to focus on new breweries, so I made sure to taste most of their beers as early as possible on Friday. Here's a quick rundown of three of the newest.

Northern & Co
This brewery and whisky distillery was founded earlier this year by the people behind the gastropub UNA and 7 Fjell Bryggeri, both located in Bergen. Originally the plan had been to install a microbrewery at UNA, as I reported last year, but those plans has since changed and UNA will remain just a gastropub with all its "house beers" brewed at 7 Fjell.

The brewery equipment intended for UNA was instead sent to the small fishing community of Fedje, where it was installed in an old factory as the Northern & Co brewery. Some of the brews will be made with locally smoked malt and no hops, so that it can be distilled into whisky, but Northern & Co will also make regular beer. In late July this year, their New Zealand born brewer, Devon Priemus, made the first batch of beer and for BØ he brought along nine different beers. I tried three of them on tap; the tasty but fairly acidic gose called Frost, a fine pale ale called Fjord and the very interesting High Tide Stout at 7%, which was a deep amber red color with a smell of coffee husks and a fine sweet malt body with notes of toasted malts. A very elegant and unusual stout, not particularly roasted or heavy on the chocolate as many others are.

Qvart Ølkompani
Qvart Ølkompani was founded by the former head brewer at Christianssand Brygghus, Tellef Dannevig, who has enlisted the help of Norwegian Ratebeer admin Yngvar Ørebek. The brewery went into operation back in June and I had already tasted their Equinox Single Hop IPA, Witra hoppy witbier, Smeigesommer Pale Ale and Castanea Brown Ale at Café Sara in Oslo, so I focused on the new ones at the festival. The Trankebar IPA was fruity with a good malt body, the India Trois, brewed with brettanomyces, was fairly complex and good while the one that really impressed me was the 3% abv Gose, which felt rich beyond its low abv and well balanced with a good salt and lactic acid flavor.

St. Hallvards Bryggeri
Named after a former Oslo brewery and brewing fairly large batches of 20 hl, St. Hallvards Bryggeri went into operation as recently as July 30. Per Christian Salicath, the head brewer, had brought along four different beers to Bergen - all on bottle, as seen in the image below.

St. Hallvards Bryggeri opened up in Oslo this summer 

St. Hallvards Bryggeri have an interesting convention for their beers, naming them after former city originals ("byoriginaler") in Christiania / Oslo, so each label carries a little background about the person. For instance, they've got a beer called Snipp-Møller, named after Albert Møller (1864-1922), and another called Bikkje-Lisa, named after Lisa Kristoffersen (1833-1928).

I first tried Snipp-Møller, which turned out to be a fairly flavorful saison, dry hopped with Sorachi Ace, that I really liked. Bikkje-Lisa was a fairly elegant and flavorful brown ale with notes of toasted chestnuts in the taste. Andersen was the last beer I tried, a simple but refreshing pale ale with an elegant bitterness. Nothing remarkable but well made and very drinkable.

What was trending?
A few years ago, only a few knew about the historical German beer style gose, which was basically an extinct style of wheat beer brewed with coriander and salt. Gose was revived in 1986 for Gosenschenke Ohne Bedenken in Leipzig, which was one of the few places you could get it until recently (it was for that reason I visited Leipzig in 2012).

At BØ 2015 a number of craft breweries offered gose, including Lindheim Ølkompani, Dronebrygg, Little Brother Brewery, Northern & Co and Qvart Ølkompani. The Qvart Gose, as just mentioned, seemed surprisingly rich and elegant for just 3% abv and was my favorite gose at the festival.

Of course, india pale ales are still all the rage in Norway so just about every brewery had at least one IPA on offer, several with more or less weird additives - ranging from oat and rye to fruits and brettanomyces wild yeast.

For me, IPA is a style that is hard to impress with, since there are so many, and when you've had 5-10 IPAs at a festival you grow tired of the hop bitterness, so for me it was a relief to see farmhouse ales / saison making great inroads, becoming almost as ubiquitous as the IPA, with close to 30 different types at the festival. Among the better farmhouse ales I'd like to mention Amundsen Orange Haze, brewed with orange peel, Bådin Moloen, St. Hallvards Snipp-Møller and Fjellbryggeriet Tyst.

It was also nice to see that many breweries offered lower alcohol beers in the 3-5% range, many of them with a good body and rich flavors. Some are also making excellent craft lagers, in that respect I'd like to mention Balder Brygg and their Kjedlarpils kellerbier but also the new Pilegrimspils from Sundbytunet, both flavorful but elegant lagers. Balder Brygg also offered a new batch of what was one of my favorite beers at the 2014 festival, the 8% Turken smoked doppelbock - it smells and tastes like a Bamberg rauchbier (Aecht Schlerenkerla Eiche comes to mind). Delicious!

Øystein Meland and brewer Joar Melvær Njøs of Balder Brygg

Of course, there were still many strong brews, catering to the beer geeks, such as the 19% Stelliger Divum from Berentsens Brygghus, the 13.2% Heidrun Mead from Ægir and a bunch of imperial porters and stouts clocking in at around 10%.

Other things at BØ 2015
In addition to beer, vistors could enjoy some tasty pub grub, such as cheese burgers, juicy porchetta sliders, hot dogs and more, in the courtyard next to Håkonshallen. Tents had been setup, to protect the seated guests and their food from any rain, I would guess that at least 200 persons could easily be seated in the courtyard. The only annoying thing was the loud music being blasted out by a DJ on the stage next to the seating area.

Directly underneath the food court there is an old stone cellar, appropriately named Lille Steinhall, where several free talks were given on Friday and Saturday. The talks ranged from historical farm brewing in Norway by Lars Marius Garshol, who has just written the definitive book on the topic - "Norsk Gårdsøl", to one about Ratebeer given by Norwegian RB admin and co-owner of Qvart Ølkompani, Yngvar Ørebeck, who has rated more than 15 thousand beers! Author Gustav Jørgensen presented his brand new book, "Øl Vin Mat", while yours truly were given the opportunity to talk about the transition from craft to industrial brewing in Norway in "1843: Den første ølrevolusjon".

Like earlier festivals, there was also a stall with a small home brewing kit in action, showing visitors the various steps in brewing beer. I have a feeling that this kind of display had a larger mission a few years ago, now that ten thousand Norwegians are brewing at home a lot less people show up at beer festivals without knowing much about brewing. Still, I could see people stopping by to watch the brewing in process, though most just walked by in search of the next beer to taste.

Room for improvement
Even though the 2015 festival was amazing, there is room for improvement. I also see a big challenge for next year's festival, but let's first look at the things that can be improved.

• Loud music: The loud music played by the DJ in the food court made talking difficult, at least for people at my advanced age, who struggle with background noise. Is it really necessary to play loud music where people sit down to eat and talk? There was no music by the beer stalls (thankfully), so why by the food stalls?

• Tasting glass: The currently used tasting glass is straight and narrow, I could hardly get my (big) nose into it, so it's not really suited for smelling the aroma of beers. This design is probably very robust, but it would still have been nice to have a snifter type of glass. Perhaps such glasses could be offered at a higher price, for those of us who would like to smell the beer better? Look at the Borefts tasting glass for a good example.

• Signs or maps: A map of the beer stalls was available in the program and one was also displayed on a large poster by the entrance, but in general there can't be too many signs whether for toilets or for directions to token stalls. One thing I missed was a sign showing me the way to Lille Steinhall, where the free presentations were held, this became a fairly acute problem since a number of the security and volunteer staff I asked had no idea either.

