Danish Beer - Part I (Carl's Beers)

When I grew up the beer market in Denmark was pretty homogeneous. First of all the market was almost completely dominated by breweries Carlsberg and Tuborg, their standard brews 'Carlsberg Hof' (Carlsberg Court) and 'Grøn Tuborg' (Green Tuborg) being probably the only 2 beers sold nationwide. Of course, there were other significant breweries - such as Ceres, Faxe, Harboe, Albani, and Hancock - but their beers were not as broadly available (i.e. only regionally or in certain stores). On top of that beers sold pretty much exclusively in dark green glass bottles (selling beer in cans was illegal in Denmark at the time) most of the breweries using the same standard recycled bottles (a relatively high price for the bottle themselves were part of ensuring a high rate of recycling).

Secondly, but perhaps even more importantly, almost all Danish beers then were pilsner style beers. My own mother has always claimed to prefer Grøn Tuborg over Carlsberg Hof, but I've always doubted if she could actually tell them apart in a blind tasting. And most of the others were quite similar too. To be fair, there were variations - Carlsberg has been making a porter as long as I can remember. Also, I think all the breweries had their own stronger beer (still pilsners, just higher alcohol content) such as 'Carlsberg Elefant' (Elephant), 'Carlsberg Sort Guld' (Black Gold), 'Guld Tuborg' (Gold Tuborg), and 'Harboe Bjørnebryg' (Bear Brew). And then there were the seasonal beers. Several breweries released special beers which were only sold around christmas and easter, respectively. Typically, these were stronger and darker beers, although usually only darker by virtue of being added caramel coloring rather than by brewing differently.

For many years this seemed to be fine. Danes appeared content to be getting mainly pilsners. But during the 1990's something happened. People started being more interested in different types of beer. Imports were on the rise. And in 1997 Carlsberg held a "beer election": A number of new beers (I think 5 or 6) were introduced for a limited time (several months) and by the end of it the customers voted for which of these should be continued. And since then Danes have had the joy of Carl's Special (unfortunately it is not exported), which is admittedly another pilsner style beer, if a little darker - but it is, IMHO exceptionally good. More importantly, this was the beginning of a new trend changing the beer market in Denmark.

Since then the line has been extended - the seasonal Carl's christmas brew and Carl's easter brew came quickly, and more recently Carl's Porter and Carl's Ale (pictured) were added.