Bríó - Borg Brugghús (Iceland - Reykjavik)

Bríó - Borg Brugghús (Iceland - Reykjavik) 4.8%

Gold in a glass with a robust head of white creamy foam. Underneath that foam is a pretty spectacular pilsner. The aroma is lightly malty with a dry hoppiness.

To the taste Bríó has a light malty flavour but the main feature of this beer is a crisp, bitter hops flavour with a bit of citrus fruit, like an orange peel. This flavour doesn't stick around to the point where it seems out of place but it makes this pilsner standout in terms of flavour dimension as well as in terms of crispness. Not a surprise that this beer has taken home awards.

Euro Lagers - Part 2: Scandinavia

Regular readers will know that my blog really got going during half of a year I spent in Norway (Norwegian Yule Beers). Here are a few other lagers and pilsners that I came across during my time in Scandinavia.

Fredrikstad Pilsner (Norway) 4.5%

Thin tasting, a little sweet (a kind of honey sweet) but very mild. It tastes lighter than 4.5% and isn't bad. However there isn't much to its flavour, good or bad. Cool label.

CB Pilsner - Christianssands Bryggeri (Norway) 4.7%

Thin but with a strong malty taste. It's unique but not terrible good: the flavour is one-dimensional and the beer is not very refreshing.

Dahls Pils (Norway - Trondheim) 4.5%

This is a dreadfully thin beer. It tastes of beer flavoured water with a hint of cardboard. The redeeming qualities are few and far between: it is cheap for Scandinavia and it has a nice looking bottle cap. Avoid this one.

Lundetangen Pilsner (Norway) 4.7%




A very sweet beer with a malty aftertaste. It's a little too sweet to be properly refreshing but in general not bad.

This beer is brewed by the Aass brewery but the recipe is from the now defunct Lundetangen brewery who's demise bankrupted the father of Henrik Ibsen, Norway's most famous playwright.

Nordlands Pils 4.5%

Nicely drinkable with a bitter (and delayed) aftertaste that I didn't mind. Somewhat sweet but definitely a solid Euro lager/pilsner. At 15.90 NOK it is on the expensive side of local beers but only by a few dozen cents per bottle.

Tuborg Green (Denmark - Copenhagen) 5.4%

A surprisingly lively pallet for a pilsner: a little bit fruity, a little sweet, a little bitter. Lightly carbonated and lightly, sparkling gold in a glass. Refreshing but mostly unremarkable.

Tuborg Pure Gold (Demark - Copenhagen) 5.5%

A dry hoppy smell. That hops character comes through in the flavour as well as sweet, smooth maltiness. This beer is a lovely gold (who would have thought Tuborg Pure Gold would be gold coloured!), well carbonated with a moderately bitter finish. All in all Tuborg Pure Gold is quite smooth, fairly refreshing though quite malty and is, on the whole, well balanced.

Gull (Iceland) 5.0%

A warm somewhat sweetly-toasted bread taste with a somewhat bitter aftertaste for a lager.

Viking Gultur (Iceland) 5.0%

A very ordinary international lager, slightly more malty and bitter than average.






In case you missed it, here's Euro Lagers - Part 1: The Czech Republic.

International Lagers From Around the World

International lagers are a constant in the world: travel nearly anywhere in world and someone (seemingly often owned by InBev) will be brewing a bland, yellow, fizzy beer. In this post I review four of them all of which except for Polar Bear are available in beer stores pretty much everywhere.
Cheers!


Sol (Mexico) 4.5%

Gold in a glass. Smells quite malty, a little skunky probably because the clear bottle doesn't protect the beer from sunlight like a brown bottle would. Taste is very mild, quite sweet, fairly malty. Essentially no aftertaste.  A nice bottle cap and label. If you are just looking for something yellow, fizzy, refreshing with very little flavor Sol beer does the trick. On the other hand if you are looking for a beer with an interesting flavour look elsewhere.


Red Stripe (Jamaica) 4.7%

Sweet, not very bitter. Not as carbonated as most international lagers, smoothly malty and with a slight metallic and umami finish. Not much to it but a distinctive bottle. Because of this bottle and especially the country of origin I'm always disappointed when I remember Red Stripe isn't a ginger beer, oh well.



 Sapporo (Japan) 5.0%

A very light gold colour in a glass, this Japanese beer (brewed in Guelph, Ontario) is very, very light tasting. Slightly malty, slightly hoppy aroma. Slightly malty flavour but it somehow manages to not come across as watery, which is nice. Eminently drinkable: you could pound back a ton of these with ease and I'm sure it would go with just about any type of food because it's so bland. Sapporo must be popular with Japanese salary-men as it makes such a nice after work beer because it's so refreshing. However, there just isn't much to Sapporo other than being yellow and fizzy: a typical international lager but a good one if that's all you are looking for. The can is also really cool with a raised logo and Japanese characters stamped into the side of it.


  Polar Bear (Iceland) 4.7%

A really normal international lager: not overly malty, sweet or bitter. Distinctly indistinct.