After watching Channel 4’s ‘Travel Man: 48 Hours in Copenhagen’, presented by Richard Ayoade with guest Noel Fielding, in January 2016, I was very interested in visiting the city. But what has this city got to offer craft beer lovers? I was of course aware that Mikkeller is from here, and I had a super beer from the city’s Amager brewery over Christmas, but surely there is more. A quick Google search directed me to the beer experiences that 2FM’s Rick O’Shea enjoyed in the city over Christmas. This write-up showed me that there was plenty of interesting beer options in this city, so I quickly booked my flights – return flight from Dublin with Ryanair for less than €50, bargain!

Before leaving for Copenhagen, I did a lot of research to find out what bars, beers and off-licenses I could not miss. As most beer nerds know, RateBeer is a great place to start. By searching by city you can quickly find a list of the top bars, bottle shops and breweries. I also found that searching on Instagram was very useful. A couple of weeks before I travelled, Evil Twin (Mikkeller’s brother) open a new bar called Himmeriget, located on Åboulevard 27. This bar seemed to have a lot of very rare beers available on both draught and in bottle. This bar was now top of my list and I could not wait to travel…….

I arrived at my hotel, Hotel Alexandra, at around 8pm on a Monday night. After eating something in Mother, located in the wonderful Meat Packing District, I headed for the near-by Mikkeller bar. Steps lead me down off this residential street into a’ bright, cosy bar. There was a decent amount of people drinking (very slowly) here, especially considering it was a Monday night. This bar has 20 beers on tap, 15 of which were Mikkeller beers. I had a Mikkeller ‘Beer Geek Breakfast’, it was very enjoyable. I then had an ‘All Other Pales Pale’, also by Mikkeller. This was a very average pale ale, in my estimation.

After this I made my way to Taphouse. Taphouse on Lavendelstræde was conveniently just 5 minutes walk from my hotel. This is a large, comfortable bar that has 61 beers on tap. The menu is displayed across 3 flat screen TV’s that are hung just above the taps. Again, this bar was pretty busy for a week night. I ordered an IPA called ‘What’s Hop Doc’ that is made by local brewery, Flying Couch. This was a very solid IPA. After this I ordered a black IPA by UK brewery Brew By Numbers ‘(15/04)’. This was a beautiful beer. Lovely citrus notes with a balanced level of roasted flavours. I indulged in another one of these before closing time.

On Tuesday, after a long day wandering through this beautiful city, I again headed for the Meat Packing District. Despite the streets around the city being very empty at night, the restaurants and bars of this area were usually buzzing. I headed to Warpigs, a brew pub/BBQ restaurant that is a collaboration between Mikkeller and Indiana’s Three Floyds. I decided that I would eat before sampling some of the beers on offer. I had some pork ribs, pork shoulder, hot-links (sausage) and homemade baked beans. The food was exceptional. The ribs were probably the best that I have ever eaten. This is a must-visit restaurant for meat lovers but be warned that it is very expensive, even by Copenhagen standards.

I headed to the bar where 22 beers were available on tap, 20 of which were Warpigs beers. I ordered a ‘Big Drunk Baby’, a 9% DIPA that I had read about before arriving. This beer along with every other beer on offer were only available in 400ml servings. Personally, I found this a bit of a pain because A; I prefer to drink smaller measures of strong beers (and there wasn’t much on offer below 6.5%), and B; I wanted to try as many different beers as I could on this trip. Back to the beer: this was probably the best beer I had during my entire trip. It was big and fruity but didn’t taste anything like it’s abv, with no alcohol heat. Superb! This is probably the most friendly double IPA that I’ve had. As much as I wanted to have another ‘Big Drunk Baby’ I was conscious of it’s power, and the time of the evening it was, so I ordered a ‘Crocoite’. This beer is a 6.5% IPA. Unfortunately, this was a very average beer, in my opinion, and not worth anywhere near it’s price tag.

I moved on to the very cosy Fermentoren that is just a few minutes walk from Warpigs. This bar was very dark, warm and had a lovely relaxing vibe to it. This bar has a lot of references to ‘The Big Lebowski’, particularly in the toilet, which can never be a bad thing! I had two beers here, the first of which was ‘Todd The Axeman’ by local brewery, Amager. This was a very enjoyable 6.5% IPA. The second beer I had was a big, luscious, oatmeal stout by American brewery, Hoppin’ Frog, called ‘B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher’. This was also very solid.

I was now in the mood to take things up a level so I headed to the much anticipated Himmeriget. This is a small, dimly lit bar which looks like the inside of an unfinished building. I think that they probably spent their entire budget on the beer list! Here, there were around 10 beers available on draught, which mainly consisted of beers by Evil Twin, Dark Horse, Prairie and Jolly Pumpkin. I had two brews by Dark Horse. The first was a Harvest ale called ‘High C’s’ and the second was a blueberry stout called ‘Tres Blueberry Stout’. I thought both of these beers were forgettable. I then had an Imperial Stout by Prairie called ‘Brimstone Bomb’. It’s the brewery’s ‘Prairie Bomb’ aged in Brimstone Whisky barrels and it comes in at an abv of 13%. This is a big creamy stout that has large hints of bourbon with more subtle notes of dark chocolate and vanilla. This is a huge beer but I really enjoyed it.

