Danish hops are growing again

Scientists from Aarhus University is working in making Danish beer even more Danish.

Beer is experiencing a renaissance in Denmark and there a lot of new breweries has been created. Even though the beer has been produced in Denmark, the hops have been imported over the last century. In other words does Danish beer not have a unique Danish hop flavour.

says Senior Advisor Gitte Kjeldsen from The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at University of Aarhus (DJF).

The scientists at DJF wants to make Danish beer Danish again. Apparently a beer with Czech hops is not danish enough. The aim is to work with Danish brewers in compiling a selection of hops plants that can be used for brewing.

Right now the scientists are documenting the gathered hop plants form all over Denmark. They are comparing the plants with known foreign hops as to resistance to fungi attracts, aroma, bitterness and requirements for growing them. They want to make the production one hundred percent organic.

The project is called "Recreate the foundation of hop production in Denmark with unique Danish flavour and aroma" and danish readers can read more on www.danskhumle.dk.

An interesting point is that both the smallest breweries (Fuglebjerggaard) and the biggest breweries (Carlsberg) are working together on this project.

Is you are in Denmark you too can participate actively by collecting hop plants.

The funny guys at Coors introduces cold bottle indicator

Coors is often the source of funny and stupid inventions. I have reported on them before (in Danish). If all goes according to plan you can soon look to the mountains on the bottle, and find out whether or not your beer is ready to drink.

The Golden-based Coors Brewing Co. has launched its new Coors Light Cold Activated Bottle. When the beer hits the correct temperature, mountains on the label turn from white to blue. As part of Coors' plans to market the concept nationwide, it has announced the "World's Most Refreshing Happy Hour." Company "ambassadors" will work with retailers to promote the new bottle.

Coors Brewing Company executives, employees and distributors are joining forces to build awareness and trial of the company’s latest innovation, the Cold Activated Bottle. Mountains on the label turn from white to blue when Coors Light is at the optimal temperature for cold refreshment. In cities all over USA, Coors ambassadors will be working with retailers to engage consumers and encourage trial of the Cold Activated Bottle.

When drinkers choose Coors Light, they're looking for refreshment. The Cold Activated Bottle is designed to ensure that drinkers experience the coldest, most refreshing beer possible.

said Andy England, chief marketing officer for Coors Brewing Company.

On May 18, we are celebrating our newest innovation by inviting consumers to come out and raise a cold one for the World’s Most Refreshing Happy Hour.

According to Coors Light research, consumers want to know when their beer is cold enough to drink. The bottle works by Thermochromatic ink that turn blue when Coors Light has been chilled to the perfect temperature for ice cold refreshment. But what if you go colder than that?

In Denmark we have had that system available for years. Small stickers with exact same function, even the colours are the same. But it never caught on.

Here's a crazy idea for the Coors Brewing Co: Come up with a new tasty beer. No really, that IS the idea :-)

Weird and special beer tasted

Ølfestivallen this year was bigger and better than ever (amazing how Danish Beer Enthusiasts can achieve that year after year). The selection was broader and better than ever, and also for weird combination.

At the Mybeer booth I made a detour from beer. Ultraprés was served warm in small 2cl glases with a shot of whipped cream. It was sweet and the experience had noting to do with beer, ewww. Their own tagline is "don't take our word for io, ask someone who have tried it" - I just wish that I had. It was not unpleasant, but totally wrong.

Although the experince at Mybeer was bad, it has nothing to do with me not liking sweet beer. One of the good ones was Quadrupel 11% vol. from Ølfabrikken. This is an intense beer is brewed with pilsner malt and caramel syrup and with a belgian yeast. This beer is special and is only served at special occasions, after being stored for at least a year. Although my expectations were high, they where all met at the Ølfabrikken booth.

While being totally in the sportligt for brewing excellent beer Mikkeller did not excite me as expected. I tried a couple of beers from them. For instance their X Hop Juice 2007 IBU a hoppy ale with 5% vol. Probably the most hoppy beer in the world, and so what? While I HAD to try it, it was fun, but not an interesting beer apart from the fact that it had a teoretical IBU of 2007. That said, Mikkeller make great beer, and the brewer also works for Ølfabrikken (Note: Ølfabrikken is restructuring so who knows who works there today).

Greenland Brewhouse served musk ox saussage on toast. A very pleasant experience together with their Artic Ale a nice barley wine with 9% vol. although it would go better with good cheeses.

Pssst! Don't tell anyone... but I liked the Radler served at Gourmetbryggeriet. In the mountains of Germany and Austria, the bicyclists (Radler in German) need a good refreshment, and a little energy after a long climb up a mountain road in the blazing, humid weather, but they also need the soberness and strength to return home, down the long, steep hills. From these excursions has developed the concept of a beer and lemon-lime (actually Zitronenlimonade in German) mixture in Germany and Austria, the Radler and the Russ, basically the same as the Shandy in England. The Radler is a normal Munich "Helles" or a pilsner-style beer such as Zipfer mixed with 1/2 lemon-lime soda, and the Russ is a mixture of 1/2 Weizenbier, such as Edelweiß Hefetrüb, and 1/2 lemon-lime soda, - refreshing, relaxing, and enjoyable. At the Gourmetbryggeriet booth it was served with 70% beer and 30% lemonade.

All-grain brew machine

This years Ølfesival in Copenhagen has left so many impressions that I do not know where to start.

Getting right on track with a craft brew story: Housebrewer, an all grain beer brewing machine

I met Morten Steen Pedersen from Housebrewer a company so new that they do not even have a website yet (will probably be www.housebrewer.com). Morten who is the software delveloper for the project, showed me the machine. It is supposed to be aimed at cafés, restaurants etc. Housebrewer brews all-grain beer and therefore is able to brew the full range of beers out there. It measures 60x60x100 cm and has a batch size of 25 liters. The materials are stainless steel and glass, so that you actually can watch the brewing process, and all the ingredients while it brews. Unlike my set-up Homebrewer has very little manual work involved. Just add the ingredients in the different compartments and turn it on - out comes the chilled wort ready for fermentation.

