NATALIETENAYA

Nørrebro Bryghus - How to beer taste like a super knowledgeable awesome expert

Phil and I, over the course of our two week trip abroad, and in reality over the past couple of years, have become what you might call beer sommelier. For any of you who may be less versed or are less interesting than we are, that’s a fancy way of calling us beer experts.

It’s true. We know everything there is to know about beer that anyone could ever know ever. We know so much and are so beer savvy, in fact, that we can’t actually articulate in fancy elitist jargon what makes certain beers good or important or special. But you can take my word for it; our opinion on beer is flawless and should not be questioned. It is for this very reason that we don’t even NEED all of the hoity toity language a “connoisseur” might throw at you about the “aroma” or the “body” or the “depth”. Basically, all we really need to say about a beer is whether it is:

a. Tasty

or

b. Shit

You can pretty much trust us one hundred percent of the time.

While we were in Copenhagen I took Phil to Nørrebro Bryghus to go beer tasting. I had been there once before when I was living in Copenhagen and really liked it (I thought it fell under the “a.” category).

So I thought it would be good to document our experience and teach others how to be kick-ass beer tasters!

STEP ONE: Get a shit-ton of little beers.

STEP TWO: Take lots of pictures with the beers. The bartender will think you are from a fancy sommelier magazine and probably treat you really nice. Classic.

STEP THREE: DRINK ALL THE BEERS! As you do so, do lots of sniffing and swirling and pensive thinking. Compare them as you go based on the system described above and line them up. The more you drink, the harder it is to remember where you started! That’s why it is very important to do this ranking after each beer, so you only have to compare it to the last one.

In this example, the thumbs up represents the “Tasty” end of the spectrum while the thumbs down represents the “Shit” end. At this particular brewery, however, none of the beers actually ranked so low as to be considered “Shit”, but I digress.

STEP FOUR: Choose your favorites. After all of those baby beers it is often good to drink some real people-sized beers. This is especially true when you have plans to meet an old friend in town in about an hour. Nothing says “I’ve missed you and have really been looking forward to seeing you!” than showing up intoxicated.

So, well, you are welcome. That’s pretty much everything you need to know ever about beer tasting. It will probably be a long time before you are ever quite as in tune with the ins and outs of quality beer as we are, but that’s because we are really kind of awesome.

London Part II

We flew in and out of London on this trip and so we spent a full day there at both the beginning and the end. The goal of our second visit was to hit the museums and hit them hard. The entire time we were in Europe we had mediocre weather; usually cloudy, always chilly, sometimes wet. Miraculously our last day in London was HOT and actually a bit uncomfortable. It never really cooled down making our nights in the hostel sticky and difficult to sleep during. But who cares about the heat when you have air conditioned museums to visit!

Unfortunately, the Natural History museum has a big sign that said all of the dinosaurs were away…. which was sort of our main reason to go. Instead we headed straight over to one of my most favorite places in the world, the British Museum. Phil had never been and I am absolutely in love with the place so we spent quite a bit of time exploring among the mummies and artifacts. We underestimated how exhausted we were going to be by the end of our trip, however, and couldn’t get ourselves energized enough to explore the entire place. Instead we left a bit early and stopped at a cafe to recharge. We went to Harrod’s that day (somewhere else Phil had never been) and spent maybe a bit too much time on the food level. We sampled mini cupcakes and stopped at Laduree for macaroons. We intended to bring the macaroons on our flight home but the heat was insane and the started melting pretty fast sooooooo…. we were forced to eat them. In the evening we went to Saint Michael’s and heard a choir before walking across the hideous Millennium Bridge to the underwhelming Globe Theater. We didn’t feel like paying so we just… looked at it from the outside.

We had out last dinner of the trip at a pub in Notting Hill where we sat and sipped cold beer forever as we finally let the exhaustion and heat win. An early night, a quick and sticky sleep, and an early wake up call lead us to Gatwick for our flight to the states! It was sad to see our trip end but I think we were tired enough to just be happy to be heading toward comfy beds.

