Brewing up a storm

You can “probably” be sure of some great beers in Denmark, and that includes their outstanding rural microbreweries, says Peter Geoghegan, who heads north to find out more (someone else was driving!). Photography by Jean-Marc Luneau

Frank Sinatra once said: “I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. They wake up in the morning and that’s the best they’re going to feel all day.” Ol’ Blue Eyes was no morning person – but then again he never woke up in Thisted, a pretty harbour town two hours north of Billund, Denmark. It’s barely noon and already I’m halfway through my second beer of the day, a cheeky little American-style IPA with a crisp aftertaste and enough alcohol to blow the cobwebs out of any sleepy head.

Denmark is famous for Carlsberg and Tuborg, but over the last decade Scandinavia’s biggest beer drinkers have gone microbrew crazy. Home brewing is all the rage, and when they are not making their own, Danes are busy sipping handmade ales, stouts and lagers from over 100 microbreweries that have sprung up across the country. A road trip getting me acquainted with a land that’s home to Europe’s largest concentration of breweries would be the perfect way to really get a taste for this quintessentially Danish revolution.

Our cross-country jaunt starts with lunch at Restaurant Bryggen (www.bryggen.eu), overlooking Thisted’s frozen harbour. It’s also the perfect excuse for some early lubrication. Thure, our resident beer expert, needs no second invitation. “Did I mention I’m a hop head?” he smiles, before polishing off a glass of sweet, zesty Easter beer brewed on the premises. Thure’s ample frame, beard and languid patter all hint at a beer drinker, but it’s the matching Beer Network hoodie, bum bag and flat cap (their logo is a hand grenade in the shape of a hop bud) that attest to the passions of a dedicated home brewer.

“Ah, that smell. The hops in the air puts hairs on your chest!” Thure says as, an hour later, our car pulls into Bryggerivej (literally, “Brewery Road”) a little further along the fjord. At the end of the lane sits Thisted Bryghus (www.thisted-bryghus.dk), one of Denmark’s oldest independent breweries and still its most popular. Nowadays, Thisted makes over 25 different types of beer – but it’s no sleek, multinational operation. The factory shuts for two days during the summer when workers and their families hit the fields to pick bog myrtle for the rich Porse Guld brew.

After downing a glass of Thisted’s speciality “Stone Beer” to a Thure-led chorus of “skål!” (“cheers”) I’m feeling decidedly squiffy. Nevertheless, I persevere – it is research, after all. Next up is the double brown Limfjords Porter. Named after the fjord the brewery looks out across, the heady brew clocks in at a hefty 7.9%, and took former brewmaster Peter Cleminson 13 years to develop.

“The brewmaster is an artist, the beer is his canvas,” Thure says, coming over all Jedi as he swirls the chocolate-coloured liquid in his glass. “Yeah, right,” I slur mockingly. But one mouthful of the fruits of Cleminson’s labours puts paid to my scoffing. Thick, sweet and luscious, this is the best stout I’ve ever tasted. And coming from an Irishman that’s no idle claim. After a blurry, whistle-stop tour of the factory floor – think Willy Wonka’s, but with beer – it’s back on the road again. Next up is Nibe, a tranquil fishing village on the fjord’s southern side. With so many bridges and boats, crossing the fjord is pretty easy. However, staying awake after an afternoon’s beer tasting is less so. As we speed along the flat, snow-covered flood plains I drift off into a light doze.

“Rise and shine! We’re here,” Thure yells, his giant hand shaking my shoulder. “Here” is a quaint former sail-makers’ workshop hidden among the rows of traditional wooden holiday cottages on the edge of the fjord. Inside, below a bust of Neptune, brewmaster Antoni Madsen guides us around a selection of the 30-plus beers produced at Nibe Bryghus (www.. nibebryghus.dk). Best of the lot is the Clipper, made with English-style breakfast tea.

Next morning, 75km south, on an icy industrial estate just outside the city of Randers, another brewmaster, Stefan Kappel, is explaining why he left a career in electronic engineering to make beer. “After pushing the pencil for 25 years, I thought some manual work would do no harm,” says the head honcho of Randers Bryghus (www.randersbryghus.dk).

On a Czech-built brewery, mothballed after the fall of Communism and bought for a song five years ago, Kappel has produced some of Denmark’s finest microbrews. His Midnight Oil Imperial Stout has been nominated for Danish beer of the year, yet with only two bottles of a one-off batch left it’s not on today’s tasting table. Instead, we sample an assortment of strong, distinctive black beers, IPAs and lagers.

With night drawing in we say our goodbyes and head an hour north along the motorway to the medieval city of Aalborg. After a day spent quaffing ale, Thure isn’t the only one with Viking hunger. But just before we settle down for dinner at Søgaards Bryghus (www.soegaardsbryghus. dk), we partake in one final tasting session in the basement of the restaurant’s legendary in-house brewery.

Proprietor Claus Søgaard has just driven back from a microbrewers’ meeting in Germany but skips between the beer-filled tanks like an excited schoolboy, drawing off samples of white beer from one vat, lager from another. “This is the best place to taste beer,” he smiles, leaning against a bag of malt. “You don’t pay any tax!” Claus did have to pay duty on his most famous creation, the “2003 brew”, an ale based on a recipe found in a Viking burial grave that retails at a cool 2,003DKK (€269) a bottle.

Later we round off our dinner with a brown-ale crème brûlée dessert, served with a snifter of the unusual key ingredient. Our road-trip has drawn to a close, but as the silky custard and ale combo slips down I feel better than I’ve done all day. Sinatra would surely have approved.

FOR MORE DETAILS ON DANISH BEER, AND TO BUY PRODUCTS ONLINE, VISIT www.DANISHBEER.CO.UK AND www.ALE.DK.

PULLING POWER

You don’t have to put on your wellies and hit the countryside to sample Danish microbrewing – plenty of great city centre pubs and bars sell handmade beers too. The Wharf (www.charlies. dk) is a little piece of England in the heart of Aalborg. With Fergus Southwell, brother of Scottish rugby union legend Hugo, behind the bar and anything up to 21 taps open at any one time it’s the perfect place to watch some football over a pie and a pint. Try the cask ales shipped all the way from Blighty! Around the corner, The Irish House (www.theirishhouse. dk) may look like a generic Irish bar with its shamrocks and Guinness memorabilia, but it stocks the full range of Søgaards beer. In the town of Aarhus, Café Under Masken (3 Bispegade) is full of hip 20-somethings knocking back bottles from the excellent Fur brewery. As well as an aquarium, the café is decorated with original artwork from Hans Krull, a well-known Danish artist who often visits on Sundays to make sketches of the customers. Nearby, the oddly titled Ris Ras Filliongongong boasts opulent chaise lounges, a healthy tolerance for cigar smoke and great draught beers from Denmark and Germany. Get there early at weekends, as it fills up by about 6pm.