Morten promised that a future version of the software would support BeerXML.

The price is approximately 1.600€ so this machine is not to be confused with anything you can buy on TV-shop (or that crappy beermachine.

Welcome to the Copenhagen Beer Festival in Valby Hallen

From ale.dk:

It is a great pleasure for the Danish Beer Enthusiasts to observe that it takes exactly 6 years to create a tradition to make a Beer Festival in Copenhagen.

The Danish Beer Enthusiasts are therefore very pleased to invite you to the 7^th Beer Festival in Copenhagen which again this year will take place in Valby Hallen.

As usual the guests will get an opportunity to taste a great variety of beers together with several novelties never presented in Denmark before. We expect more than 70 exhibitors and a range of more than 1000 different beers at the festival.

At the festival you will get an opportunity to experience the diversity, try the range of the Danish breweries beers, try rare beer types from Danish and foreign breweries and also try the beer’s good qualities together with food.

Welcome to the Copenhagen Beer Festival in Valby Hallen.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Press Officer Marttin Stuart Nielsen, marttin.nielsen@ale.dk, or on phone +45 2880 8010

See you later.

Gourmetbryggeriet buys 50 percent of Ølfabrikken

According to www.ale.dk half of Ølfabrikken has been bought by Gourmetbryggeriet.

To my surprise, one of the two owners, Martin Larsen, has chosen to sell his part of Ølfabrikken to Gourmetbryggeriet in Roskilde (yes, the city with the big music festival). The sale should not reflect trouble in management, but rather a wish to get more capital for expansion.

With the deal comes a lot of exiting future plans for Ølfabrikken. One being the planned movement to the present facilities of Gourmetbryggeriet once they have finished building their new brewery.

Christian Skovdal Andersen, the remaining owner, says that the movement will not mean any alterations to the beer nor to it's quality. However alterations to the brewery have to be made to facilitate the brewing style of Ølfabrikken.

Cheers Christian, and good luck!

Less than 24hrs to go

The seventh Copenhagen Beer Festival and number eleven in the row of festivals arranged by Danish Beer Enthusiasts ( www.ale.dk ) is less than 24 hrs away. That makes me happy!

As one of the world's largest beer festivals I've spoken with people from all over the world. The festival is laid back and al the stress and hard work by the volunteers always pays off. I look forward to this event all year.

The beers presented this year is from the entire range one can call beer. As usual there is a lot of new beers being released in the festival. There is more than 70 stands presenting more than a thousand beers.

Cheers!

Beer just may fight disease - for hopheads only

"Mmmm … beer." As popular as beer is, however, it often has gotten a bad rap as a calorie-loaded beverage that only serves to create paunchy beer bellies and alcohol-fueled lapses in judgment. But beer has less calories than most types of milk.

But that negative image may begin to fade. Recent research shows an indication that beer could be used as a possible disease-fighter.

It turns out that beer hops contain a unique micronutrient that inhibits cancer-causing enzymes. Hops are plants used in beer to give it aroma, flavor and bitterness.

The compound, xanthohumol, was first isolated by researchers with Oregon State University 10 years ago. Initial testing was promising, and now an increasing number of laboratories across the world have begun studying the compound, said Fred Stevens, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at Oregon State's College of Pharmacy.

Earlier this year, a German research journal even devoted an entire issue to xanthohumol, he said.

What Stevens and others are discovering is that xanthohumol has several unique effects. Along with inhibiting tumor growth and other enzymes that activate cancer cells, it also helps the body make unhealthy compounds more water-soluble, so they can be excreted.

Most beers made today are way too low on hops, however, and so don't contain much xanthohumol. Here's to hop-heads and your health!

Source: ABCnews

Dude Night vidcast

The dudes over at HogDawg Brewery gives a video presentation of a brew and a grand tour of the brewery. They show you the ins and outs of making a batch of all-grain beer. They loosely cover the ingredients, the process, and have a lot of fun along the way.


You'll also get a chance to meet Guinness, the patron saint and official fly catcher of HogDawg Brewery. This link is just pure fun.

VB just too bitter

Australians, long regarded as a nation of beer drinkers rivalled only by the Germans, seem to be turning soft, or sober.

VB, with its distinctive green label, has since 1894 been a staple of hard-drinking backyard barbecues, student revels and football games, not to mention healthy overseas exports. Now brewer Foster's has decided for the first time to produce the beer in a weaker yellow-label version with 3,5%, down from 5%, as Australians abandon it.

Smaller brewers such as Cascade, Boag's and James Squire have won huge followings in most city pubs as Australia's fledgling boutique brewing industry expands, while so-called microbreweries such as Little Creatures, Mountain Goat and Blue Tongue have lured drinkers away from VB by the thousands.

While being a hop-head, I like the dark and weaker beer from the Chezh republic, with an average 3,8% alcohol, so I look forward to test the VB yellow-label.

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/

Even higher prizes on grain and beer in europe

While the prizes has risen over the last year, they may rise even more.

The warm and dry weather is killing crops. German farmers already are complaining about devastation from the dryness.

"If there is no stable rainfall in the next ten days, we are facing a crop failure for barley, wheat and sugar beets," Michael Lohse, a spokesperson for the German Farmers' Association, told the most recent edition of Focus magazine. He warned of rising beer prices later in the year.

So this hobby of mine may just get a lot more expensive, but to be honest, I use more money on equipment than on grain. I just brew and drink too little.