NanoBryg rss syndication » Knut Albert's beer blog

Knut Albert's beer blog (19 unread)

World class

Posted: January 31st, 2010, 8:13pm CET by knutalbert

We Norwegians are extremely pleased when we get a moment in the limelight. It’s usually when our fjords and islands are declared among the most beautiful on the planet, when we manage to broker a peace agreement between enemies in foreign lands (which fall apart the next week, but we pretend not to notice) or [...]
Just what you want on a rainy afternoon

Posted: January 27th, 2010, 7:25am CET by knutalbert
A good place for a pub

Posted: January 26th, 2010, 6:22pm CET by knutalbert

I’m sure I’ve used that heading before… The new Westfield shopping centre in Sheperds Bush, West London, has everything you expect of glass and crome, designer bars, fashion shops and a few large supermarkets. I managed to find the M& S to buy some socks and shirts as well as picking up a few of their [...]
Really Old Ale

Posted: January 26th, 2010, 3:23am CET by knutalbert

A museum in the Åland islands has a new attraction. A bottle of Bass King’s Ale, sealed with wax and lead. Yes, this is what I want for my birthday! Thanks to Johan at Svenska Ölfrämjandet for pointing to this!
Big and tastless

Posted: January 25th, 2010, 6:28pm CET by knutalbert

An editorial in the New York Times today sums up the problems with the merges of food and drinks companies that are giants to start with. As huge corporations merge and get even huger, we find ourselves yearning for some old-fashioned competition, and maybe a little diversity. They point out that Heineken after the acquisition of Femsa [...]
Belgian beer blockade

Posted: January 23rd, 2010, 8:26pm CET by knutalbert

Good coverage of the situation in the international version of Der Spiegel, including photos. I hope this leads to many Belgians finding better alternatives to Stella and Jupiler. Even in Belgium most beer drinkers are creatures of habit, drinking their pale lagers even if they have a splendid selection of beer available in cafes and [...]
A beer cruise on the Rhine

Posted: January 15th, 2010, 3:00pm CET by knutalbert

Beer cruises in the Western hemisphere is nothing new, there are a number of options in various climate zones. Stephen Beaumont offers an alternative, a European beer cruise. It’s on the Rhine, from Amsterdam to Basel. The preliminary programme ranges from a visit to Amsterdam’s Brouwerij ‘t Ij to tastings at Belgian, German, French, Luxembourg and Swiss breweries, [...]
Copenhagen Beer Festival 2010

Posted: January 14th, 2010, 4:06pm CET by knutalbert

Some updated information about opening hours and tickets, shamelessly stolen from beerticker.dk: Thursday 6 May 16 to 23 Friday 7 May 16 to 23 Saturday 8 May 16 to 23 I don’t know if there are trade sessions in addition to these general opening hours. Tickets will be available from 15 February, with discounts for members of the Danish Beer Enthusiasts. I assume there will be [...]
Flying the flag?

Posted: January 13th, 2010, 8:27pm CET by knutalbert

Looking into the options for a Easter family break in the Low Countries, I find that one possibility of a discount train ticket Brussels – Bruges is to travel for patriotic reasons. Yes, it’s in the English version of the pull down menu of the booking site of the Belgian railways. I could understand this category on the Russian [...]
AB InBev cuts 800 jobs in Western Europe

Posted: January 13th, 2010, 4:40pm CET by knutalbert

The wonderfully named AB InBev has announced a 10 per cent reduction in the 8,000-strong workforce in Belgium, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to BeverageDaily. Unsurprisingly, this has led to protests. In Belgium, news of the job cuts prompted union representatives at the Jupiler brewery to hold 10 managers hostage. After 11 hours the [...]
Irregular blogging

Posted: January 12th, 2010, 4:50pm CET by knutalbert

A job change, at least temporarily, means my blogging will be rather irregular for the time being. But there’s nothing wrong, no one is ill or anything, just don’t expect many posts per week.
Hoping for a freebie

Posted: January 8th, 2010, 4:47pm CET by knutalbert

I told you some months ago about about the British tourism agency’s competition to write a pub guide to Newcastle. Well, I was not on the short list, but I give it another try. Right now they are looking for a Norwegian blogger to fly to Aberdeen and write for their Mind the Gap blog. The [...]
A year in Oslo – in 120 minutes

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 4:41am CET by knutalbert

This is from the NRKbeta web site, where you will also find instructions on how to make a film like this. What makes this relevant for me is that the footage is filmed a few hundred meters from my apartment. I don’t see the park from the same angle, but it is pretty close. [...]
Icelandic beer blog

Posted: January 6th, 2010, 7:33pm CET by knutalbert

Welcome to the new kid on the block, Haukur, Icelandic beer blogger writing in English. Piece by piece, we are covering the white areas of the map.
Brighter days

Posted: January 6th, 2010, 4:48pm CET by knutalbert

While January is a tough month in many ways, the Norwegian Vinmonopolet makes the days a little brighter for beer lovers. 25 new beers are in the list of beverages on sale this Saturday. Some of them are being relaunched, some are pale lagers, but the overall quality of this is very impressive. Belgian Geuze, Italian micros, [...]
Beer geeks and other geeks

Posted: January 5th, 2010, 7:09pm CET by knutalbert

My friend Per Christian pointed out this quote from Ansible online SF fanzine, which originates from Nicholas Pashley’s book, Cheers! An Intemperate History of Beer in Canada, which Alan has reviewed earlier without mentioning this little nugget: At least beer geeks get to drink beer, which is a step up from most other forms of geekery. [...]
Jeff steps down

Posted: January 4th, 2010, 5:43pm CET by knutalbert

Hobbies come and go, at least for me. Sure, I have all my Beatles vinyl records stacked away, but I am not eagerly picking up promos of Ringo’s latest appearances any longer. Most of my Science Fiction books are stacked away, too. And there is no reason for blogging to be fundamentally different. There are phases [...]
A day in the forest

Posted: January 2nd, 2010, 4:37pm CET by knutalbert

One real advantage of living in Oslo is that it takes 20 minutes from downtown to the ski tracks and slopes. This morning it was minus twelve, the tracks were newly laid, only an elk and a hare had used them before us. Almost a meter of snow and crisp winter air. At midday a pale sun tried, [...]
Happy New Year!

Posted: January 1st, 2010, 10:20am CET by knutalbert

Sometimes you hope there is a quiet period in the beer world. So you can sit back, maybe have a week off the hop juice – and revisit old favourites the next. No way. They start tempting us with limited editions again. Nørrebro Bryghus will be continuing their series of barrel aged beers, including beers aged in Satuternes, Pinot [...]