All of these are minor issues though, which leaves me with the big challenge: Size.

The extremely rapid growth of Bergen Ølfestival, from 7 thousand paying visitors in 2013 to 13 thousand in 2014 and now 21 thousand means it will probably face even more visitors next year. Especially as the interest in Norwegian craft beer just keeps growing. If not handled well, this could become a showstopper for many beer enthusiasts, because a crowded festival makes it much harder to get around to taste beer and virtually impossible to get a word with the busy brewers. So, I challenge the organizers to come up with a solution to handle this growth. And there are at least three alternatives:

1. Increase the space: If possible, BØ could acquire an even larger location at Koengen for hosting the festival, allowing breweries to spread out more and give visitors more space to mingle or queue up.
2. Add more days: An extra day can be added to make it a 3-day festival and thus spread the visitors out over more days. Let's say Thursday is added, then visitors from out of town could come on Thursday or Friday but shy away from the popular Saturday, reducing the crowds that day but still give the festival larger overall visitor numbers.
3. Limit the numbers: If the above alternatives are impossible I would suggest putting a strict limit on the maximum number of visitors allowed inside the festival at any given time. This year it peaked at 3600, which was too many, I would guess that 3000 is a good maximum for the current area of disposal. Of course, the number of breweries could also be reduced, to free up space, but I guess that's a solution not many will be happy with.

Concluding remarks
In just four years Bergen Ølfestival has established itself as the biggest beer festival in Norway, and with 21 thousand visitors this year it was almost ten times bigger than the internationally acclaimed beer festival at HaandBryggeriet in Drammen. With its location in the heart of Bergen and the great focus on Norwegian breweries the festival is in a good position to remain the best Norwegian beer festival for years to come.

Even for a seasoned beer geek like me, it's an awesome experience to come back to Bergen and witness the flourishing Norwegian beer culture and the great variety of craft beer - ranging from traditional styles, such as Vossaøl brewed with kveik and smoked beer from Stjørdal, to tasty craft lagers, pale ales and IPAs, Belgian style ales and potent imperial stouts and barley wines.

We are living in exciting times and Bergen Ølfestival does a great job of show-casing this to laymen and beer geeks alike. Well done, Stian Krog & Co, and thank you for another great festival!

I'll be back again next year, for the 5 year anniversary of the festival. I can hardly wait!

Margit and Aasmund Rinde serving beer from Fjellbryggeriet

My reports from BØ 2013 and 2014.

Bergen beer festival and scene 2014

In the year since my previous visit to Bergen and Bergen Ølfestival 2013 a lot has happened in the city with regards to craft brewing; 7 Fjell Bryggeri has started brewing, UNA Kjøkken & Bryggeri is just about to while the two year old Baran Bryggeri discovered that their brewing capacity was too small and have installed larger equipment to expand their business. This post is an attempt to take the beer pulse of Bergen in the autumn of 2014 and also give a quick review of my impressions from Bergen Ølfestival 2014.

A banner for Bergen Ølfestival 2014 flying over Skostredet

Bergen Ølfestival 2014
As I pointed out in my post last year, Bergen Ølfestival (BØ) had outgrown its location at Bryggen. Thus I was happy to learn that the organizers were of the same opinion and had secured a new, supposedly larger, location this year. The new location is in Østre Skostredet in Vågsbunnen, a couple of blocks south of Fisketorget. That and the fact that they had ditched the smart payment system (which failed so miserably last year) going for the well tried and simple token based system, for purchasing beer samples, made me very optimistic about the 2014 festival.

BØ 2014 retained the Norwegian focus from the two first festivals, making it the largest beer festival of its kind in Norway (and in the world for that matter) offering visitors more than 150 different beers from the following 18 Norwegian breweries (Carlsberg Group owned Ringnes is perhaps a borderline case):

1. 7 Fjell Bryggeri: Craft brewery launched October 2013.
2. Aass Bryggeri: Norway's oldest brewery, founded 1834 and still family owned.
3. Austmann Bryggeri: Craft brewery launched June 2013.
4. Balder Brygg: Craft brewery launched June 2012 .
5. Berentsens Brygghus: Family business founded 1895. Turned to brewing in May 2005.
6. Fjellbryggeriet: Craft brewery launched August 2013.
7. Grünerløkka Brygghus: Craft brewery launched August 2013.
8. Hansa Borg: Norwegian brewery group, owns Hansa, Borg, CB and Nøgne Ø.
9. Kinn Bryggeri: Craft brewery launched December 2009. 
10. Lervig Aktiebryggeri: Craft brewery founded 2003 in protest of Tou Bryggeri shutdown. 
11. Lindheim Ølkompani: Craft brewery launched November 2013.
12. Nøgne Ø: Norway's largest craft brewery, launched 2003. Part of Hansa Borg since 2013.
13. Nøisom Craft Beer: Craft brewery launched August 2013.
14. Ringnes: Largest brewery in Norway, owned by the Carlsberg Group since 2004.
15. Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri: Brewpub opening on October 1, 2010.
16. Sundbytunet: Brewpub opening on 11.11.11 (November 11, 2011).
17. Voss Bryggeri: Craft brewery launched March 2013.
18. Ægir Bryggeri: Brewpub and later craft brewery opening in May 2007.

Bergen Ølfestival area map and brewery list

For me it was the many west coast craft breweries that attracted most of the attention, ranging from seasoned veterans Lervig Aktiebrygeri, Kinn Bryggeri and Ægir Bryggeri to intermediate (in size and age) Balder Brygg and Voss Bryggeri to the new generation, opening in the last 12 months or so, Fjellbryggeriet, Lindheim Ølkompani and Austmann Bryggeri. The latter two are not strictly west coast breweries but still exotically distant from my Oslo perspective.

Like last year, entrance to the festival was free but in order to taste beer you would A) need to be older than 18, B) have the official tasting glass that holds 1 dl samples and C) offer a token or two for each beer. Tokens could be purchased at several locations around the festival grounds, making it easy to obtain them. You got 4 tokens for 100 NOK. Most beers cost 1 token, but some limited releases or high ABV beers cost 2 tokens. I bought 20 extra tokens, in addition to the three that came with the tasting glass, and that saw me through the entire first day.

With so many different beers to try, even though I had just 1 dl of each, there was no way I could taste all of them, even in two days. So I sat down before the festival opened, writing down a shortlist of what I really wanted to try and what would be nice to taste if I had the time. It was also important to find out which beers were limited, such as Balder Turken which was available in one 20 liter keg only and Nøgne Ø Skog & Mark, or beers that would be available just one of the days, such as Nøisom Corvus and Nøgne Ø Dragonwort Stout.

At beer festivals you always have to make trade-offs, ideally you would want to start out light and progress towards higher ABV and IBU. But there are two caveats with such an approach. The first is that your taste buds will deteriorate even as you drink light pale ales and lagers, so you really should try the "best" beers early, to get the full aroma and flavor impact. Secondly, it's usually the strong, intense beers that are most limited and will run out first, so if you spend too much time drinking the lighter stuff, which usually run out last anyway, you may miss some of the beers you had on your shortlist. Thus, trade-offs must be made. Start with a few light ones, then jump to a few strong and limited beers. Then take a break, drink some water and get something light to eat (nothing too spicy) to let your taste buds recover, then start the cycle all over again.

