Norway has
a long history of beer brewing. The Gullatingloven of 900 actually required
farmers to produce a certain amount of ale for Christmas celebrations. Things
are different now, and despite a growing homebrew culture, blossoming microbrew
scene, and old school farmers still producing exciting ales using heritage
yeast strains, the beer world is dominated by the almighty pilsner.
Pilsner
came early to Norway. It was a style invented in Bohemia in 1842 using lightly
kilned pilsner malts (hence the name), soft water, and a snappy hit from the
floral saaz hops. It’s a very narrow style that has been adulterated and, in my
opinion, ruined by the rise of the European and American light lager styles. They
are often called pilsners, but lack that rich malty base and biting balance of
hops. Instead, we are left with quickly-fermented watery crap.
I feel that
microbreweries don’t fully understand the style either. We are getting thicker
heavier malt bills with exciting adjuncts and creative hops. These are tasty
beers, to be fair, but they aren’t necessarily pilsners.
Anyway, we’re
getting off topic. Pilsner came to Norway, and a lot of the industrial breweries
that popped up in the mid-1800s added it to their lineup. In 1901, the various major
breweries joined together to form the Bryggeriforegning (the brewers league) to
help stop the race to the bottom with prices. They divided the country up into 6
regions to create local monopolies. From this period on, Norway saw a significant
shrinking of the number of breweries in the country, as the markets condensed a
few big player bought a ton of the smaller breweries. During the era of the “beer
cartels”, no new breweries were started.
Despite
being absolved in 1989, this agreement continues to influence the drinking
practices of Nowegians today. Residents of the various Norwegian cites are passionately
supportive of their local beer. To the point where they will choose to go to another
restaurant if their brand isn’t on tap. Yet, very few people in Norway know how
much of their beer preferences were dictated by a back-door deal to keep prices
artificially high. The dissolution of the monopolies has been followed by aggressive
expansion by two of the biggest beer brands, Bergen’s Hansa and Oslo’s Ringes,
both of which have been bought up by Unibrew and Carlsberg respectively. We see
them offering cheap tap handles and good deals in their competing markets,
making Ringes almost more common than Hansa in its hometown. A good number of
the classic local brands, including Tou, Schous, Arendals, CB, Nordlands,
Dahls, and a handful of microbrews are made by these two companies.
If you go
to most larger supermarkets, you can find most of the legacy brands, but a
variety of others including newer microbrews and microbrew special varieties to
rope in craft beer fans. The selection is dizzying, and most people just stick doggedly
to their local brand.
So, a
couple beer loving friends and I set out to taste our way through the most
commonly available Norwegian pilsners that cost less than 100kr per liter. Note:
a lot of these beers are not technically pilsners, but European light lagers.
The Panel
Our panel
was made up of three people from three different countries. I am an American craft
beer lover, homebrewer, and certified beer sommelier with a passionate love for
Belgian styles. Another was a Swede with a long history of drinking “normal” beers
but is a taste explorer who list Saison Dupont among his favorites. The last
member is an old-school Bergenser and Hansa lover, who is particularly fond of
IPAs. None of us are experts per se. Despite my education, I am out of practice
in formal tasting. Still, this isn’t aimed at experts, but the average consumer
of beer in Norway. In this way, we were more than qualified.
The
selection process
My original
goal was to buy in the six regional giants and fill in with some popular craft
beers to get a good panel. In the end, my selection process was no more complicated
than going to a couple larger local shops and buying all the Norwegian-brewed
pilsners I could find.
In the end,
I found 19 beers. With only one, Ægir Fotballfeber Kamppils, which technically
did fit my original criteria of costing under 100kr/L.
The tasting process
This taste
test followed the same procedure as my earlier Hungarian beer tasting
challenge. The 19 beers were whittled down to 16, which would compete in a
head-to-head tournament-style taste-off. We blind-tasted (sort of) two beers
against each other in identical wine glasses, with our favorite moving on. Due
to the odd number of tasters, no tiebreaking was necessary.
The
blinding process was done through the use of opaque paper bags, but due to some
difficulty with pouring, we became a lot more lax with the blinding technique
as the contest moved into further rounds. Also, since the most generic tasting
of the group got weeded out in the first round, it was somewhat easy to differentiate
the beers later in the competition.
The beers
were roughly divided into geographical regions: Oslo, West, North, and South/East.
I understand that Trondheim is not technically North, and pedants will likely
find issues if they look for them. I explored many ways to divide the beers
into four groups of four, and this is the only one that I could get to fit.
The first-round
matchups were done using “seeds”, which is a system used by the NCAA for their
tournaments. In each heat, the top-rated beer takes on the lowest-rated beer,
and the two in the middle face off each other. The rating was determined by their
global Untappd score, which are listed beside the beers later in this blog.
