Copenhagen Beer Celebration here we cometh!
We were up early, or well.. perhaps a little later than our usual early but still early by normal human standards.. perhaps still too early for some. We were eager to get out the door but had to go through the whole getting suitably dressed and fed to take on a day of tasting beery goodness! 7am rolled around and we headed off to the station to catch the train.. where we opened up a nice large pink bottle of Rogue beer! It was a maple bacon ale, which was quite an... interesting drop. Not one that I would buy again, but one I was happy to have tried.. it definitely got nicer after a few mouthfuls. I was also grateful for the fact that there were several boys around to help drink the bottle so Emma and I didn't look like the only boozeheads on a train full of work commuters!
A brisk walk from the station to the venue was had and then less than a 30min wait in line before the beer tasting could begin.. for us that is. For some, the wait in line meant bringing your own beer to drink in anticipation of drinking more beer. One guy in front of us seemed to be his own bottle store, which didn't totally make sense to me, but amused myself and the others immensely.
With our wristbands on, little glasses in hand, we made our way in! 40 brewers, over 80 beers, all there to impress us! First stop, which was right by the entry, was the B. Nektar Meadery which had two very delicious meads, Zombie Killer and Necromangocon. I do hope I can find them for sale some time soon, perfect summer drink. They were both very delicious but the Zombie Killer came out slightly on top. Not only did we start the CBC with this, but we then finished on it too.
Bumping, grinding and drinking our way around the stalls. I wont talk about every single beer that passed my lips.. there were far too many. Here is the list of ALL the beers [link]. I will tell you of some tho, some that stood out for one reason or another..
For instance, De Molen: Hot & Spicy Terrible Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Chili. It was made with the hottest chili in the word as of 2013 and it was definitely a hot and spicy tale. Nice tho, however as much as I like spice, I doubt I could drink a 6cl glass of it let alone a bottle. That however is the beauty of these types of things, you get to try many different things that you might not get to try out in the world and not worry about being wasteful.
Mikkeller: Spontantripleblueberry was totally one of my favourites. It had a lovely sourness to it and the colour was all kinds of epic! I went back for seconds, but sadly.. they were all out! I was not surprised by that and knew I was pushing my luck but I just had to try. After all, they used 1500g of blueberries per litre! Also loved the fact that we got recognised, that's how you know you're awesome! Bar staff recognise you outside of the bar that they serve you in!
Three Floyds: Marshmallow Handjee aka BA Vanilla Bean Dark Lord. The line for this one was long! But Emma and I amused ourselves and others with a little light banter, by this stage we had tried quite a few and we were.. let's just say.. pretty relaxed! The line shuffled along slowly but surely and once it got to our turn to get some of the liquid gold, the dude behind the stall decided it was time for him to banter away with the other's stationed with him! We were left for minutes! Yes minutes! Waiting to get our hands on some of the goodness, which was.... very sweet. Perhaps a little too sweet for what I am after in a beer but it was really good all the same. However, it was a nice break from all the sours we had been trying.
Another sweet but all so delicious one was Funky Buddha: Last Snow. Now this is one that I could repeatedly drink. I am not a big fan of coconut, but that didn't stop me from loving this with all that I am!
Alpha State: IPA (Citra) was one I had not planned on trying, but when I stumbled across it and it had Motueka on the title-card, I just knew I had to give it a go. After chatting with the brewer, he said it was because they used hops from Motueka to brew this fine beer. It was a pretty decent drop too, quite fresh. The brewer, had epic hair. This is his twitter if you want to see for yourself.. you know you want to!
Emma and I are not 'serious' beer tasters, but it is something that we do enjoy doing. There were some real hardcore tasters around us, notebooks and all! I watched one guy, do a sniff.. write down some notes. Swirl his glass, take down some notes. Sip, take down some notes. Then he got his phone out to take a photo of the glass after a good swirl.. it took a few swirls before he got a good enough coating that he was happy to take a photo of. He was very serious about the tasting. There were many like him.
There wasn't just beer there, there was also coffee.. so of course we had to have! We enjoy the coffee from Coffee Collective so we of course had to partake. We opted for a coffee beer mix..[photo]. Which was actually more enjoyable than I thought it would be and also got a hot coffee, which I can't quite remember exactly what was done to it, it was a little hard to actually hear the lady tell me.. something about using hops also.. possibly in the milk? I am not sure, but damn it was a nice coffee. It was also a perfect little break from drinking beer. We also got some beans to go go!
We also did a little cheese taste.. Mikkeller and Unika hooked up and made beery cheese babies.. coz beer and cheese.. yum! All four of the cheeses were really good and went well with the beer that we had. Emma also scoffed down a sammie to help soak up the brews. She's only little!
We left, with still time on the clock of our session but we had all tried what we wanted and then some. It was time to make our way for some lunch.. GRØD was the destination of choice and we hit it in style! It felt like it took for-damn-ever! I was busting to go pee! I couldn't even wait to order before asking where the loo was.. which turned out to be at the other end of the damn street! The street that I had just walked! Pretty hilarious really, but I was just relieved that they did have one I could use, no matter where it was. By the time I got back, Emma had ordered and the food was waiting on the table for me.
After our main, we went for dessert..
After our dessert, we went for beer! A few minutes around the corner was none other than our favourite place to drink, Mikkeller & Friends. We headed in, it was busier than usual, they are getting busier and busier every time we go in.. I suppose that is a good thing. We stayed for a beer, hit up the bottle shop and then headed off to Taphouse, which has only been open a matter of days. We managed to score a place to sit. The acoustics in the place was a little noisy but it was a pleasant enough place to drink. I had a beer that was named Orange Juice, however.. I struggled to find any hint of orange to even justify the name. I am unsure if the bartender served me the right beer to be honest, he walked up and down the taps twice looking for it before settling on what he gave me. It wasn't overly enjoyable whatever it was.
All in all, a fantastic day out! I would love to see some NZ brewers at next years CBC. It would be all kinds of awesome to have Kereru Brewing there, as they are situated in my birth-town! Perhaps a few of them could do some collaborations to help share the expense of coming to this side of the world? Altho, I think it would be worth it just for the experience in general and the networking!
