Icelandic Beer Saga

Hey everyone Keiran here,

Sorry about the delay since my last post, Clark has been on at me to get another up as it's my turn but I've been very busy recently. But I am just back from a wee break in Iceland with my girlfriend and I thought I would let you all know about the beers I've been drinking up there.

Kirkjufellsfoss Iceland

As Clark promised this one is not about IPA's, I've got a few different beers I want to talk about so I may go on a bit long but trust me not a single IPA in sight.

Now Just as a heads up I did have some great pictures of these beers and of the scenery in Iceland, but I have broken my phone so I can't share any of these with you unfortunately, so instead I'm just going to use pictures pulled from the breweries websites.

Ok so it's hard to decide where to start but I am going to begin with Einsök Beer Company. This is the only Icelandic beer I have ever seen sold in the UK so I was excited to see what they had to offer in Iceland. The brewery is located just 60 miles south of the Arctic circle which is awesome.

Einsök Beer Company

I had three beers from Einstök on my trip, the first was the one that I had also had back in the UK. It's the Icelandic Toasted Porter (Woohoo first non IPA beer on the blog!) which is a great example of what a good porter should be. It's smooth, rich and has a good coffee flavour with notes of chocolate. Unlike most porters they actually add roasted coffee to the brew instead of just roasted malts so the coffee flavour is really on point. The malts in this one are Lager, Bavarian and Chocolate, which give a nice full body and the hops are Bavarian, but there isn;t much of a hoppy taste in this, it's really all about the malts. At 6% it goes down nice and easy and you can happily spend a night nocking these back, it goes particularly well with a a nice bit of meat, I had it with Icelandic lamb it was blown away by the food and the beer.

Einstök White Ale

Ok I'm going to stick with the Einstök Beer Company just now and run through their other beers I've tried before I move on to another brewery. Now I know I said there was no IPA's in this post at all, but that was a little bit of a lie. Einstök have an Arctic Pale Ale which while it technically isn't an IPA I would definitely say it is (sorry everyone). The Arctic Pale Ale is a great hoppy session ale at 5.6%. The first drink from this hits you with a lot of Cascade hops which gives it an American IPA character but the Northern Brewer hops used in the bittering process make this distinct and separate it from other beers in the style. Definitely worth checking out if you ever get the chance, it's hoppy but not crazy and good for warming you up in the cold Icelandic winter.

Last beer up from Einstök is the White Ale, now this isn't a beer I would usually drink because I'm not big on wheat beers but I did enjoy it so here it is. It has that classic wheat beer aroma but the taste is a little different from others I have tried. It has a slightly spicy note towards the end which comes from coriander but it leaves a nice sweet citrus taste behind. This is a really crisp and refreshing beer and although I wasn't very excited about trying it, it really won me over.

Craft beer in Iceland is a relatively new thing, in fact beer in general is a new thing for Iceland. From 1915 until 1 March 1989 beer was illegal to sell and make. Since then they have been drinking beer and importing most of it from other Scandinavian countries like Denmark. But in 2006 Iceland got its first craft microbrewery, in a small town called Árskógssandur in the north of the country. In fact it is even further north than Einstök, but I couldn't get the latitude for this one. The brewery is called Bruggsmiðjan Brewery and they make Kaldi beer there. All the ingredents for the Kaldi beers come from the Czech Republic, except the water which comes from the Sólarfjall spring. The Icelandic water is extremely pure and perfect for brewing. The Brewmaster at Bruggsmiðjan is also from Czech Republic so the beers really have a lot of central European characteristics.

Unfortunately we were staying in Reykjavík in the south of the country so I couldn't go and visit these breweries but there is a Kaldi bar in Reykjavík city centre which as luck would have it was only a 2 min walk from my hotel.

The Bruggsmiðjan Brewery Kaldi logo

We spent quite a few nights hanging out in Kaldi Bar, our first night was Saturday and the place was really buys and had a great atmosphere. On the Sunday and Monday it was a fair bit quieter but still one of the busiest bars in Reykjavík. I was able to get some info about the beers and the brewery from the staff there on the quieter nights, and they really knew their stuff.