The bottle list here is pretty crazy. It included 8 variations of Westbrook’s ‘Mexican Cake’, numerous barrel-aged Alesmith beers and hard to find Evil Twin beers like ‘Imperial Biscotti Break’ and ‘Imperial Donut Break’. A lot of these beers had crazy prices to match, but I think this bar is really aimed at the conoussier. I tried to purchase a bottle of ‘Mexican Cake’ to carry back to Ireland, but unfortunately they don’t sell any beers for takeaway.

I decided to break the walk back to the hotel with a slight detour to Ørsted Ølbar. This is a large but cosy bar which was playing good music. This is also a decent place to catch big football matches if you are that way inclined. This bar has 20 beers on tap, the majority of which were local beers. I had a ‘Wookie IPA’ by Amager. This beer tasted of nothing but bitterness to me, but at this stage I think my taste buds were done, along with myself. I retired for the night.

Wednesday was the first day of my trip that it was raining. It was like a dirty day in Dingle. In the afternoon I braved the weather and I headed to a bottle shop called Kihoskh. This is basically just a neighbourhood corner shop that stocks imported beer and imported magazines. There were two beer fridges on the ground floor. These fridges were impressive and had some serious American breweries on show including Alesmith, Port Brewing, Westbrook, and 18th Street, to name but a few. I had heard that there was more beer in the basement, so I asked could I go down stairs. I was glad I did. The two fridges upstairs were blown out of the water by the stock in the basement. I didn’t know where to start! The friendly assistant told me to ask for help if I needed it. I had made a wants-list after checking out their weekly blog before visiting and that helped greatly. I picked up loads of beer including beers by Toppling Goliath, Westbrook, Clown Shoes, Port Brewing etc.

On Wednesday evening, before dinner, I headed back to the Mikkeller bar on Viktoriagade. It was busy enough here again with a lot of people enjoying an after work drink. I had a Warpigs ’19” Neck’ which was better than your average IPA. I then ordered a ‘Vesterbro Pils’. I have been interested in trying this beer since I read the recipe in Mikkeller’s Book of Beer. Unfortunately, the beer wasn’t as hoppy as I had expected and I didn’t really enjoy it. After an amazing meal in Gorilla, I got a taxi to Mikkeller & Friends on Stefansgade. This is much larger than the Mikkeller bar. This bar has 40 taps, mainly beers by Mikkeller, as expected, but also included a few interesting guests. Here, I encountered the only bartender that made any conversation with me during my entire trip. Every other bartender that I encountered was polite but standoffish, pretty similar to most Danes that I met. After having a ‘Daisy Cutter’ by Half Acre (which didn’t live up to the hype), the young lady recommended trying a ’19 Hop’ by Mikkeller. This is a really good IPA and is made with 19 different varities of hops. After that I had a ‘Deception IPA’ – another recommendation – again made by Mikkeller. This beer was definitely deceptive as it had more flavour and body than your average session IPA. The bartender then encouraged me to try a Lambic after I said that I had never tried one. She gave me a sample of ‘Foeder 112’ by Boon. After the sample I ordered one. I thoroughly enjoyed it; it was very sharp but also very refreshing. From now I will make more of an effort to try beers other that IPAs, pale ales, stouts and ambers.

Thursday was my last full day in Copenhagen. After more wandering around and an enjoyable trip to Copenhagen Street Food, I headed to another bottle shop, Barley Wine. This is a small enough shop that is run by a friendly elderly couple. I spent about a half an hour here going through the IPA and stout sections mainly. This shop had a good mix of US and European beers, along with plenty of Danish options. I picked up some tasty American bits and some seriously fresh Amager beers.

In the evening, after eating in Cocks and Cows, I again headed to the nearby Ørsted Ølbar. There was a big crowd here watching a football match that FC Copenhagen were involved in. The size of this bar and its layout allows for people to watch the football or avoid it, depending on their preference. Again, they had decent music playing and the place was super cosy. Here I had a ‘Green Velvet IPA’ by Flying Couch and a ‘Black Sunshine’, a BIPA, by Amager. The latter being the pick of the bunch, a very ‘moreish’ beer. From here I returned to the Taphouse for a couple of nightcaps. I had a local IPA by Ebeltoft and a lovely Chocolate & Orange stout by Brew By Numbers.

Before my flight on Friday, I went to the Mikkeller bottle shop in Torvehallerne. This is a nice little shop located in a wonderful food hall. As expected they mainly stock Mikkeller products, but they do stock some US imports. I found that some beers were up to €3 more expensive here than in other shops. I did pick up a few bits here including a bottle of Mikkeller’s ‘Beer Geek Vanilla Shake’.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable trip. On average, the beer prices are higher than they are in Dublin but the selection available, particularly the imports, is far superior. Places like Ørsted Ølbar and Taphouse are probably the cheapest craft options that I found. Most bars serve beer in either 200ml or 400ml servings and you can expect to pay up to €9 for 400ml of an American import.

Call it!

Best Beer Experience: I think Kihoskh was the best beer experience. The selection is unbelievable. Book in an extra suitcase and bring bubble wrap with you, you won’t be sorry!!

Best Bar: This goes to Ørsted Ølbar. It’s a lovely, comfortable bar that plays good music. This is the kind of bar that I could settle into for the night independent of the tap list.

Best Tap List: Mikkeller & Friends.

Best Beer: ‘Big Drunk Baby’ by Warpigs.