The Copenhagen Beer Celebration takes place in a sports-hall in Østerbro, Copenhagen each May since 2010. The
festival is organised by Mikkeler, the microbrewery and pub chain based in Copenhagen.
The festival hosted 40 breweries over 4
“sessions” with each brewery presenting 2 different beers per
session.
Breweries from the Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US. There were well known
names such as Brew Dog, Three Floyds, De Molen and of course Mikkeler
itself.
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| Numbers can be used to label things numerically or randomly. |
The first 3 sessions sold out quickly,
so they added an extra one, at 10am Friday morning...
This is the one I attended and after 40
minutes of queuing me and my fellow travellers arrived into the
sports beer hall and received our tasting glasses.
The glasses at 60ml were practical for tasting, and you were more
than welcome to get seconds if desired. Though their were some
fountains to clean your glasses, most of those manning the beer taps
were using bottles of water to rinse the glasses to save everyone
inconvenience.
Despite the crowds the atmosphere was
relaxed and after 30 minutes of everyone was pretty jovial from the
sampling. Those dispensing the beers were as a rule from the
breweries and were enthusiastic though extra signs to show what
brewery was where and what they were offering would have certainly
helped.
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| The Glasses fit safely in my pocket when urinating or gesticulating |
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| Tasting Glasses |
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| You get a map that tells you your location is else where. |
There was coffee, fancy hot dogs, Smørrebrød and pork burgers available for those that needed less beer based nutrition. The location was pretty handy despite the toilets available, two high-end-but-still-festival-standard-porta-loo-cabins, being outside the entrance. But it was a sunny day and it was nice to be able to take your beer out for a walk in the sun.
Among all the fun and little beers, I
had a melodramatic insight into a well publicised family feud, where
Jeppe from Evil Twin (Mikkels Evil Twin, for more on
that)
was greeting people with hugs on the ground floor, Mikkel was taking
it all in from an upstairs window, as menacing as DarthVader in the
Death Star.
Here is a brief overview of Breweries
that stood out for me, in alphabetical order:
Arizona Wilderness: Presented a
very good Barley Wine, which managed to balance its traditional
sweetness against good grain.
Buxton: Had a Raspberry Rye that
allowed you to taste the bitterness and mouth-feel of fresh
raspberries mellowed in rye. They also had a Stronge Extra Stout that
was nice but unremarkable.
De Molen: Their Hot & Spicey
Terrible Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Chilli was, well it was hot sauce
in a glass. Could be better used, as, well hot sauce.
Evil Twin: The Mini Dingo, a
good imperial stout, this was late in the day so I can't offer
more...
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| Academics |
Funky Buddha: This was something
special, their Bonita Applebum: an apple pie brown ale, gave you all
the spices, crust and apples you'd expect from apple pie in a glass.
A great example of what a dessert beer can be. Their Last Snow, a
Coffee Porter with Coconut, White Chocolate and Caramel was a
delicious as it sounds as well, but not as distinguished as the
Applebum.
Kernel: I always enjoy what they
bring to the table, though I enjoyed their HBC 466 India Pale Ale,and their Pale Ale, with Cascade Chinook Citra their delicate
qualities are best enjoyed sitting down with some time to mull them
over.
Kuhnhenn: Their Fluffer Session IPA was exactly what it
promised and I'd be interested in more of their range.
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| Professional Researchers |
Levrig: It's not often I get to
enjoy Norwegian beer as I don't have the oil money to buy it, but I
found Levrig's Galaxy IPA and their We Love Wheat (a collaboration
with Nøgne Ø) very well crafted beers.
Mikkeller: Their
A X Imperial Stout Black Spirit Olorosso Barrel Ed., an imperial
stout, fell on its face for me as some of their more complicated
beers do, it seemed like a good beer with some bad sherry thrown in
(on another note, I had a stout aged in Calvados from Mikkeler, at
the Viktoriagade bar the day after and it worked wonderfully!).
To ØL:
Their Yeastus Christ SuperSour was a beer I was looking forward too,
though it was very enjoybale and had a good long linger, I think they
can aim higher than Christ and up the sour. Their 10 Finger Discount,
a Cedar IPA was a good full IPA.
