Familiar haunts and new ground

I feel I got a good mix of pubs into my recent visit to Copenhagen, leaning more towards places I'd never been before but stopping by some favourites of old as well.

Inevitably I ended up at Fermentoren on Friday night after Warpigs. It seems to be the favourite Copenhagen bar of a lot of people I know and they were all determined to squeeze in. Turning round in the dorway and finding somewhere more comfortable was still an option when I noticed Schlenkerla Kräusen on the blackboard, the only Schlenkerla I'd never had before. This is a lager they've matured as usual and then re-primed with the lively yeast from a younger batch, coming out 4.5% ABV and deliberately hazy. It has the Schlenkerla character -- the unmistakable hammy smoke -- but it's missing the Schlenkerla magic. The flavour profile isn't as clean as usual, showing a plasticky burr beside the smoke, and the texture is disappointingly watery. I'm glad I got hold of it to complete the set but I don't think I'll be rushing back to this one.

The pink beer to the left of it is called Mr Suit, a sour redcurrant beer produced as an Anglo-Kiwi collaboration between Burning Sky and Yeastie Boys. There's a serious acidic pinch in the aroma but it's plainer to taste, and definitely more sweet than sour. It's not sugary, though, and being only 5% ABV means it can be enjoyed without too much effort or analysis. I see this more as one for a warm sunny afternoon on the terrace than a dark and chilly Nordic evening.

Staying pink but going upmarket, so a smaller glass, there was Cloudwater Plum & Cherry Sour. I'll grant that this was stronger than the last one, at 5.9% ABV, but it definitely wasn't better. It was exceedingly sweet, all jam and compote, and thin-bodied. You know when a fancy sour ale ends up tasting like a basic fruit-syruped wheat beer? That.

There was a glass of Ebeltoft's I Am Triple going round the table, tasting unorthodox but delicious. This is a big 9.2% ABV and a bright clear golden colour. The boozy esters usually found in tripel are absent, as is any trace of Belgian style yeast spicing. Instead it offers a light and juicy fruit flavour from which I got white grape in particular. While it may not taste like a tripel I'm at a loss for what other style it actually resembles. Hooray for beers being their own thing.

Some dark beers to finish this session, beginning with the delightfully-named Slithers from Garage in Barcelona. This was well suited to cowering under the heaters at Fermentoren. While only 5.5% ABV it's delightfully thick and unctuous with a comforting and invigorating hit of espresso. No fancy tricks or intricate complexities, just a really well done and simply constructed modern porter.

Dry & Bitter had a black IPA out for Christmas, called Black Wreath. It's very much on the hoppy stout end of the style's flavour profile, packed with roasted coffee notes and some lighter lavender and rosewater. Not that the hops aren't pulling their weight: there's a massive pine bitterness that manages to express itself loudly without upsetting the more delicate side. I don't know how that's done but I like it. There's nothing at all Christmassy about this, but if the name attracts a few extra drinkers in the coming weeks then that's all to the good.

The stemmed glass contains my finisher for that night, Siberian Black Magic Panther imperial stout by Westbrook. This is all of 12% ABV and begins with an enticing vinous aroma. That becomes more clearly port-like on tasting, the luscious sweet fruit and decadent alcohol balanced by a dry espresso roast and set on a smooth liqueur body. What you get here is all your after-dinner drinks in one well-integrated package. Very tasty indeed and a perfect nightcap.

It had been too many years since I last set foot in Charlie's, the delightful English theme pub in Copenhagen, so I made sure to drop in for a couple when the opportunity arose. Harvey's Best, of course, but ticking for ticking's sake also got me a pint of Black Isle Goldeneye from the handpumps. I've just read that the brewery calls this 5.6%-er a "West Coast IPA" but it's a long way from California. The colour is a honey red and it tastes sweetly of perfume, candy and orange jelly. While perfectly drinkable, if unexciting, it did start to turn cloying towards the end. It's probably not designed as a session beer, which is just as well.

New bars, then. Tim Webb was determined to get a couple in at Ørsted Ølbar and I tagged along. In the mood for proper IPA I picked Get Schwifty from Flying Couch. It's 6% ABV but tastes lighter than that, thanks I think to some expert hopping. There's peach and pineapple in the aroma, and a smooth sweet peach flavour makes up the foretaste, joined by juicy mandarin and a cheeky hint of spring onion. "Juicy perfection" would be an overstatement but dammit it's not far off.

A lager followed that: Høker Bajer from Hancock. "Very Budvar" say my notes: the same golden syrup malt notes while still being light and crisp with a low level of carbonation. There's a dusting of candied fruits as flavour complexity, as well as a fresh green-veg finish. One of those all-lagers-to-all-people jobs which are always pleasing to find.

I just had a taste of the house lager when we got to Peders, a fun spit-and-sawdust basement pub popular with the locals, and with a very fine beer selection. Peders Pilsner is unfiltered -- very unfiltered -- and has a lot of that kellerbier wholesome oaty biscuit effect and a light orangey pith. Smooth yes, crisp no, but still very tasty. Maybe more reminiscent of a Czech unfiltered světlý ležák than a kellerbier, if we're being stylistically fussy.

For myself I picked a New England IPA: Magna Aura from Gamma. It brought me nothing new for this style: a big hit of fluffy apricot; a sharp buzz of garlic and a load of savoury yeast and protein dregs. At a mere 5.3% ABV it wasn't as full-on flavourwise as they can often be, but still a bit halfhearted and by-the-numbers overall.

Another one of Gamma's was ordered when we got to the final bar of that long Saturday evening: the barnlike, multi-level, 61-tapped Taphouse. Zero Degrees is a "winter" IPA, brewed with added ginger, clove and orange zest. It tasted to me more herbal than spiced or fruited: dill and mustard, making it doubtless an excellent companion to Danish smoked salmon. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so weird, but it worked quite well, the flavours integrated and coherent. I didn't even miss the lack of hop character.

A London porter finshes this evening and this post. Pressure Drop's Street Porter is a strong one at 6.5% ABV. It's sweet with it, centring on chocolate in a big way with lighter caramel, some aromatic coffee and a whiff of rosewater. All the proper porter flavours in the right order. I guess sharing a city with the likes of Kernel and Fuller's concentrates the mind, porterwise.

That's all the pubs of this trip covered. For tomorrow's post I'm setting up camp in a brewery and letting the beers come to me.