For me some of the most exciting new beers at BØ 2014 came from the well established craft breweries. One of these beers was Nøgne Ø Skog & Mark, a limited beer brewed with a number of local herbs for Sundvolden Hotel. Its green floral character and fine spices should make it a wonderful beer to pair with meat of wild game. I was also really impressed with Ægir Hyrrokkinn, listed as a 6% India Peated Ale, which had an aroma of fresh hops but a flavor that brought out a wonderful, mild peated note towards the finish - adding another dimension to the good malt body and fresh hops. I also got to taste Kinn Tradisjon brewed with kveik, an old Norwegian farmhouse yeast, which I quite enjoyed with its sweet bready yeast character. Once You G-o Black, a 13.5% Bourbon BA imperial stout from Lervig Aktiebryggeri, impressed me with its smooth, rich taste with a delicious chocolate and vanilla character. Another interesting newcomer was Nøisom Corvus, apparently a "saison imperial stout", which worked surprisingly well.

Stelliger Divum on tap at BØ 2014

Among the highlights of the festival, I'd like to mention the often underrated but always well made and elegant Sundbytunet Blond, a 6% Belgian-style blonde ale, brewed at Sundbytunet brewpub in Jessheim where Swedish brewmaster Frank Werme holds sway. Another tasty favorite was Stelliger Divum 2013, a 19% abv doppelbock brewed once a year by Berentsens Brygghus. Aged for about one year and served on draught, Stelliger Divum is a sweet beer with a lovely dried fruit character, reminding me more of an aged port wine than a beer, it was dangerously drinkable for such a strong beer!

Another excellent beer, actually from last year too, was Balder Turken - a smooth, ripe fruity doppelbock brewed with smoked malts. And Ægir Natt was as impressive as always, a rich and delicious imperial porter. Kinn Svartekunst 2014, on the other hand, was still a bit sharp but should age well, as it said on the label - "best after 2015".

In addition to the huge beer selection, the festival organizers had engaged several local restaurants and food producers, such as Haugen Gardsmat, Bølgen & Moi and Smak av Kysten to run three separate food stalls at the festival. I really enjoyed the fish soup at Smak av Kysten and the awesome deer burger from Haugen Gardsmat. Yummy! Nothing beats local food served with local beer!

As for the new location in Østre Skostredet, even if it was slightly larger and didn't have the narrow bottlenecks of the previous location at Bryggen, it did get terribly packed both Friday and especially Saturday. On Friday I could move freely around for the first four hours, until people started arriving from work, but by 6 pm it became so crowded I left to seek shelter at Baran Café. Saturday was even more crowded, but I was there for the noon opening and managed to enjoy a couple of hours of relative quietness before the noise and queues overwhelmed me. Next year I hope the organizers will either put a strict limit on the number of visitors allowed inside or move the festival to an even larger location, such as Koengen. But that would be sad as I really enjoyed the charming and central location of Østre Skostredet.

A final tip for next year: Don't put the initial tokens that a visitor gets with the tasting glass inside the glass, they tend to get stuck at the bottom of the glass and are really hard to get out. It's just an unnecessary frustration, so don't.

All in all, Bergen Ølfestival 2014 was really well arranged and deserves the title of the best beer festival for Norwegian beer, with a top lineup of new and older Norwegian breweries and catering to 13,000 guests in two days. My warmest congratulations to the organizing committee and to the large number of volunteers from all over the world who helped making this such a great festival - thank you everyone!

Bergen Ølfestival 2014 - crowded but awesome!

New and expanding breweries
Since my visit to Bergen a year ago two new breweries have opened up, a third one just finished expanding and a fourth is under installation.

7 Fjell Bryggeri
Named after the seven mountains surrounding Bergen, 7 Fjell Bryggeri was founded in 2013 by three local patriots and business men, Jens Eikeset, Steinar Knutsen and Morten Dale, who felt the time was ripe to start a proper craft brewery in a city that had been dominated by the industrial brewery Hansa for more than a century. The founders enlisted the help of beer judge and veteran homebrewer Ghar Smith-Gahrsen as brewmaster.

7 Fjell was launched in October 2013, actually before they had a real brewery. The early launch was possible because they had signed a deal with Lervig Aktiebryggeri in Stavanger, allowing Smith-Gahrsen to brew the 7 Fjell beers there until the brewery was ready.

But in order to purchase a top quality brewery the owners needed to raise more money. In March this year they got lucky when the former Mayor of Bergen and famous coffee magnate, Herman Friele, invested 3 million NOK in the company. For that money Friele received 20% of the shares and could put his wife, Renate Hjorteland, on the board of 7 Fjell.

A suitable location for the brewery was found at Bønes, south of Bergen, where the brewery equipment was installed in the late spring. In June 2014 the 7 Fjell brewery was finally operational, with a 20 hl brew kettle and two 20 hl fermentation tanks. The plan is to keep adding fermentation and storage tanks until the brewery reaches an annual capacity of 420 thousand liter which the owners think is sufficient.

Baran Café where the beer from Baran Bryggeri is served

Baran Bryggeri
Baran Café had become an institution in Bergen, famous for its Persian food, when current owner Ali Mostofi took over the reins from his father in 2007. But Ali didn't only want to run a café, his great passion for beer and homebrewing led him to the idea of starting a micro brewery for serving beer at his café. This became a reality when he and Lasse André Raa launched Baran Bryggeri in Fana, south of Bergen, in June 2012.

Baran Bryggeri was among the local breweries attending Bergen Ølfestival 2013, so I had already tried some of their beers when I returned to Bergen this year. To my surprise I didn't find Baran on the program for BØ 2014, but I found out why when I stopped by at Baran Café after the first day of the festival.

It turns out that Baran Bryggeri had been struggling to meet demands, the brewing capacity was simply too small, so a new brewery had been ordered and the old equipment thrown out this summer. However, the new equipment got delayed which meant they couldn't brew anything at all this summer, which caused them to run out of beer - both at the café and for the Bergen Ølfestival. Thus Baran Bryggeri were forced to cancel their participation at BØ 2014.

When I stopped by Baran Café in early September, the bar was still out of their own beers, though they had some excellent guest beers on draught instead - including Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA and the Swiss sour ale Trois Dames La Tentation. I also got the chance to speak with Lasse André Raa, who happened to be bartending that night, and he told me that the new brewery had been installed and that the first batch would be brewed the following weekend. So, if all goes well the Baran beers should start coming back on tap at the café in early October and next year the brewery should be back at Bergen Ølfestival again.

The bar at UNA Bryggeri & Kjøkken with 20 draught beers

UNA Bryggeri & Kjøkken
Back in May 2014 a brand new beer place opened up on the tourist trail at Bryggen in Bergen, with the intriguing name UNA Bryggeri & Kjøkken. It is listed by RateBeer as a brewpub, but that isn't really the case. At least not yet. Instead, when I made my visit at the beginning of September I found an excellent gastropub, which offered 20 beers on tap and a tempting food menu, with the Fresh Catch of the Day being a great choice for me.

Behind UNA you'll find three local business men, Terje Johan Skjelbred, Per Jørgensen and Steinar Knutsen. The last one is also one of the owners of 7 Fjell Bryggeri, which is probably part of the reason why the "house beer" - the 4.7% UNA Blonde Ale - is brewed at 7 Fjell.