We chose
to do the drink-off in august to capitalize on prime pilsner-weather. Unfortunately,
Bergen has suffered its wettest August in recorded history, so we had to do
this on a cold 10 degree day with constant downpour of rain.
The lovely Bergen pilsner weather
The
beers
Drink-in
beers:
Because I
bought more than 16 beers, we had to weed some out. I bought three beers from Aass
brewery, two from Mack, and two from Hansa. Since Mack marketed their two
pilsners under two separate brands and because we had fewer beers from north of
Møre og Romsdal, both Mack selections stayed in the game.
Hansa vs.
Hansa premium
For those
with lighter pockets, our panel unanimously selected plain old green Hansa over
the more expensive premium version, but it was close. The premium was more cleanly
brewed, and had a lovely malty aroma, but the taste was a bit too sweet and
lacked that snappy hop bitterness to make it refreshing. Regular Hansa had a touch
of sulphur, but also a whiff of hops. Despite its sharper yeast profile
(probably due to higher temperature fermentation to rush it our faster), it had
a long hop aftertaste and fuller, more pleasant flavor. This was a close match,
though. Either way, Hansa did not bring it. Sorry, Bergen.
Aass Halling vs. Aass Pilsner vs Anker Pils
These brothers
from the same brewery were very close. In the end, the nearly zero-bitterness
Halling was just too thin and watery to get a place in our contest, despite it’s
bright maltiness with a touch of wheat. Anker lost out, in part, because it was
only available in 330ml, which isn’t enough to last the whole contest. It was hoppier
than the original Pilsner. In the end, we were all surprised by the quality of
Aass’s offerings.
West Division:
7Fjell Pilsner (3.26) vs. Hansa
(2.94), Ægir Fotballfeber Kamppils (3.07) vs. Lervig Pilsner (3.23)
This
round had the highest average scores of all the regions, mainly because three
of the four selections were microbrews, which usually score higher on untappd. Our
panel generally agreed with the score and rated this region as the best. Take
this with a grain of salt as all of us live in West Norway.
7Fjell
edged out it’s Bergen rival Hansa, with two out of three of us picking 7fjell.
The odd man out says it confirmed his bias that “just doesn’t like 7fjell”. I
had to disagree harshly, finding 7Fjell the far superior of the two. Hansa was
boring in comparison. I won’t call it bad pilsner. It has what your want, a
light toasty malt flavor with a bit of hops. Easy drinking. A bit hoppier than
a lot of lighter lagers, but it was amateurish in comparison to 7fjell. It’s
microbrew cousin displayed what a Bohemian pilsner should be. It was dry, but
still malty. Hoppy, but not bitter. It went down smoothly with a clear balance
of flavors. The aroma was a beautiful hit of biscuity malts and the classic floral
saaz hops. Now, this was a panel rating these beers, but honestly, this was my
personal favorite of the contest.
Both
Lervig and Ægir offered very good beers. Lervig was another beer with a focus
on balancing the bitterness with sweetness. It was a bit fruity on the nose,
being among the yeastier aroma profiles of the contest, but didn’t have the
sulfuric hit you get from some German pilsners. It was a lovely pilsner. The Ægir
was marginally worse. It was more bitter and had an off-putting touch of
acidity. Still, I was outvoted by the rest of the panel who picked Ægir.
Of
these two beloved regional microbreweries, the panel went for 7Fjell. The off
vote was again our 7Fjell-disliking friend. It’s ok. People have the right to
be wrong.
“North”
Division:
Austmann
(3.22) vs. Mack Isbjørn (2.95), Dahls (3.13) vs. Mack Pilsner (2.98)
For
our first matchup, we were all surprised by how close it was. Austmann is
another respected microbrewery (technically owned by Hansa), and Isbjørn is
Mack’s budget pilsner. Both had a yeasty off-smell, but the Isbjørn smelled
like a warmer fermentation. Austmann had a bright floral, hoppy flavor that was
very clear. In contrast, Isbjørn was malty and toasty with a bit of fruitiness
that you don’t really expect (or want from a pilsner). For my money, Austmann
is the better beer, but neither blew me away. The panel agreed with me here.
Dahls
and Mack were also evenly matched. Mack was a bit drier, but had a bit of alcohol
on the nose, which you shouldn’t have for such a weak beer. Dahls was rich and
full, with a lovely malty aroma and flavor, with a touch of fruitiness and
snappy hop finish. This was a pleasant addition to the flavor, that fit in much
better than the similar tones from Isbjørn. The fruitiness comes from their
local yeast strain. Both are good pilsners for their price, but Dahls moved on.
Dahls
won its matchup with Austmann, winning the North division. This was surprise win
for this macro. Here’s a crazy fact: Dahls was picked as Europe’s best pilsner
in 2023 and has won other Norwegian beer taste tests. It may not have a strong reputation
here in Norway, but it’s a well-respected beer both domestically and internationally.
Who knows, maybe their strong relationship with Garret Oliver of Brooklyn
Breweries has paid off in improvements to their production technique.
