Stauning is the Ballast Point of Denmark

Recently it was revealed that Ballast Point was acquired by Constellation Brands for 1 BILLION DOLLARS

This is a brewery that some of you might have never heard of

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/11/ballast-point-acquired-by-constellation-brands-for.html

It looks like small operations can be a gold mine, as the same thing now happened in whisky

Today it was revealed that Diageo is gonna invest 10£ million in the small danish distillery Stauning

http://www.business.dk/detailhandel/spiritusgigant-skyder-100-millioner-i-vestjysk-mikrodestilleri
(danish)

http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2015/12/distill-ventures-buys-stake-in-denmark-distillery/
(english)

Investing 10£ million in a small farmside distillery like Stauining basically means that Diageo is going to build a 10£ million distiilery on the west coast of Denmark

The similarity between these takeovers is that the money involved is around the tenfold of what I would  have thought possible

Diageo never ventured into any small european distillery before and at the same time they seem to have stopped any expansions in Scotland, so this is very interesting news. I wasn't expecting this move to be honest. Maybe they will move into other world distilleries as well ?

24 Bars in Aarhus - part 4

Bryggeriet Sct. Clemens

Sct. Clemens Brewery. This is named after the patron saint of Aarhus. 

Sct. Clemens brewery is actually a brew restaurant: Not many people come in there to just drink beer. When I visitid, I was told I could go sit my drink my beers in the cellar. I was the only one there. This was a thursday early evening. Ant decent brewery taproom would be swarmed with people. Maybe it's because this is a restaurant, maybe it's because the beers here are not very exciting. This place has been around since 2000 or before, and it's like they haven't found out that the beer scene in Denmark has moved. A lot. 

Pretty place

Alone in the cellar

I had a small serving of each of their 3 beers on offer. It was 10-12 years since I were here last time, and the beers tasted exactly the same. 

The food looked good, I have to say

The staff was nice, but this place has waiters, not bartenders

Sct. Clemens website is here

The 24 Bars in Aarhus map is here

Would I recommend this please: No, not really. Average beer, and no atmossphere. If you wan't to eat, maybe.

24 Bars in Aarhus - part 3

Cockney Pub

Cockney Pub is a cozy pub in the shopping area in Aarhus, It's an english style pub. There is a chance to find cask ale on one or two taps there. Otherwise there is around 16 taps and you can beers from breweries like Wintercoat, Fur, Adnams, Fullers, Midtfyns, Skands, Hornbeer and more

On bottles there is Sierra Nevada, Omission, Samuel Smith, Jopen and many more

There is a decent selection of whiskies, amongst which I spotted Lagavulin 12 for a steal, Laphroaig 18, Balvenie 21 Portwood, 6 Highland Parks, including Svein, Harald and Einar

Music: Low and relaxing

Staff: Friendly and knowledgeable

No food

The bad thing about this pub is that it is a smokers pub and almost all customers smoke. In the summer it's nice to sit outside and watch the lively alley, and there is also a non-smoking section, but the smoke from the bar is hard to keep out

What I drank:

Cockney Imperial Stout, a nice stout brewed by Wintercoat Brewery especially for this pub

Cockney's website is here

The 24 Bars in Aarhus map is here

Would I recommend this please: Yes, if you can cope with the heavy tobacco

This beer bar is the no 5 beer bar in Aarhus according to Ratebeer, assuming the just opened Mikkeller Bar will take up a top 4 position

24 Bars in Aarhus - part 2

Cafe Le Coq

Cafe le Coq is another cafe in Aarhus' latin quarter. To me this is more a french bar than a cafe. It's an official Chartreuse bar, and there is a big selection of various Chartreuse's available. Cafe le Coq is really two places, Of which none is like a cafe. It's the bar I am visiting today, but it is also a restaurant. The restaurant is in an adjacent room

Cafe le Coq on a rainy day

Whisky: Not much here. Jack D and Tullamore for the drinks. Glenlivet 12 and Laphroaig 10 for the sippers. I think I remember one o tow more fancy bottles in the restaurant: This is a Chartreuse place, so try one of the many chartreuses if you come by, some of the Chartreuse bottlings are vintage 

Beer: 4 taps. One Mikkeller, I have seen Mikkeller Berger and Peter, Pale and Mary on tap, which are both delicious american pale ale/IPA style beers. Troubadour Blonde, a belgian blonde is the other special beer on tap. The last two taps are standard danish pilsner and classic style beers, which won't excite any beer entusaiasts. There is also a bit of bottles beer available and the selection is very nice

The day I visited there was 3 different from Beerbliotek, Blanche Namur, a couple of Chimay, Lindemans kriek, Hancock, Erdinger, Dupont avec les Bons Voeux and one from Mikkeller

All these are also available in the restaurant next door, and Le Coq is one of the only, if not the only restaurants in Aarhus that serves world class microbrews and beers to go along with the food

Music: Nice relaxing background music which I liked

Food: There is a good restaurant next door

Staff: Friendly knowledgeable staff 

What I drank: I had a couple of bottled beers from Beerbliotek, a swedish gypsy brewery

Hip Hops IPA

and the very excellent Imperial Mocha Latte Stout.

Le Coq's website is here

The 24 Bars in Aarhus map is here 

Would I recommend this please: Yes

24 Bars in Aarhus - part 1

Café Englen

Aarhus has a small city for a danish city this size. Aarhus is 2nd biggest town in Denmark and no doubt have the 2nd best bar scene behind Copenhagen. But as we have this small city center everything is within walking distance, wherever you are

About a handful of small cobblestoned streets and alleys is called the latin quarters. In the latin quarters there is many french/italian inspired restuarants and cafe's where guests go for brunch, lunch, dinner, drinks and coffee.