The owners of UNA do have a higher goal than just opening up a good gastropub, they want a proper brewpub at Bryggen where passers by can look in through the large windows at a working micro brewery on the ground floor. When I visited UNA, I overheard one of the owners discussing the design and floor layout of the micro brewery, with a mason or carpenter (not sure which), so it's obvious that work on installing the brewery is about to start.

Fortunately, the future head brewer at UNA Bryggeri, Jan Thomas Nybak from Moss, was in the bar when I visited and had time to talk about the brewery plans. He said that the goal is to have the brewery installed late this fall and hopefully be brewing beer by the end of 2014. Nybak said that his aim is to brew more exciting and varied beers than the larger craft breweries, such as 7 Fjell, can afford to, since his batches will be a lot smaller. He also alluded to someone named Joel who will help out at UNA Bryggeri and apparently has brewed at Partizan Brewing in London! Name-dropping Partizan, like that, made me all ears. If Partizan is the inspiration for UNA Bryggeri, Bergen and Norway is in for some exciting new beers next year. I can't wait to be back!

Una Bryggeri & Kjøkken on Bryggen in Bergen

Lysefjorden Mikrobryggeri
During my trip to Bergen last year I sat in the bar at Henrik Øl og Skjenkestove when a fellow beer enthusiast sat down next to me and we started talking about beer and brewing. He revealed that he had been brewing beer at home for quite a while, using a number of different herbs and spices in his recipes. He had even brewed a sour ale with rowan berries. He then said he was working on plans to open a commercial micro brewery sometime in the next 3-7 months, with a capacity of 350 liter per batch.

I didn't think more about this conversation until I came across the registration of Lysefjorden Mikrobryggeri in BDB.no and realized I must have been talking to Rune Birkeland, the founder and daily manager of this micro brewery. Though it seems to have taken a bit longer than Birkeland anticipated last fall, he managed to set up the brewery in his home community of Lysekloster (Lyse Abbey) and get all the necessary permits in order by the summer so that he could start brewing his beer commercially.

Around the time I left for Bergen, at the start of September, the first Lysefjorden beer - a 4.7% Pale Ale - was shipped to grocery stores in the Lysekloster area, in Fana and Bergen. Unfortunately, I never had time to visit Matkroken Natland, one of the stores that got a shipment from Lysefjorden, but I will certainly do so on my next visit. And perhaps some good beer bar in Oslo would care to order a case?

The impressive tap list at Henrik Øl & Vinstove 4 Sep 2014 

Except for a couple of nights at Henrik Øl & Vinstove, my favorite beer bar in Bergen which had expanded its draught beer menu to 53 (plus one cider), I didn't get the chance to check on any of the other beer places I've visited earlier, such as Naboen, Pingvinen and Kontoret. Hopefully I'll get time next year.

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of my photos from Bergen at Flickr.

Bergen and its beer festival

Earlier this month I traveled to the city of Bergen, on the west coast of Norway, to visit the second Bergen Beer Festival and check out some of the better beer places in the city. My last visit to Bergen had been in April 2012 so I was excited to find out how things had developed in the span of one and a half year.

Bergen on a sunny day in April 2012, seen from Fløyen.

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway and the largest on the west coast, with a population of 270 thousand (almost 400 thousand in the metropolitan area). The city is beautifully located between its seven mountains at the end of a fjord, which has provided the city with a safe harbor and made it an ideal trading port on the coast for centuries. From its founding in 1070, until the end of the 13th century, Bergen was where the kings lived and had their administration, making it the first true capital of Norway. Bergen kept this position until the reign of King Haakon V (1299 - 1319) who settled in Oslo and made that city the new capital.

But Bergen did not decline because of this loss of status, instead it was turned into the main commercial centre in Norway when a group of German merchants established a "Kontor", a trading post, at Bryggen in 1360. This made Bergen the northernmost port in the network of the Hanseatic League, the association of German city states that controlled all trade in the Baltic Sea, and much of the North Sea too, for the next couple of centuries. During this period much wealth was amassed in Bergen and the city became the gate to Europe, where new fashions and influences first came to Norway.

By the end of the 16th century, the Hanseatic League had lost its monopoly on trade because of the new and more powerful kingdoms in northern Europe. Both Sweden and Denmark handled their own trade, and when the office in London was closed by Queen Elisabeth in 1598 there wasn't much trade left for them. However, the office in Bergen continued to be used until 1754 and was the very last one to close. Today, this former Hansa Kontor at Bryggen is the only one that remains intact in Europe, making its old wooden buildings unique. Which is why UNESCO put Bryggen on their list of World Cultural Heritage sites as early as 1979.

The modern city of Bergen is still very much a fish and trading port, bearing the marks of hundreds of years of trade with continental Europe, both in its architecture, place names and mentality. Visitors to Bergen will typically flock to Bryggen but also to the nearby Fisketorget market, where fish mongers have offered fresh fish for hundreds of years (though today it seems that most people working at the market are foreigners).  Another popular attraction is Bergenhus fortress where Haakon's Hall, the old royal palace built in 1260, still stands. And if you want to get an overview of the city you can take the Fløibanen funicular, which goes from near Bryggen, up the Fløyen mountain, providing a breathtaking view from 320 meters above sea level. Or you can take a tour bus to the foot of Ulriken, the tallest of the mountains in Bergen, and take the aerial tramway up to its peak at 643 meter.

Bergen Fish Soup

When it comes to food, Bergen is the place to go for fresh seafood which is caught every night and sent fresh to restaurants or sold at Fisketorget the next day. The Bergen Fish Soup - a rich, creamed soup made with white fish (haddock, halibut, cod) and various vegetables - is always a winner, in particular on cold, rainy days. But also shrimp, lobster and mussel dishes are worth trying. Of a more recent trend, sushi is also worth checking out since the biggest sushi producer in Norway, Lerøy Seafood, is based in Bergen.

As for beer, the topic of this blog, Bergen has seen a revival of its beer scene over the last few years, just like the rest of Norway, with a better selection of craft beer at pubs, micro breweries opening up and the launch of its own beer festival.

But before covering the beer scene, a few words of caution about the weather. Bergen is commonly called the rain capital of Norway because of an average annual precipitation of 2.25 meter (7.38 feet), so you will more often than not need protective rain clothes or at least an umbrella when visiting. To give you an idea: On the first day of my recent visit, Bergen received a total of 34 mm (1.34 in) of rain.

Bergen Ølfestival 2013 at Nikolaikirkeallmenningen

Bergen Beer Festival 2013
Bergen Beer Festival, known as Bergen Ølfestival or just BØ in Norwegian, was held for the first time in September 2012, as an independent part of the larger Bergen Matfestival, to promote Norwegian beer and beer culture. It was conceived and arranged by the local chapter of Venner av Nøgne Ø ("Friends of Nøgne Ø"), with good help from the restaurant Bryggen Tracteursted, which set aside some of its outdoor area for the festival. The proceedings from the festival is used to promote the interest and knowledge of good beer and beer culture in Bergen.

