DrankTank : The Beverage Blog

When I rolled into Copenhagen yesterday, I had half a day to kill with no definite plans. Thumbing through my “Lonely Planet” book the day before, I remembered CARLSBURG brewrey is in Copenhagen, so that was a thought, but they close early and I didn’t have time for it.

So off I go, strolling through the center of Copenhagen. I didn’t get far. 4 blocks from the hotel I see a brewpub. Vesterbro Bryghus. So in I go for the sampler platter. I didn’t have a pen with me, so there’s no reviews or even a list here, but honestly there was nothing spectacular or that unusual from an American brewpub. Except for their Christmas beer…. it was nice. Apparently Christmas beer in Denmark is a HUGE deal. Every single restaurant, pub, coffeeshop, and hotel I’ve seen has at least one Christmas beer on tap, and apparently every brewery from the largest to the smallest makes at least one every year. (kinda reminds me of the Nouveau Beaujolais phenomenon in France… it’s nice to see a whole country come together to celebrate a drink). Thankfully, from my limited experience with Danish Christmas beers (I’m up to about 6 different ones on this trip!), I can tell you that they are good. Not too spicy and they don’t have an alcohol aftertaste, which some holiday beers do.
The waitress at the Bryghus (Danish for brewhouse) was very kind to sit and tell me about the place. It’s less than a year old, and they are sitting on some of the best real estate in Copenhagen (across the street from Trivoli park). On my way out, I caught the attention of the master brewer (and owner I’m pretty sure). A Danish guy who said he had a brewery in New York, but got kicked out of the building for some reason, so he decided to move it to Copenhagen. After talking beer for a minute, he became VERY interested in hearing about my Pumpkin Ale. Said he’s never tasted pumpkin ale, never brewed it, and was even a little skeptical that it was a good idea, but thought it would be a good experiment. So, if you see a Pumpkin Ale in Copenhagen next year, you can thank me.

They had some really cool equipment and computer system. I don’t have a clue what all it does, except for flash a lot of Danish words on a touchscreen.

He told me they had the same system at another place in town, but I had trouble understanding where. Later the same night, I bumped into that too. More on that later.