Amager night

One day of EBCU business at the Autumn meeting this year was held at the Amager brewery in Copenhagen's suburban flatlands, not far from the airport. Like every Danish brewery in mid-November they were in full Christmas mode, and left a selection of seasonal offerings on tap for us to taste when the meeting was concluded.

The core offering, Amager Julebryg, isn't a plain red lager as the style normally denotes. The brewers change it every year, with 2018's being described as a British-style dark ale, whatever that means. It comes out at 6.5% ABV and a murky brown colour. I found it very rough and raw, with the harsh burn of hotpress homebrew. I was not instantly filled with festive joy.

The barley wine called Reindeer Fuel was much better. An even 10% ABV, it smells of heady ripe and mushy strawberries. There's a little bit of a yeast bite in the flavour but it's covered by the smooth and comforting alcoholic warmth and a sweet and spicy mix of honey, liquorice and black pepper. For a sipping beer it was surprisingly easy to drink as well.

Winter IPA seems to be having a moment in Denmark, and Amager's is called Winter in Bangalore: a little on the nose, that name. It's 6.5% ABV, dry-hopped with some American variety or other, and rendered seasonal with the addition of orange peel. There's a sticky, boiled-sweet, aroma and a harshly green bitterness, like stringy asparagus. A certain citrus pith quality passes it as an IPA, but definitely not a great one.

The other tap was pouring a beer without a Christmassy name: Lager Is The New Black, a black lager, obviously. This had the lovely bitter kick of a Baltic porter though at only 5% ABV. Smoother coffee follows and dovetails neatly with the clean lager finish. Like the best of its kind, this one is balanced and easy going but with a multitude of complexities to enjoy too.

As it happened that evening the brewery was hosting a tutored tasting for its fans so we joined in that too, paying our money and taking our... well, what we were given.

That opened with the India pale lager called Pink Farts & Unicorns. No explanation for the name, just that the head of marketing thought it was funny. This is pale yellow in colour and shows a gummy lemon candy aroma. The texture is thin and there's a strangely savoury foretaste with a citrus pinch on the end and a lasting lemon aftertaste. Like so many of the style this is so-so, missing the good points of both lager and IPA.

The needlessly-elaborate name theme continued with Baby Wombat From Hell next, with a literal rendering on the label. This is an "old school porter" at 6% ABV with an aroma which mixes well-done toast and blackcurrants into an attractive combination. The toast continues in the flavour, lighter and crunchier than the usual dark roast or coffee, and there's a luxurious layer of high-cocoa dark chocolate. Pretty much everything a classic porter needs to be, then. Ignore the daft branding.

Amazingly for a fashion-conscious Danish craft brewery there was just one Brettanomyces beer on the roster: Chad, King of the Wild Yeast. This was created as a collaboration with Crooked Stave and described as a dry-hopped farmhouse pale ale. It's a clear shade of yellow with a very busy aroma: fruit and funk; urinal-cake herbs and pine; lavender and a sprinkling of pink peppercorn. I strapped myself in for a flavour sensation but it never arrived, alas. The farmyard funk dominates proceedings and drowns the complexity. There's a dreggy sharpness and harsh piney hops too. I guess you could say it tastes complex, but it's not in a positive way, lacking the mellow integrated flavours that the good examples of this sort always show. Maybe it just needs more time for the Brett to put manners on everything.

The inevitable New England IPA was called Billie the Butcher, created for Billie's Craft Beer Festival which happened in Antwerp a couple of weeks ago. This is a big'un, at 7% ABV and absolutely loaded with vanilla and garlic. A shock at first, it eventually won me round. The bold flavours become charming and I couldn't help but admire the intensity. There's even a little trickle of juice: a touch of peach nectar in amongst the rest. It's maybe a bit rough and unfinished but it's certainly not bland.

What I thought was going to be the grand finale was Double Black Mash, a 12% ABV imperial stout which earns its name by being all malt. It's an utterly luxurious example of the style, presenting a heartstopping wodge of coffee and cake with some even sweeter strawberry balanced by just enough old-world mineral bitterness. That's Amager hitting three for three on the dark beers. Shame they didn't give us a black IPA too.

How to follow an imperial stout and send everyone away happy? With a pilsner, it seems. Greed is from their Seven Deadly Sins series which has been running since at least 2011. 4.6% is the ABV, the texture suitably light, and it's a mostly clear gold with just a slight haze. It's not a pure and happy central-European-style pils, heading off in some odd directions which include floral perfume, red apple and black pepper. An odd beer, but not a bad one, especially considering it was made as cheaply as they possibly could, hence the name. And after all that went before I was happy I could still taste anything.

And so we departed Amager with a feeling that we'd got some sort of handle on what they do. But Amager wasn't the only brewery to host a meeting and offer their wares that weekend. You can probably guess who the other one was. Stay tuned.