This year, the festival was held on September 6 and 7. The number of attending breweries had gone up from seven in 2012 to thirteen this year. Plus an apple cider producer. Of the thirteen breweries, ten fit into the craft brewing category. All major Norwegian craft breweries attended:

- Berentsens Brygghus from Egersund
- HaandBryggeriet from Drammen
- Kinn Bryggeri from Florø
- Lervig Aktiebryggeri from Stavanger
- Nøgne Ø from Grimstad
- Ægir Bryggeri from Flåm

In addition to these, four new micro breweries also attended:

- Austmann Bryggeri from Trondheim
- Balder Brygg from Leikanger
- Baran Bryggeri from Fana, Bergen
- Voss Bryggeri

These four have all started brewing within the last year, Austmann and Voss in the last few months. Together, these ten craft breweries brought more than 75 beers, on keg and bottle, to the festival. Which is plenty for a two-day festival!

There were also some larger Norwegian breweries at the festival, such as Aass from Drammen, Hansa / Waldemars Mikrobryggeri from Bergen and Carlsberg owned Ringnes. I won't mention them again since like most of the other visitors I only queued up for beer at the craft brewery stands.

The stand of Austmann, Voss, Lervig and Nøgne Ø.

On the opening day, the organizers were faced two hurdles - heavy rain and technical problems with the payment system. The former seemed to worry no one, visitors still showed up in large numbers, wearing rain clothes or umbrellas, all smiles. This impressed both me and many of the attending breweries who claimed that if this weather had hit during a similar festival in Trondheim or Oslo, hardly anyone would have bothered showing up! The second problem was linked to the scanning of QR codes, needed to register the payment of a beer. It turned out that the scanning software used on the iPad at each stand failed from time to time, so did the network, which caused confusion and problems both for the brewers and their customers. However, the visitors took the weather and any technical hurdles in full stride so the first day went remarkably well. The next day the organizers had reverted the payment system to a simple coupon solution, which worked flawlessly, even the weather was better.

In order to taste beer you needed the official 15 cl tasting glass and one or more coupons; most beers cost one coupon, but a few rare or particularly strong ones cost two. At designated spots around the festival grounds you could buy coupons in multiples of four, for 100 NOK (hence 25 NOK per coupon). On the first day, when the new payment system was being used, it was also possible to pay via smartphone - you simply displayed your QR code to the iPad and had it scanned. When the code had been used four times you had to buy a new "four coupon" code. But, as mentioned above, this didn't always work and was abandoned on day two.

Kinn Bryggeri had the most impressive stand at the festival

Here's the lowdown on the various breweries, their beers and doings at the festival.

Austmann Bryggeri
Austmann Bryggeri just started up, brewing their first batch at the end of July, so I didn't expect that much from them. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of beers that head brewer, Anders "Coop" Cooper, could offer from the four taps at his stand - ranging from pale ale, brown ale and two India pale ales (both American and English) to a saison and a blueberry stout!

My favorite from Austmann was clearly their Bastogne, a very refreshing and nice 5.5% Belgian-style saison. Because the IPA competition was so fierce at the festival, Austmann Humledugg (6.5% American IPA) and Nummer 9 (7% English IPA) struggled to shine through. Their Blåbærstout (6%) was also a bit disappointing as I couldn't detect any blueberry notes in it. That said, I'm sure Coop, who spent time at Kinn Bryggeri to learn brewing with open fermentation, will continue to improve his brewing skills and make many classic beers in the future. Austmann Bryggeri is a welcome addition to the beer scene in Trondheim and Norway.

Balder Brygg
Balder Brygg started up about a year ago, but I had somehow missed the chance to taste their beers at recent events in Oslo so I was really anxious to get a taste while in Bergen. Brewer, Joar Melvær Njøs, was manning the stand when I approached, shortly after the noon opening on the first day, which gave me the chance to ask him about their brewery and beers.

Opening up in June 2012, Balder Brygg is a fairly unique craft brewery in that it focuses on brewing bottom fermented lager beers, such as pils, Vienna lagers, porters (yes, porters can be bottom fermented too) and even doppelbocks, rather than the more common top fermented ales. I also got the impression that Njøs wanted to use local ingredients in their beers.

After trying the six beers they brought on keykeg, I was struck by the good quality they showed, from the excellent Porter (6.3%) and fresh Bergen Pale Ale (5.7% APA) to the delicious, but still a bit young, Old Ale (6.2%) and the absolutely amazing Turken, an 8% doppelbock brewed with smoked pilsner malt that reminded me of Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche. Balder also had a keg of a special beer called Epleøl, a 4.5% pale ale brewed with a dash of apple juice. Unfortunately, like Austmann Blåbærstout, it didn't have enough apple flavor in it to be detectable by my taste buds. So, please add some more juice next time.

Baran Bryggeri
Ali Mostofi, of Persian ancestry and the owner of Baran Café in Bergen, had started playing with homebrewing when he got to know the young student Lasse André Raa. Together they decided to go commercial with their brewing interest and founded Baran Bryggeri. The word "baran" is Persian for "rain", a suitable name for a brewery located in Fana on the outskirts of Bergen - the rain capital of Norway.

Baran Bryggeri has been in operation for 12 months and supplies Baran Café with draft beer, though they hope to start bottling in order to get their beer sold at grocery stores and the stronger ones through Vinmonopolet. At the festival, they brought along two beers on draft: L'Orgie Houblon, an 8.3% double IPA, and Krydderøl, a 5.5% pale ale flavored with real saffron.

I only tried their spicy Krydderøl which, hm, I would prefer to call interesting rather than good. The saffron gave it a strong herbal character with a very bitter, tannic finish - a bit like chewing on grape pits.

Berentsens Brygghus
I was actually forced to skip this stand. The reason for this was that I simply had so many other breweries to check up, that when I finally got around to look for them it was so crowded (they were located just across from the highly popular Ægir stand and right next to the equally popular Kinn) that I could not squeeze my way through to it. Hence, no Berentsen beers were tasted.

Ole Richard Lund and Rune Eriksen of HaandBryggeriet

HaandBryggeriet
HaandBryggeriet was represented by Ole Richard Lund, their sales manager and a vivid homebrewer, and Rune Eriksen, one of the four co-founders of the brewery. They had shipped the mobile HaandBryggeriet bar, first unveiled at Haand Craft Beer Festival in May 2013, to Bergen. Unfortunately, the festival did not allow breweries to display their logos, so Lund and Eriksen had to cover up the front of the bar to hide the name of the brewery.

From the two towers of the mobile bar, they could serve up to four different draft beers at a time. The selection of beer was a good mixture of dark and light, old and new, ranging from Humlesus (4.5% hoppy pale ale), Fyr og Flamme (6.5% IPA) and Ardenne Blond (7.5% saison) to the darker Hesjeøl (6.5% smoked traditional harvest ale), Bestefar (9% traditional ale) and Odin's Tiple (11% imperial stout). On bottle they brought along two limited release sour ales, Surpomp (8.5%) and European Sour Blend (6.5%), the latter a collaboration with De Molen, Loverbeer and Alvinne. It was these two that ran out first, on both days, so next time - bring more sour ale, guys!

Kinn Bryggeri
Founder and head brewer of Kinn Bryggeri, Espen Lothe, was very active at the festival, giving a great talk about the future of craft brewing as well as mingling with guests and spending time behind his stand, pouring beer and talking about it to new as well as seasoned beer lovers.

Kinn easily had the most impressive stand, serving eight different beers on tap - half of them hand pumped from cask! In all they brought eleven different beers, from well known beers such as Vestkyst (7.5% American IPA), Bøvelen (9.5% abbey tripel), Slåtteøl (6.5% saison) and Svart Hav (4.7% stout) to newer ones like Gamleguten (7% old ale) and Ivar Aasen (10.5% barley wine).