Kaldi Chocolate Porter

First up is Kaldi Dark, this a dark pilsner similar to a dunkle. This is a very malty beer with very little bitterness and a lot of sweet notes. The Kaldi Dark has a great roasted malt flavour without being as strong or as full on as a porter. If you are not big into porters but enjoy a malty ale or lager then a beer like this is a great drink for you. It's only 5% and it opens up the flavours of roasted malts while still being light enough to go down like a lager (Clark that bit was for you, try a dunkle and get into porters!). This was the second beer that Bruggsmiðjan Brewery ever made, and with a beer like this as one of its foundations it is easy to see why they have done so well.


If a dunkle is a little light for you and you prefer an out and out porter then Kaldi have you covered on this one too. They offer a great 6.5% chocolate porter. Originally brewed as a Christmas beer in 2015 it is now part of the seasonal range and I got a fair few pints of this while I was in Iceland this year. In keeping with the Icelandic way off adding the flavours they want directly to the beer this beer has Icelandic chocolate from Nói Síríus added to it. when mixed with the roasted malt this has a great effect and it really works. The beer is full bodied and smooth like a good porter should be and the chocolate flavour is strong and easily identified without overpowering the beer, which I'm sure must have taken a lot of work to achieve.

Right one last beer from Kaldi then I'll move on to the last brewery I want to mention. This is another beer that was brewed as a Christmas special that was so popular it was added to the seasonal range and has come back every year since. This is one from 2008 and is just known as Christmas Kaldi. It's a 5.4% amber ale with some spice and fruit notes. This one really warms you up to the core, which is helpful in land of ice and snow. The main base of the flavour is from the malt and as with most of the beers here it is a great full malt taste with very little hops. Instead the aroma and subtle flavours in this beer come from spices. I had some difficulty in getting the exact spices for this one and the closest I got was just being told it is spiced beer. Given the taste I would definitely say there is some nutmeg in there which would make sense for a Christmas beer, but I'm not as good with spices as I am with hops.

Borg Brugghús logo

Last but not least the final brewery up today is Borg Brugghús, this brewery is located in Reykjavík but I didn't realise this until I had already left so I didn't get a chance to visit them. They have a huge selection of beers and I only had a chance to try a few, but of the once I did I have I think I found my favourite beer in Iceland, but I'll save that one for last. the names of all the beers from Borg are derived from the Icelandic stories and legends (know as Sagas) but they all have a number to help tourists like me.

Borg NR. 19 Garún

The first beer from Borg I had was the NR. 45 Askasleikir. This one is another amber ale and like a few of the other beers I've mentioned it has a slightly strange ingredient added to it. It's not really clear why this was added but the beer includes volcanic ash in it. I didn't really pick up much from the ash so I'm not totally sure what it is adding, but with that said its still a great beer. A fairly typical example of an amber ale this beer is light with some fruity notes, and it reminded me a lot of 5am Saint from BrewDog. 

Ok its time for the last beer of this post, and this really was my favourite beer of my trip. It's the Borg Icelandic stout, NR. 19 Garún. This is an imperial style stout and it comes in at a massive 11.5% which is nice and strong. As with the porters I've already mentioned this has a rich coffee and chocolate taste, but this also has notes of liquorice in it. The base of this beer is roasted barley as with most stouts and porters but the addition of roasted rye malt really gives this beer a distinct flavour which I have not come across before. the flavour is fantastic and along with the strong alcohol in the beer meant I couldn't stay away from it. There isn't much in the way of hops again with this, just enough to add a little bitterness and aroma but very subtle. For my trip this was the stand out beer and I am going to be keeping an eye out for it back home and I might even order some direct from the brewery.

So there you have it, an account of some of my favourite beers from Iceland. There were plenty more I didn't even get a chance to try but all in all a successful holiday with loads of great beers.

I will try to get another post in before Christmas, hopefully I have enough time. I also have something special planned for the new year so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Sorry this one was so long, there was just a lot of beers I wanted to mention. Thanks for sticking with it and reading. 

As they say in Iceland, Skál!

Keiran