Oslo
division
Schous
(3.25) vs. Arendals (3.06), Frydenlunds (3.09) vs. Ringnes (2.7)
This
division features four beers made at one single brewery: Ringnes. All are
separate brands eaten up by Carlsberg.
Schous
is having a moment as a hipster beer, in part, because of its original location
with its iconic façade as one enters Grünerløkka, Oslo’s trendy, gentrification
hotspot. Still, don’t be fooled, this beer has nothing to do with old institutional
brewery. It’s made at Ringnes. My Oslo friends swear by this beer, but the one
time I had it in a pub overlooking the old brewery itself, I was not impressed.
I guess I was wrong that night. Schous had a floral hop aroma, bordering on
perfumy, but still wasn’t overbearing. It made me feel like a stroll in a wild
field after a summer rain. It had a bright, hoppy flavor, but stayed balanced.
I wrote bright three times in my notes, so I guess it’s a bright beer. Arendals
Pilsner was much better than expected. It’s not a beer you see often, at least
not in Bergen. It was balanced with a bready flavor. Still, we all agreed that Schous
was the best choice here.
Frydenlund
was better than Ringnes, but this is just common knowledge. Both had a nice biscuity
aroma, but Frydenlund was a touch more hop-driven.
All
three of us tend to order Frydenlund if we’re looking for a pilsner out on town.
Despite this, all of us chose Schous as the superior beer.
East/South
division:
Nøgne Ø premium Pilsner (3.41)
vs. Seidel (2.3), Aass Pilsner (3.11) vs. CB (2.97)
For
the first round, we see the highest rated beer of the contest versus the
lowest. It was clear why. Seidel was awful. It was slightly sour, sharp, boozy
with a off-putting dirty fermentation character. There was a non-disgusting aroma
with some nice toasty malts and the slightest hint of hops, but it tasted
horrible. In contrast, Nøgne Ø’s selection was hoppy and bright with a balanced
flavor, and a lovely clean hoppy aroma. It was far superior, and easily one of
the best beers of the contest.
I’m
sorry Kristiansand, but your beloved local beer is among the worst in the country.
Aass was just much cleaner. CB was just warm-fermented, dirty, disgust cheap
lager. Just a terrible beer.
The
match up between Aass and Nøgne Ø was the hardest, and most controversial of
the whole contest. Two out of three of us agreed that the Nøgne Ø was better beer
of the two. It was not, however, the best PILSNER. Nøgne’s premium lager was
just too rich and heavy to be the best pilsner. Why does one drink pilsner? To
have multiple, refreshing, thirst-quenching drink with a snappy finish. Aass
succeeded in this respect, but Nøgne Ø was not a drinkable or refreshing. We
picked the inferior beer as the winner. Deal with it.
The
later rounds:
As
we’ve already had the scant tasting notes (that got less detailed as we got
deeper into our 20 beers), we’ll quickly go through the rest of the contest.
The
author feels that 7fjell was better than Dahls, but my partners both liked Trondheim’s
local, for similar reasons for our elimination of Nøgne Ø. This was a democratic
contest after all. I cannot fault Dahls, though. Schous won handily against Aass.
Again, we didn’t think Aass was particularly good, but it was fine. As one of
the cheapest beers in the contest, it had a good showing. Still, we could not resist
Schous’s floral punch, which even edged out Dahls for the overall winner as
Norway’s best supermarket pilsner for under 100nok/L.
The benchmark test
Sure,
Schous is the best Norwegian pilsner, but if you look at our supermarket shelves,
there’s a ton of international for similar prices. Now, if we were to include
them all, this would become a sloppy night, but one beer stands above all over
pilsners: Pilsner Urquell. It even won our Hungarian supermarket light lager
contest a few years ago.
As
much as we liked Schous, two of three of us preferred the classic Bohemian pilsner.
It’s right and malty with that cutting bitterness of the herbal and floral Saaz
hops. It’s a clear beer that gets that bit extra from their aging process. How
could Schous stand a chance?
The
big question:
The
question on most people’s mind though is which is best Ringnes or Hansa, the
big rivalry in Norway. Fret not Bergenites, we chose Hansa in our blind taste test
between the two, but they were similar, and neither were great. No bragging
rights to any of you.
The Bracket:
TL:DR
After
tasting 19 of the best pilsners Norway had to offer, we’ve decided that Schous
is the country’s best. Still, it doesn’t hold a candle to Pilsner Urquell. That
said, there are some quality pilsners to be found at your local supermarket.
The best Norwegian
pilsners we found are:
Schous,
Dahls, 7Fjell, Mack, and Nøgne Ø Premium Lager
The worst
beers in the country that should be avoided at all costs:
Seidel, CB, and Ringnes
Best
deals, quality beers for its price:
Lervig, Frydenlund,
Aass, and Dahls