As hinted to above, Espen Lothe gave a talk called "Framtidsbryggeriet" (at HUB Bergen), about his visions for the future of craft brewing. It chimed really well with my own mixed feelings about the current state of craft beer affairs. Here are some of the interesting observations he made:

• Quality: Craft breweries today focus too much on having a wide variety of beer types, rather than making a few good ones. Some have 20-30 beers in their standard lineup which means it will take them much longer to finely tune recipes and make each beer as good as possible. Lothe thinks future craft breweries should make fewer but better beers and he mentioned Trappist brewery Orval as an extreme example of a brewery that makes just one type of beer, but brewing it to perfection. Why should every craft brewery make wheat ale, saison, pale ale, IPA, double IPA, porter and imperial stout when most of them struggle with the consistency and quality of each beer they make?

• Extreme brewing: Most craft breweries spend a lot of resources making extreme beers, such as massively hopped double / triple IPAs and high alcohol imperial styles of beer, which might be interesting a few times but is not going to attract the average beer drinker and may even wear out the taste buds of veteran beer geeks. Craft beer should be about a good drinking experience. Flavorful? Yes. In your face? No.

• Lager beer: The large majority of craft beers are top fermented ales, few make bottom fermented lagers. But lager is so much more than the insipid yellow fizz from the large international breweries, just look at the great lager traditions of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic with pilsners, Vienna lagers, märzens, dunkles, bocks and so on. Good craft lagers should stand a good chance competing with the industrial versions because craft brewers will use more and better ingredients, not additives such as corn or rice.

Espen Lothe - praising quality over quantity

After the talk, Espen Lothe told me about the experience that had prompted him to give this talk; he had tasted a wonderful lager from the small German family brewery Gänstaller-Bräu, outside Bamberg, which had made a huge impression on me too during my visit to their Zoiglstube last year. So, folks, start brewing flavorful and elegant ales and lagers!

Lervig Aktiebryggeri
I did see Lervig head brewer Mike Murphy at the festival, but never behind their stand, so I never got the chance to congratulate him on the recent 10 year anniversary of the brewery (founded June 25, 2003) or on the great series of beers he has developed in his three and a half years at Lervig.

Another small disappointment was that the Lervig guys had brought mostly bottled beers, with Galaxy IPA as a notable exception. I had looked forward to trying many of them on tap for the first time (but fortunately I later did, at one of the pubs in Bergen). However, I was happy to see that they had brought bottles of their 10th Anniversary Special, a delicious 4.7% Vienna lager released in a limited number. They also mentioned Lervig Siste Dans, the stronger (5.6%) and hopped-up version of Lucky Jack, brewed for the farewell concerts of Kaizers Orchestra, but I didn't stay late enough for that beer to come on (if it did).

Nøgne Ø
Representing Nøgne Ø, brewer Ingrid Elisabeth Skistad brought along kegs with their new Mandarina IPA (7.5%), brewed with the as of yet unreleased German hop varietal Mandarina, Global Pale Ale (4.5% pale ale, made with 13 different hops!), Imperial Premiant India Pilsner (9% hoppy pilsner) and their first sour ale, Tindved (7%, made with juice from pressed sea buckthorn). She also brought along one keg of the limited Dark Horizon Fourth Edition (16% imperial stout) and bottles of the collaboration beer Half a World Away (9% imperial red ale), brewed together with Holgate Brewhouse from Victoria, Australia.

Skistad also gave a spirited talk on the topic of yeast during the festival. In it she went through the history of yeast cells and brewing, the chemical makeup and differences between different strains of yeast, from top and bottom fermenting to wild yeast, and how they affect the taste and smell of the finished beer. With a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from NTNU in Trondheim and another MSc in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh, Skistad is the right person to give such a talk!

Nøgne Ø brewer Ingrid E Skistad talking about yeast

Voss Bryggeri
Hailing from Voss, about 100 km west of Bergen, Voss Bryggeri opened up in February 2013 with a hired gun, Oregonian Ian Greene, as its head brewer. Greene has brewed for Stone Brewing Company in California and Rogue Ales in Oregon and is an expert on hops and the brewing of hoppy beers (which surely must be second nature to any brewer from Oregon?).

Both Greene and the founders of Voss Bryggeri, Dag Eirik Jørgensen and Jeanette Lillås, attended the festival, offering visitors to their stand a number of very exciting beers on tap. My favorite was the Voss Oregonian, a 4.7% American pale ale that was so freshly hopped I've never had its like in Norway. Wow! This beer really blew its competitors out of the water and must have made many visitors aware of what a difference in flavor there is between a young and an old beer beer brewed with lots of hops.

In addition to the Oregonian, Voss Bryggeri had brought two beers made with smoked(!) hops, which was a totally new concept to me. One of them was the official festival beer, the 4.7% stout called BØLL, which combined the mild smoke character with a nice roasted flavor. The other was the Eldhus Sommar, a 4.7% ale made with three varieties of smoked hops, it had a stronger character of bonfire (not peat) and was very nice.

Ian Greene at the stand of Voss Bryggeri

Ian Greene was also among the brewers giving a talk at the festival, where he presented himself to a Norwegian audience and telling us the fascinating story of how he ended up as brewmaster at Voss Bryggeri.

To make a long story short, the future founders of Voss Bryggeri was on a "scouting" trip to the US west coast to learn about craft beer and brewing. One day they came across Hop Venom, a double IPA from Boneyard Brewery in Bend, Oregon. They liked this beer so much that they rented a car and drove for several hours to Bend where they met the brewer, Ian Greene. Half-jokingly he was offered a job as head brewer at their future brewery. Greene didn't think more of this until he received an email with the same offer sometime later. After a brief pause to think, Greene accepted the offer. As he said, Voss provides great nature and opportunities for hunting and fishing - two of his pastime favorite activities. In January 2013, Greene and his girlfriend moved to Norway and in March he brewed the first batch of beer at the brand new brewery in Voss. The rest, as they say, is history, and I'm confident Greene will make great beer history in Voss.

Ægir Bryggeri
Bergen beer festival became a favorite of Ægir founder, Evan Lewis, when he attended last year, so for the 2013 festival he returned with a large number of beers and a strong team to man the bar and inform visitors about the brewery and its beers. Vegard Bratteteig, who took over as head brewer at Ægir when Dave Gardonio left last year, was also present and seemed very happy with the response he got from people tasting his brews. From what I could see, Ægir had one of the most popular stands at the festival.

Ægir brought along almost all of their beers, though many of them on bottle only. On draft they offered Dag Sitrus Pale Ale (4.5%), Sumbel Porter (4.7%) and India Pale Ale (6.5%) to name a few, while on bottle they offered their flag ship beers Natt Imperial Porter (10%), Lynchburg Natt (10% barrel aged version) and Tors Hammer (13.2% barley wine). But Ægir also brought along a brand new beer, Lir Irish Dry Stout (5.5%), which was one of the highlights at the festival for me.

Ægir Lir Irish Dry Stout - a festival highlight

Evan Lewis also gave a talk at the festival, about beer and food, but I was unable to attend it.

Concluding remarks
All in all, Bergen Ølfestival 2013 was an impressive event, offering visitors lots of good and creative beers, served by a very friendly and informative staff, often the brewers themselves. I didn't notice any overly drunk people, just smiling and happy visitors as far as the eye could see. Well done, Bergen VANØ! And thank you!

