When I first came to Denmark, the variety of beer was in a very sorry state. The taste of the generic pilsner was fine, but the variety of tastes available was very limited. After 1 year of being here, I actually stopped drinking for three months to show my friend that firstly it could be done, but also because there really wasn’t that much to miss.

Luckily, Denmark like America and many other countries that have suffered from the standardising of beer production and taste, has also had a revival. Grass roots have evolved into microbreweries and even mainstream well established breweries to challenge the major players. Copenhagen now also boasts a good selection of brew pubs to boot, which are very much worth a visit.

This challenge has become such a threat to the generic mainstream breweries, that they have had to take their master brewers out of the closet, dust them off and set them to work, making ‘special’ beers to compete against the new competitors.

10 years ago, I went to my first Copenhagen Beer Festival, then a considerably smaller event than today. Back then, small brewers were battling to deal with the bottle pant system that exists in Denmark. All bottles and cans must be recycled(Back then cans could not be sold in Denmark because of the pant system). To drive that, all bottles and cans must have a 1 Kr (10 pence) charge on them. Recycle the bottle and you get your money back. However setting this system up for the small brewer was crippling. The system had been forged with the government and the major brewers who all had huge bottling plants and the resources to collect, clean and store on mass. Independent brewers at the time were looking for some other way to work. Clean bottles wasn’t such a huge problem, but getting them back and recycled was, and the cost punitive.

Fast forward to today and Danish beer is in a glorious state. We have Microbreweries everywhere, all of which are in a great state since the scene exploded and now has calmed down. We have brewpubs serving great food and great beer and the main breweries that still dominate the business are kept on their toes by a clientele that now knows better.

This years festival is once again at Tap1 which is the original home of the Carlsberg brewery. It’s a big location and it needs to be. Over 90% of the stands are brewers, some mainstream names we all know and then smaller stands for the microbreweries. I have to admit, I tend to avoid the main names I know because I already know what they taste like and so weave between stalls to see whats new.

The theme without a doubt for beer in Denmark, seems to be for Dark and stronger. In someways it’s almost as if they are heading towards the traditional old London porter style which fueled commerce for many years. All manor of sweet and spicy (Chilli beer?) flavours could be found and you can really see that Denmark is starting to tie it’s food in with it’s beer styles. Why have ice-cream, when you can have a dessert beer? Holbæk brewery I saw has two such offerings for dessert beers, each weighing in at 14%.

This year for me was also very much about research. I’m a little bit of a home brewer and I have desires after a pale ale and Indian pale ale to call my own. So I’d decided to focus on such ales and really get a feel for the hops out there. I was also really happy to discover that some of the major malt and hops suppliers had also set up stalls which is a sure sign that the Danish microbrewery industry is worth turning up for. A big thanks to all those who helped me with my hops issues and to the brewers who shared their favorite hop choices.

All in all, the beer festival is really worth the effort to visit. The beer was great, the food available very appropriate and the atmosphere was bubbling. My visit on Saturday had passed the 10,000 entrant mark by mid afternoon, yet still the venue had room for more, but did not feel empty.

One final note. My first visit was organised by my wife. It’s a lovely gift to give your man and he will remember you for it forever and be the envy of his mates.
For those that pre-order tickets, you can enter an hour earlier than the pay at the door visitors, which is great way to get a head start on the tasting.