I am so happy we made this trip happen. Almost a year of planning, lost of saving, and a little doubt all paid off. We met up with friends from home and around the world, explored places neither of us had been, and had an amazing time in the process. There were no big catastrophes and we managed not to drive each other crazy so I think the trip was a success :)

Back in København

I woke up on the bus just as we arrived in Copenhagen to some familiar sites and was immediately awake and alert if from nothing else just sheer happiness. Our bus was coming from Amsterdam so naturally we were met by customs and their drug sniffing dogs that had to search the bus before we were allowed off. Luckily Phil and I made a very innocent visit to Amsterdam and were quickly able to leave. It was about 5am and we didn’t want to wake Gitte that early so we decided to wander a bit. We walked from hovedbanegård to nørreport and the city was absolutely quiet except for the students in their caps still out celebrating.

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Hej fra Danmark!

We just arrived at my friend gitte’s apartment in Copenhagen! Time for a much needed nap and then it’s off to introduce Philip to the greatest city :) Tonight we will be at amager strand for the midsummer bonfires where I first met gitte two years ago.

Paris!

Okay so its been a few days since we left paris but i think i should update. Right now phil and i are on a looooong bus ride from amsterdam to copenhagen. We just entered germany so we’ve still got a way to go. PARIS… Day one: When our overnight bus arrived in paris my first thought was “crap… What do these signs say?”. After an all night bus ride interrupted by a ferry trip we were absolutely exhausted. We had an easy time getting to our little hotel in the 11th arrondissement and all I can say is that it was super French. The manager spends the day sitting in the little lobby watching dramas and chatting with old women. We were surprised to find out that they gave us a room with a bathroom, as we had booked a shared. Very happy. Our room wasn’t ready (it was 8am) so we grabbed breakfast at a local cafe (croissants, coffee, juice) and then explored the local open air market. We made our way all the way down to the Bastille, crossed the river, and to the botanical gardens. We then explored the Latin quarter which was everything you expect France to be with busy cafes and narrow streets. This lead us the luxombourg gardens which are gorgeous and there were school children everywhere sketching the palace. After a long afternoon nap we grabbed some wine and went to the Eiffel Tower at sunset. From the Trocadero we watched the light show on the tower and then made our way up for a gorgeous night view of Paris.

Day two: We woke up early and went straight to the louvre to beat the crowds. The louvre was absolutely amazing and we could have easily stayed all day. The paintings and statues and antiquities were overwhelming and astounding. The building itself is it’s own sight with gorgeous painted ceilings and entry ways and courtyards. I’m already dying to go back to paris just to be able to spend days in the louvre. We spent the afternoon on a walking tour of the city lead by a sassy Dutch man which brought us to all of the main sights and offered a lot of information. We ended at a small French restaurant where we tried escargot and croquet monsieur. That evening we explored our area having dinner at a small Italian restaurant and then making our way from cafe to cafe.

Day three: Again we got up early to beat the crowds and this time it was to champs élysées to climb the arc de triomphe. After a billion stairs we were rewarded with an amazing view of Paris atop an impressively large structure. We met up with Janet and Sachi, who just arrived that morning, on champs élysées. We took the metro to Montmartre and hiked up to the beautiful sacre coeur. Ramps were set up around the cathedral and all the way down the hill in front and we were surprised when we saw bmx bikers speeding down the steep track. Montmartre was just as exciting with lots of artists everywhere and endless cafes serving crepes. Next we came back down and walked the underwhelming moulin rouge. We made up for it with a visit to notre dame which was beautiful inside! The four of us ended the night at a fondue restaurant Janet had head about. It was a super small room in Montmartre with tables lined up from wall to wall. In order for half of your party to sit the waiter has to pull out the table and help them hop over to the bench lining the wall. The walls are all graffitied and of course we left our names. The fondue was great but the most unique thug about the place is that they serve you wine in baby bottles. There is nothing more sophisticated than grown people drinking from baby bottles in Paris! The waiters were hilarious and I would definitely recommend the place to anyone visiting Paris.

It’s now 8:30pm and we are zooming through German farmland under a still very bright sun. I’m going to try to enjoy the scenery while the sun is still out! Once I have Internet in copenhagen I’ll be sure to post this. I hope these posts aren’t too difficult to read…. Typing on my iPod touch isn’t too easy so I’m sorry if these are riddled with typos and run ons!