From what I've heard about 30,000 people visited the festival, out of which some 7,000 actually bought at least four coupons. However, with such numbers the festival has clearly outgrown its current facilities at Bryggen Tracteursted and the organizers should seriously consider another location for next year. If so, I promise to come back again.

Bergen Ølfestival 2013 - great and crowded!

So, what about good beer places in Bergen?
Here's a section about the beer places I managed to visit, though some of them only briefly.

Henrik Øl & Vinstove
Address: Engen 10
Number of taps: 54

On my previous visit to Bergen, this beer bar by Den Nationale Scene sported an amazing 44 beer taps. Eighteen months later, that number had grown to 54 taps - keeping Henrik at the top spot in Norway, as the bar with most beer on tap. True, not all of the taps are with craft beer, they do have Grimbergen, Kilkenny and Guinness, but I could only count 6-7 industrial beers so about 45 of the taps are with genuine craft beer!

Because of the great variety and surprisingly high rotation of beers, I spent all three nights at Henrik. Thursday night was the most quiet, Friday was packed and Saturday somewhere in between. The great thing about Henrik is the excellent staff there, they know their beer. Because of this and their great selection, beer geeks from all over the world come here so you can always count on a good conversation at the bar. I had several, spending Friday night discussing beer with a fellow from Argentina and Saturday with a couple from Canada and Colorado. It's a small beer world!

Of the excellent craft beers on draft during my visit, surprisingly many from Denmark, I really enjoyed Gudeløs (8.9% imperial stout) and Old Mephisto (10.5% barley wine) from Djævlebryg, #307 (7.5% belgian ale) and #313 (6.5% old ale) from Bøgedal, Henrik Kaffesort (6.5% coffee porter, made for Henrik by Beer Here), Amager Batch One (9.2% american strong ale), Lervig Konrad (10.4% imperial stout), Hornbeer Dryhop (5% hoppy lager). In addition to these draft beers, I also enjoyed bottles of Rodenbach Grand Cru, Oud Beersel Oude Geuze and Thomas Hardy's Ale 2006.

Henrik Øl & Vinstove does not offer hot food, so if you're looking for a good beer and food place I suggest the next two ...

Pingvinen
Address: Vaskerelven 14
Number of taps: 12

Located two minutes walk from Henrik Øl & Vinstove, Pingvinen is a pub, restaurant and nightclub crammed into one. In the late afternoon, when I visited on a Saturday, the place was largely empty, only a few couples with baby strollers and an old regular in the bar. So I found a spot next to the taps and asked if I could eat in the bar, instead of at a table, which was fine with the bartender.

Pingvinen had a very decent selection of draft beer, out of 12 taps there were 8 with craft beer! They had two from BrewDog (Punk IPA and 5 AM Saint), two from Balder Brygg (Old Ale and Turken) and three from Nøgne Ø (Mandarina IPA, Imperial Premiant India Pilsner and God Jul 2011). I was more than happy to spend a couple of hours there and for dinner I ordered one of their festival specials, Oksekjake ("ox jaw") steamed in Old Ale from Balder Brygg. The result was tender, juicy and flavorful meat. A real treat.

Nabokjelleren
Address: Sigurdsgate 4
Number of taps: 9

Naboen Pub & Restaurant is another nice place to go for beer and food, though I prefer the more informal cellar - Nabokjelleren - to the white clothed tables of the restaurant you enter into from the street. Downstairs it's a bit darker but also more cozy, with dark wooden furniture and a bar offering a good number Norwegian craft beer on tap and bottle. On the night of my visit, they had one Ægir, two Voss and four Kinn beers on tap.

My dinner in the cellar was a tasty Swedish Planklax (literally "Salmon on a plank") that I enjoyed with Kinn Bitter, before continuing with more challenging beers such as Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout from draft and a bottle of Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew 2009.

Kontoret
Address: Kong Olavs plass 4
Number of taps: 4

This is a cozy English-style pub, just south of Torgallmenningen, that usually have 2-3 good Norwegian micros on draft in addition to a very decent bottle beer selection. I really didn't have much time to spend there during my recent visit, except for sharing a bottle of Oude Gueuze Tilquin à L'Ancienne.

By the way, Kontoret serves hot food, but from the neighboring Dickens restaurant (it has the same owner).

Baran Café
Address: Sigurds gate 21
Number of taps: 15

This café has offered Persian food and a cozy atmosphere in the heart of Bergen for more than a decade, and for the past 12 months it has also offered beer from its offsite brewery, Baran Bryggeri. Thus I decided to pay the place a visit on my first night in Bergen, the day before the beer festival.

However, I didn't stay very long when I found out that they had none of their own beers on tap. Because of their limited brewing capacity and low stock, all of the Baran beers had been set aside for serving at the beer festival. Still, the café looks really nice and with up to six of their own beers on tap, plus about ten others, it should be a good beer place to visit on a normal day.

Henrik Øl & Vinstove - with 54 beers on tap!

If you're planning a trip to Bergen you may want to consider going in September 2014, to catch the third Bergen beer festival. But Bergen has a pretty good beer scene the year around, so you shouldn't have to go thirsty in this old Hansa port whenever you visit.

In the meantime you may want to check out more photos at Flickr, from the festival and Bergen.

Norwegian beer festivals

That the beer revolution is well under way in Norway is beyond doubt, the last few years have seen a number of small scale breweries start up all over the country, the major cities have witnessed an explosion of good beer bars and brewpubs (see Oslo Beer City for an illustration), beer tastings and beer maker's dinners are hosted frequently and, what this post is about, a number of great beer festivals have started up or will debut this fall.

True, we have had beer festivals for a number of years, but of the tasteless kind (pun intended), sponsored by the big lager breweries competing for recognition and higher market shares by releasing cool looking brands which taste exactly the same as all their other beers - nothing. No, the type of festival I'm referring to is of a new kind, where small scale breweries present a wide selection of beer styles to an audience interested in exploring new flavors. That's what a beer festival should be all about, not cool posters or fancy packaging.

Head brewer Jens Maudal of HaandBryggeriet
- at the 2008 beer festival at Parkteatret 

The first beer festival

The first serious beer festival in Oslo (and in Norway, that I'm aware of) took place on the last Saturday in September 2008, outside Parkteatret at Grünerløkka. Only one brewery attended, HaandBryggeriet, but it was the first time anyone in Oslo had been treated to Norwegian craft beer on tap.

And what a debut it was! HaandBryggeriet had brought along kegs of Dobbel Dose and Dark Force - their two strongest beers at the time - in addition to a number of bottled types. Everything sold out in a few hours. The event was a big success, with lots of visitors getting their first taste of craft beer. This pointed the way to a brighter future for draft beer in Oslo and for beer festivals in general.

The early years 2009-2011

In 2009, another important beer festival started up - the biannual Ølfestival at Nærbø. Nærbø is a small community on Jæren in Rogaland county on the south west coast of Norway, and it was the local beer club - Nærbø ølklubb - that came up with the idea to arrange a festival there. I didn't go so I don't know which breweries attended, but the festival seems to have gone really well since it was held again in 2011.

2010 saw the first Cask Ale Festival arranged in Norway. Hosted by the Håndverkerstuene beer restaurant in Oslo, this 2-day festival in mid September showcased cask conditioned ales from Norwegian breweries Nøgne Ø, Ægir and HaandBryggeriet, but also from the then far less known Scottish brewery BrewDog! The festival ended with an amazing beer maker's dinner, where one beer from each brewery was paired with a dish.

