Christmas beer - Ægir
Ægir is a microbrewery, which also was founded in summer 2018. They specialize in brewing beer for others. If you are a hobby brewer and developed a recipe you think is really good, they will work with you to perfect it, brew it and market it.
They have four different Christmas beers and I did not really like any of them.
The first one I tried was Heilög Eilífð Barrel Aged Pastry Stout. An imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels. The bourbon taste is really strong and I am neither a bourbon, nor a whiskey person (it is rum or tequila for me). I cannot give an objective review of this beer, I could only drink one or two sips before I gave up. The beer was made in cooperation with Kex brewing (a hostel with it's own brewery) and some others.
The next I tried was the Jóli Bæjó, a session IPA made for Mói, a brewing club in Garðabær. I still do not like IPAs, nor do I think they are christmassy and I´m really skeptical of throwing oats into your beer, but it tasted like a not to hoppy, light and pleasant IPA. And I think it is really cool that Ægir gives small brewing clubs the opportunity to produce their own beer for the general public (home brewing is legal as long as it is for your own consumption and not sold).
Next up was Hóhóhó, a brown ale with orange and cocoa husks. Quite christmassy, one can say, basically orange chocolate beer. I did not find the brown ale anything special and the dominating flavours were the orange and cocoa.I don't like orange chocolate, so I did not like the beer (this is what happened if you add a lot of extra flavours to your beer, just stick with water, malt, barley and hops, people!)
Last was Ekkert sérstaklega jólaleg jól (not a very christmassy Christmas). True to name, it is basically a summer beer a light IPA with lime juice. And for whatever reason oats again. This is beer, not porridge, keep the oats out of it! I know I complained about adding flavours to beer just to sentences above, but the lime juice overpowering the IPA here made it better to me. On the can it says to drink it on the beach and yes, I would (as long as it is not an Icelandic beach).
Ægir's business model of cooperating with other brewers lead to a lot of different and experimental beers, not to everyone's liking. If you have a beer idea, give them a call, maybe your beer can be the next big thing in Iceland!
They have four different Christmas beers and I did not really like any of them.
The first one I tried was Heilög Eilífð Barrel Aged Pastry Stout. An imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels. The bourbon taste is really strong and I am neither a bourbon, nor a whiskey person (it is rum or tequila for me). I cannot give an objective review of this beer, I could only drink one or two sips before I gave up. The beer was made in cooperation with Kex brewing (a hostel with it's own brewery) and some others.
The next I tried was the Jóli Bæjó, a session IPA made for Mói, a brewing club in Garðabær. I still do not like IPAs, nor do I think they are christmassy and I´m really skeptical of throwing oats into your beer, but it tasted like a not to hoppy, light and pleasant IPA. And I think it is really cool that Ægir gives small brewing clubs the opportunity to produce their own beer for the general public (home brewing is legal as long as it is for your own consumption and not sold).
Next up was Hóhóhó, a brown ale with orange and cocoa husks. Quite christmassy, one can say, basically orange chocolate beer. I did not find the brown ale anything special and the dominating flavours were the orange and cocoa.I don't like orange chocolate, so I did not like the beer (this is what happened if you add a lot of extra flavours to your beer, just stick with water, malt, barley and hops, people!)
Last was Ekkert sérstaklega jólaleg jól (not a very christmassy Christmas). True to name, it is basically a summer beer a light IPA with lime juice. And for whatever reason oats again. This is beer, not porridge, keep the oats out of it! I know I complained about adding flavours to beer just to sentences above, but the lime juice overpowering the IPA here made it better to me. On the can it says to drink it on the beach and yes, I would (as long as it is not an Icelandic beach).
Ægir's business model of cooperating with other brewers lead to a lot of different and experimental beers, not to everyone's liking. If you have a beer idea, give them a call, maybe your beer can be the next big thing in Iceland!