As I wrote earlier I bought 6 bottles. My intention was to go all out norwegian but I had already tested several of the Nögne Ö they had stored so I felt more in the mood to try something new. I started out testing two belgian beers. They where very similar in taste and quality. Not sure why they had two so similar beers when the supply was so low.
It poured a cloudy golden liquid with a huge foam that slowly receded and left a nice lacing on the side of the glass.
It had a smell that leaned towards white wine. Fruity with some sweetness and yeast.
The first taste was very smooth in my mouth and not as fizzy as I would have expected. It tasted of white wine, yeast, sweet and fruity, with a hint of orange. However the flavor was quite weak and quickly dissapeared in my mouth.
Total: 3,1/5
It poured a cloudy golden liquid with a big foam that left just a little bit of lacing. There was also some small bits of yeast floating around in the liquid.
It smelled fruity with some yeast. Not as strong as the above beer.
This one was also very smooth, but had a much weaker flavor. Had some fruits and yeast. But besides that it was a bit watery.
Total: 2,9/5
At this point we left the appartment to go to Huk. When I came back I was craving hops and my mouth watered when I thought about the two IPAs I had in the fridge. I started with the american.
It poured a clear golden liquid with a big foam that left some lacing.
It smelled of grassy hops, grapefruit and a hint of pineapple. Very nice!
On the first sip I noticed the high bitterness. Then I tasted the grassy hops, citrus and a hint of grapefruit. It felt like it lacked something though, it doesn’t really “attack” the entire mouth as I would expect it to do. But besides that a very nice beer.
Total: 3,4/5
It poured a hazy copper liquid with a huge foam with big bubbles that left allot of lacing on the side of the glass. It also had some yeast floating around in it. It looked very appealing.
It had an aroma of grassy hops, citrus and grapefruit.
The flavor was filled with grassy hops, citrus, grapefruit and a hint of some other fruits. Felt very smooth in my mouth. A very nice beer and was very well recieved by my friends.
Total: 4,1/5
Haandbryggeriet Odin’s Tipple (Bottle) 11%
It poured a pitch dark liquid with a small brown foam.
The aroma was filled with chocolate, nuts and coffey.
It had a taste of dark chocolate, nuts and coffey. It was also sour and sweet, something that I didn’t expect. The alcohol was well hidden and I didn’t expect to see 11% on the label.
Total: 3,5/5
Haandbryggeriet Norse Porter (Bottle) 6,5%
It poured a pitch dark liquid with a huge dark foam that quickly dissapeared.
The smell was very weak and I had a hard time distinguishing any aroma at all.
The flavor was similar to their Odin’s Trippel, but allot weaker. With chocolate, coffey and nuts.
Total: 2,7/5
The first thing I did after waking up on saturday was to run down to the nearest Vinmonopol (similar to the swedish Systembolaget). My first reaction upon entering was: Where the hell is all the beer? I started to get scared that my norwegian friends where right: “There are no good beers in Norway”. Ran around for a while before asking for help. They had stored what little beer they had on a shelf that was hidden from direct view. It was definitely the least favored type of alcohol in the store, which was dominated by different kinds of wine and spirits.
However what little beer they had was quite interesting. I actually had a hard time choosing as I couldnt bring anything home with me. So all the beer I bought had to be tasted the same day. I ended up buying 6 bottles, which I will cover in detail in part 3. But I could have easily bought 6 bottles more.
I wasn’t suprised that the beer was more expensive then in Sweden. However what striked me as odd was that the gap between bad/cheap (whatever word you want to give it) wasn’t that big. A Hansa lager cost about 48 SEK while a Nögne Ö IPA ended up at 78 SEK. In comparison to Sweden I think the Hansa would cost about 10 SEK (or in that region at least), while the IPA would cost 51,90 SEK (Thanks Marc!). So the incentive to walk down “Cheap-road” is smaller in Norway compared to Sweden. However as I understood it, the majority buys their beer at the supermarket. I never checked the prices but heard something about 200 SEK for a 6-pack of 4,5% lager.
To summarize: The supply in Norway is quite low, but what they have is quite nice, you just have to spend a little extra to get it. But compared to Sweden the difference in price on the more interesting beers is not that big. But on lager it’s a huge difference.
Last weekend I went to Oslo to visit a couple of childhood friends who live there, Markus and Martin. When I arrived on friday two other friends had already spent a couple of days… and nights in Oslo, Roger and Keso.
I took a flight through Norwegian airlines and since I didn’t check any luggage in it was a very smooth flight. Took about 50 minutes to fly, 40 minutes by buss from Gardemoen to Oslo and then another 7 or so minutes to my friends appartment. Felt like I was one minute sitting at work dreaming about a cold beer and the next I was in Oslo drinking one.
The first evening we went to a pub and the morning after I imidieately visited Vinmonopolet. I just had to check out the local supply of beer. I’ll tell you more about this in part 2. After a quick breakfast we headed out to Huk, which seems to be where a large part of the Oslo population goes to bath and enjoy the sun. After burning myself into a crispy bacon shape we headed back for some food and beer.
Roger and Keso on their way to Huk.
Just arrived at Huk, the weather was really nice. Markus, Martin and Roger are getting a couple of blankets out. Well Roger is just supervising the work 
The water was great, not as cold as I would have expected.
Nice view.
On our way back to the appartment. It’s in central Oslo.
It’s wednesday but it still burns.
Martin and Markus enjoying the hot breeze and a cold beer.
I really had a good time in Oslo and it was allot of fun spending time with my friends again. Also, thanks for the hospitality guys 
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