Tuesday, March 13, 2012

More great places to have a pint

A while ago (http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-places-to-have-pint.html) I mentioned some pubs I have particular enjoyed when I am on holiday. I always try to seek out places where better than average beers and whiskies are served. Good beverage is usually followed by good food as well.

Here is a few recent favourites

1. Christian Firtal - Odense

A cozy pub right in the city center of Odense, Denmarks thirdlargest city and the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. This pub is named after the danish king Christian IV. Here's a selection on a tuesday night :


The turnaround is great, there's often a new beer on every night, and especially the "Humlehaner" section is being hit a lot (it means "hoppy taps"). Great atmossphere, and the place can be very busy on weekdays as well!. The staff is knowledgeable and they got a great selection of whiskies as well. Even the whiskybar has a great turnaround, so there's often new bottles on this shelf as well. Cadenhead is the main bottler on the shelf 

An example of a fantastic beer I had here : St. Austell's Proper Job

2. Park Way Tavern - Tacoma, Washington

Beer Randall


A very cozy tavern, with very friendly staff and guests. Around 20-30 taps, of which one is american cask ale. Every monday at 5 PM they do a Randall. A Randall is basically infusing a beer with extra flavours. The day I was there, they had the tube filled with a few extra hop varieties and some orange and citrus zest. The latter had the biggest impact on the new beer. This is the kind of pub I wish I had in MY neighbourhood

3. Russian River - Santa Rosa, California

On a my holidyas in the US I so far managed to visit around 20 craft breweries, ranging from the excellent and very big Sierra Nevada to a range of small microbreweries and brew-restaurants. The latter is a very common thing to find on the west coast US. Russian River is my favourite so far. Their restaurant is located in Santa Rosa just north of the Bay Area in California.

Left blackboard at Russian River. RR IPA was my favourite

Right Blackboard

A tasting set, this is done by all the craft breweries

Russian River is an outstanding brewery. I've been visiting around 15 in a week, and they were all nice encounters with a range of tasty beers, but the Russian River brews just blew my mind away. This is a world class brewery. As you can see, they have something for everybody, and a few friends that are into the stronger, belgian ale style kind of beers, possible wood aged tell me that the right side has a range of world class beers as well. I was stuck on the left blackboard, as I was driving, but I do like hoppy, fresh, lower ABV IPA's and the varieties made at Russian River was a delightfull way to spend an hour for lunch break. And the pizza was good as well-

4. Black Ox, Prague

If you are walking around Prague, visiting the major tourist attractions, don't forget to pop into the Black Ox. Or as it's called in Czech : U Cerneho Vola. It's one of the few remaining traditional czech pubs left in the castle area in Prague

Pivnice U Cerneho Vola on Loretta Square

On tap is FRESH Kozel and maybe also Pilsner Urquell, what more can you ask for. Don't forget to taste some of the local food snacks, like marinated camembert (hermelin) or topinky, which is a czech version of bruschetta (and a lot better)


5. Brew Dog, Edinburgh and Glasgow

Edinburgh and Glasgow is an abundance of great pubs. If you fancy something a wee bit different, why not try the excellent Brew Dog Pubs. In Edinburgh is very close to the Royal Mile, and in Glasgow is just opposite Kelvingrove art Museum. There's 5-6 Brewdog beers on tap, and a few guest beers, like Mikkeler. Great food is served as well

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