The first bar in my bar advent calendar is one of these, Café Englen, which translates to the Café of the Angel

Cafe Englen on a very rainy November afternoon

Whisky: The selection is supreme for a cafe of this style. Among the bottles I did spot these:

Teaninich 73 Scott's Selection

Deerstalker 18 Balmenach

Green Spot Old Bottling

Laphroaig 12yo 1992 OMC

Macphail's 10yo 60.5%

Middleton Very Rare

A couple of Stauning's from Denmark

and a lot of other nice bottlings

The whisky shelves at Cafe Englen

Beer: Not a very interesting selection. Draft: some Carlsbergs, one Leffe and Kronenbourg 1664. Ale no 16 and Thy Økologisk Humle were the most exciting things available on bottle

Food. I didn't eat, but the steak burgers I saw carried in looked very delicious 

Music: I liked the relaxing background music

Staff: Nice

What I drank:

Macphail's Gold 106

60.5% ABV equals 106 imperial proof. Old style oily nutty flavoured speysider. A little treat to start of this advent calendar I say

Cafe Englen's website is here

The 24 Bars in Aarhus map is here 

Would I recommend this please: Yes

Aarhus

A tribute to Aarhus

This year, beside my traditional whisky advent calendar, I will visit 24 bars in Aarhus.

If you have never visited Denmark or Aarhus before, I can tell you that my city, which might be somewhat unknown to the international tourists, is well worth visiting a couple of days as tourists

The three main attractions are

Aros the art museum. I am not the biggest fan of art museums, but this place is really nice. Try photo google it and you might get a hint

Another great place is MOMU, the Viking museum, at the southernmost end of the suburbs. Did you know the one of main sources of roman time armoury (swords and that kind of stuff) was just outside Aarhus ?. And have you ever heard about the Grauballe-man ? The best preserved body from the milleniums back. Forget about mummies in Egypt!

Last fine museum is The Old Town which is a museum the size of a whole neighbourhood

But beside this, Aarhus has a great city centre. It's not that big, as Aarhus grew big quite late, but it does accomodate our 300000 citizens excellent. Shopping centres, shopping streets, the latin quarters (Small, but cozy) and an abundance of good restaurants and waterholes. Mind you, Aarhus is a student town, and we don't get that many tourists, so most places have to rely on locals, which means returning customers. So you have to be good and cheap (Cheap on the danish scale). And we also have Michelin restaurants if that's your turf.

Now, this is a whisky blog, so the next 24 days I will present a local bar to you, here on my blog. Visiting all 24 is my advent calendar this year. I do have my handful of regulars, which offcourse will be included, but I will also visit some alternatives and some new places. The focus will be beers and whisky, but some of these places serves delicious food as well. I know a lot (most) of my visitors are from abroad, so now it's time to present my hometown

And trust me, we do have a few really great bars here. No dress codes, this is a relaxed town

All the links are to google photoes

4 from Compass Box

Compass Box got a lot of press lately, but how is these whiskies that got all over the news last month ?

Here is my take on 4 of them, with 4 short reviews. I want to check out a new colour setup of the blog. So I am doing a speed tasting of 4 whiskies and soing some short notes and thoughts

1. Hedonism Quindecimus 46%

A blend of grain whiskies from 5 distilleries at varying ages.

Soft laid back grain nose, with custard vanilla. The palate is quite woody for a grain, not very spicy as some grains can be. A very nice an easy drinking grain, with

Rating 84/100

2. "This is not a luxury Whisky" 53.1%

A blended whisky 10.1% Strathclyde, 6.9% Girvan, 79% Glen Ord and 4.0% Caol Ila

The nose is warm with a hint of peat. A bold and nutty flavoured whisky. There is not much Caol Ila in this blend but the peat is always lingering in the background. There is a bit of dried fruits, a box of raisins come to the mind. This is more power than delicate. The finish comes in with a little creamy vanillaness

Rating 85/100

3. Flaming Heart 15th Annivarsary 48.9%

A blendend malt. Caol Ila, Clynelish, Teaninich and Dailuaine. Married for a minimum of 2 years in active new french oak hybrid barrels

The french oak is the first thing that hits me with this typical virgin oak crisp vanilla both on the nose and the palate. Another nutty flavoured whisky, with a nice spicy dry woody mouthfeel. Quite delicate compared to the first two. This is also a tad more sweet than the first two offerings. So far this is my favourite. The sweetness adds a nice balance to this whisky. The finish is fantastic, where suddenly medicinal notes appear, and medicinal, thats my favourite tasting note :-). Think old leather Ardbegs,

Rating 88/100

4. The Peat Monster 10th Anniversary 48.9%

A blended malt of Caol Ila, Clynelish, one of the Kildalton malts and another Highland malt.

This is a whisky designed for the sophistaced peatjunkies. Some will say that's an oxymoron, but there is a few of us out there!

Peat, vanilla and spice. There you go. Quite a bit of oomph and the alcohol burn do tell me this is probably younger than the other 3 I have tasted tonight. While the approach is a little fierce the finish is where the complexity hits and I end up in a very feelgood mode

Rating 85/100

This was a nice session. It's fun to taste this blends where the whisky gets a chance to pull their weight, as the whisky is bottled at a proper strength