In 2011, in addition to Nærbø Ølfestival (where Nøgne Ø, Ægir and Danish brewery Midtfyns attended, see report here) and Grünerløkka mat- & mikrobrygg, a new festival started at the luxurious Aker Brygge in Oslo: Oslo Ølfestival. This was a more high profile festival with ten breweries attending, both the large ones - such as Ringnes and Hansa Borg - but also some smaller breweries such as Nøgne Ø, Ægir and the Amundsen Bryggeri & Spiseri brewpub.

2012 - the year of the beer festivals

If 2009-2011 were promising years for beer festivals in Norway, 2012 will be a watershed year changing our perception of beer festivals forever. Both with respect to what a beer festival should be like and how many you can arrange in a small country like Norway.

The standout festival so far in 2012 was the awesome Haand Craft Beer Festival held at the new HaandBryggeriet brewery in Drammen, on May 4 and 5.

Arranged after the same mold as Alvinne Craft Beer Festival in Belgium and Borefts in the Netherlands, Haand 2012 was attended by some of the most exciting craft breweries in Europe - from Nøgne Ø and Kinn in Norway, to Närke from Sweden, Magic Rock from England, LoverBeer from Italy, Alvinne from Belgium and Emelisse and De Molen from the Netherlands. Many of the brewers stood behind the taps, serving beers and talking with their visitors. Combined with delicious beer food and a big outdoor beer tent, it was simply perfect. And a massive success.

Närke Kulturbryggeri at Haand Craft Beer Festival 2012.

Though we may already have had the best festival of the year and even have the 2012 Caskfestival behind us, there are still some very interesting festivals coming up this fall. Including two brand new ones.

Let's take a closer look at the remaining festivals of 2012.

Kongsberg Ølfestival

Honestly, Kongsberg is not the place I would expect a good beer festival to show up. Still, this small town is famous for its annual Kongsberg Jazzfestival, hosted here since 1964, so they sure know how to arrange big festivals. 

For the very first food & beer festival, hosted at Christians Kjeller, they've got a very nice line-up, offering guests a choice of 200 different beers! The food is of the short traveled type, prepared upstairs at Restaurant Opsalhgården.

Dates: 10 & 11 August 2012
Location: Christians Kjeller, Kirkegata 10 in Kongsberg
Hours: 16-20 (Friday), 12-20 (Saturday)
Entrance: Free
Attending breweries:

1. HaandBryggeriet (Drammen)
2. Kinn Bryggeri (Florø)
3. Lervig Aktiebryggeri (Stavanger)
4. Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri (Oslo)
5. Nøgne Ø - Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri (Grimstad)
6. Aass (Drammen)

Aass is actually a big lager brewery, but it's still independent and family owned. Founded in Drammen in 1834, Aass is the oldest brewery in existence in Norway and the brewery has some decent pilsner and vienna style lagers, even a bock, in their portfolio. Still, the most interesting beers at the festival will come from the first five breweries.

Note that Schouskjelleren will not have their own stand, among the breweries, but will take over all the taps in the bar.

Grünerløkka mat- og mikrobrygg festival

This year will mark the 5th anniversary of this great food & beer festival, first arranged outside Parkteatret in September 2008 but since then in the backyard of Café Vespa, just north of Sofienbergparken in Oslo.

The festival is arranged by Grünerløkka Brygghus, which is owned by Mr Grünerløkka - Jan Vardøen - who usually stands behind a large grill, barbecuing selfmade and tasty sausages. Last year the festival also had a stand from Den Blinde Ku, selling great artisan cheese.

Dates: 24 & 25 August 2012
Location: Københavngata 4, in the backyard of Café Vespa
Hours: 16-23 (Friday) and 13-23 (Saturday)
Entrance: Free
Attending breweries:

1. Amundsen Bryggeri & Spiseri (Oslo)
2. Nøgne Ø - Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri (Grimstad)
3. Ægir Bryggeri (Flåm)

At this point (July 30) these are the known breweries, but more will probably be added over the next couple of weeks. For later updates check out the festival's own Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/415083568513025/

Grünerløkka mat- og mikrobrygg 2012
- official festival poster

Bergen Ølfestival

Bergen has a flourishing beer scene with some of the best beer pubs in Norway (e.g. Henrik øl & vinstove, Baran Café and Hanne på Høyden), and a number of very good and active homebrewers and beer bloggers. They really deserve their own beer festival. Now they've got it! 

Bergen Ølfestival will be arranged for the very first time this September, with the best Norwegian breweries attending. If you find yourself somewhere on the Norwegian west coast in early September, do make a visit to Bergen and its brand new beer festival.

Dates: 7 & 8 September 2012

Location: Bryggen, Bergen

Hours: 12-20 (both days)

Entrance: Free

Attending breweries:

1. HaandBryggeriet (Drammen)
2. Kinn Bryggeri (Florø)
3. Lervig Aktiebryggeri (Stavanger)
4. Nøgne Ø - Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri (Grimstad)
5. Ægir Bryggeri (Flåm)

This is a nice cross section of east, south and west Norway that should really impress visitors to the festival. For more and updated information, check out their Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/389315764457145/

Oslo Ølfestival

This is a high profile festival hosted at the luxurious Aker Brygge area in Oslo, with the two major Norwegian breweries - Ringnes and Hansa Borg - involved. Last year, when the festival was first held, the organizers had still found space for some of the smaller breweries too, such as Ægir, Nøgne Ø and Amundsen, so even a serious beer lover could find good beers at the festival.

This year some 28 bars, pubs and restaurants at Aker Brygge and the neighboring Tjuvholmen - for instance Beer Palace and Bar1 - are involved in the festival, in one way or another, but the main focus for beer seems to be at the ØlMesse tent where you'll get beer tasters, can meet and talk to brewers and listen to talks about beer and brewing.

Dates: 4-6 October 2012

Location: Aker Brygge and Tjuvholmen in Oslo

Hours: 15-20 (Thursday & Friday), 13-20 (Saturday)

Entrance: Kr 150,- to the ØlMesse tent, which includes 5 tasters.

Attending breweries:

1. Amundsen Bryggeri & Spiseri (Oslo)
2. Hansa Borg (Bergen)
3. Lervig Aktiebryggeri (Stavanger)
4. Nøgne Ø - Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri (Grimstad)
5. Ringnes (Oslo)
6. Ægir Bryggeri (Flåm)
7. Aass (Drammen)

In addition to these breweries, Cask Norway will attend to promote their imported beers - such as BrewDog from Scotland.

Concluding remarks

As if all these beer festivals weren't enough to give people a taste of good beer, many other types of festivals, in particular music related, have started inviting breweries to provide good draft beer to their visitors.

A few months ago the brewmaster from Mack in Tromsø, Rune Lennart Andreassen, was asked to brew a special festival beer for Buktafestivalen - a local music festival - and ended up making a 900 liter batch of pale ale flavored with fresh ginger.

Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri in Oslo sold their own beer at the June 29+30 Kollen music festival in Holmenkollen and will sell beer at the upcoming Øyafestivalen music festival on August 7-11.

The days are long gone when festival goers would be satisfied with a tasteless lager, in 2012 quality beer has broken through in so many arenas - challenging the domain of the lager giants.

Keep those craft beer taps flowing.