Day Three in Copenhagen

Feeling rested, Saturday noon I headed out to Søernes Ølbar (or basically "Lakeside Beer Bar") which is along one of the lakes in central Copenhagen.

The have 20 taps, mostly Danish but with a few imports.

I started off with Beer Here Harwood Porter.  The nice bartender described it as a typical London brown porter but at 8% it has a bit more oomph than the porters I've had in London.

They had a nice set up with a bar area and rooms off to either side. In nicer weather they have tables along the water as well.

They did a nice job with taps as well...

My second beer was Ghost Brewing Mosaic in Blocks.  I get that it was brewed with Mosaic hops, but I'm not sure about the Blocks thing. If somebody knows, explain it to me.  But it was a nice IPA, in any case.

It was getting time to move on, so I went big, To Øl Goliat Imperial Stout. Now while the IPAs and Pale Ales have been decent, none of them have really blown me away. But the darker beers have for the most part been excellent and some -- this one in particular -- were awesome.

The next stop was a bit of a walk away. which was good as it let me "digest" the Imperial Stout.  It is a corner bard on Østerbrogade called Tap10.

Surprisingly, they have 10 beers on tap. They call themselves a "Nordic Craft Beer Bar" as most of their draft beers were from Norway.  As Norway was once part of Denmark, I guess these count as "Danish" beers if you squint sideways.

I started off with the Haandbryggeriet Belgisk Pale Ale, at 6.5% just about right after the walk.

The pub itself was long a narrow and I can imagine it gets very crowded on weekend evenings.

The second beers was Nøgne Ø #500 Imperial IPA. I'm guessing this was their 500th batch. This one was a winner. You could taste the alcohol it went well with the hops plus there was a significant malt foundation holding the whole thing up.

I decided it was time for a darker beer and one at least partially Danish. This was a blend of Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel and Amager Bryghus Fredericksen Stout. I saw partially because none of the Mikkeller beers are brewed in Denmark -- most are brewed in Belgium with a few being brewed in Norway. I'm hoping this was one of the ones brewed in Norway.

The bartender didn't know why the beer had the appellation "Weasel." So I told her. She didn't believe me until she checked (How do you say "googled" in Danish?) on her own phone. If you don't know, goggle "Kopi Luwak" yourself...

My final beer was from Haandbryggeriet "Røyk uten Ild" which I was reliably informed meant "Smoke without fire." (Of course, my reliable informant had just found out about the Kopi Luwak coffee in the beer she drank...)  I can't pass up a smoke beer, especially an 8% smoked dobblebock, so I had one. It was so good I forgot to take a picture.

It was time for some fresh air and a walk, so I walked over to Stefansgade where there is a new Mikkeller pub, Mikkeller and Friends.

This pub has twice the taps (40) and probably three times the space as the original Mikkeller Bar.

The turquoise lighting and color scheme would get to me after a while, but I could stand it for a beer or two.

I started off with a To Øl Milk Stout named "By Udder Means."  The beer was better than the name. Much better.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but most of the second tap board was made up of beers from Brew By Numbers, a new small (but growing) brewery in London that I'd had a chance to visit last year.

The brewery gang was there as well so I went over and sat with them for a while and talked. They convinced me to try the Triple as Mikkeller had their last keg and it was one of their favorites.  I seem to remember that the Danes ruled England 1300 or so years ago (the Danelaw and all that) so I convinced myself by extension that this was a "Danish" beer. It is the best Danish Triple I've ever had...

On the way back to my hotel I passed the news Mikkeller bar, called Mikropolis. This one has half the taps of the original and probably about half the space. They also do a number of strange, but tasty cocktails -- or at least one is tasty -- I got a chance to try the Mezcal/Dubonnet/Raspberry/Lemon one. It was strange but very good.

For beer I was more mainstream -- the Mikkeller It's Alive Belgian Ale.  A decent Belgian ale, as it should be, being (most likely) brewed in Belgium.

I took a wrong turn on the way home and ended up back at the tap house. They had just put Schlenkerla Ur-Bock on so I had to have one. The price works out to about €8 for a half liter. And the people in Bamberg think Schlenkerla charges too much, they should visit Copenhagen.

The damage being done, I decided to compound it with a Mikkeller Black Ink and Blood. Nuff said.

Wandering back to the hotel I passed a (closed) supermarket. I thought it interesting they were advertising "Calif. Steam" as a style. Don't tell Anchor. Also that works out to be about $2.50 a can -- at grocery store for some generic "craft beer" (probably brewed by Carlsberg)