If Carlsberg did museums… oh they do! Copenhagen, Denmark

Zagan the motorhome is parked up right outside the gates of the old Carlsberg Brewery (N55.66475, E12.52962) in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the smell of what is probably the best beer in the world wafting all around him.

Prime position by the gates on the busy little street outside the gates of the Carlsberg Brewery

Yesterday we had planned to hire a couple of bicycles from the marina (30 Sek per bike) and cycle into Malmö, but the wind and rain persuaded us to stay snug in Zagan and put Malmö on our ‘places to see next time’ list. I ventured out a few times to the main building behind us to get a couple of loads of washing done for 50 Sek (strangely that price was for as many loads as you wanted), but other than that we stayed put and watched movies while Zagan rocked in the wind blowing south down the Öresund.

This morning Zagan got a hoover out before it was showers, breakfast and off to another country – Denmark. A quick stop at Willy’s – I’ve been chortling about the name since we got to Sweden – supermarket to spend the last of our Swedish Krona on milk, bread, and some fishy Swedish treats. Then we were off to country number 34 – Denmark, although we’ve just discussed that it should be 36 as we’ve been to Scotland and Wales, but list them under UK.

There was only one thing that stood between us and Denmark, the Öresund Straight. Before 2000 we’d have had to catch a ferry across the straight, but now they’ve built the lovely Öresund bridge. Not all the way across though, as that would be far too sensible and easy. When the bridge reaches Pepper Island, about 4km away from the Danish coast, it dives underground and becomes the Öresund Tunnel. This last section under the water means any sized ship can go through the straight and also reduces the chances of ice blocking the straight in the winter. Of course we were silly excited about going over the bridge, so after we paid our 350 Sek at the toll booth, we turned on the video camera so you could drive over it with us.

Oresund Bridge Tolls – once again being under 6m saves us a few quid.

Popping up out of the ground we’re in Denmark, and while things look pretty similar to the other side of the bridge, it is busier and more bustling than Malmö seemed to be. That could be in part to the roadworks, which had us weaving around the place and annoying satnav by not taking the road she wanted us to.

We skirted around the edge of Copenhagen to a free parking place that Adam and Sophie from EuropebyCamper stayed at a few years back – Adam is an expert at finding free places to stay, and while this is a couple of kilometres outside of the centre, it is right outside the Carlsberg Visitor’s Centre. It isn’t outside the Carlsberg museum, which is full of paintings and statues, we’re outside Visit Carlsberg, The Copenhagen ExBEERience!

It was now 2pm and we didn’t feel like walking into the city centre, but with a brewery visitor’s centre next to us, and a lack of beer in the van, what else was there to do? We headed over and each paid our 95 Danish Krones (DKK), another new currency, we’re dividing this one by 10 too for a vague pound value, and were given a little map with a couple of beer tokens. We like beer tokens. Lured into the brewery (the visitor’s centre is based in the old brewery building) by the promise of the world’s largest collection of unopened beer bottles (some would say ‘what a waste’), we didn’t think of nipping to get one of our free beers to sup on our way around like others did. It was probably a good job, as there was loads of information to take in.

The World’s Largest Collection of Unopened Beer Bottles – 16,894 here, more elsewhere (no probably, it actually is)

It seems that the Danes had been brewing for many years before Carlsberg came along. The discovery of Egtved Girl’s remains in 1921 included a bark bucket in her coffin, at the bottom of which lay a thick brown deposit. When the contents of the bucket were analysed it became clear that it had contained a fermented drink – probably beer sweetened with honey. Egtved Girl was a Nordic Bronze Age girl who died in 1370 BC.

In 1805 a commission was set up to investigate the 100 or so brewing houses in Copenhagen, as there were complaints of not enough beer being brewed and what is brewed being of poor quality. Our favourite quote of the day was from a consumer back in then: “In my small household, beer is often lacking for 8 to 14 days… at these times my children must go either to the water pump, if the water is drinkable, or I must with sadness see them become weak on tea water”.

The museum then took us through the years up to 1847 when Jacob Christian (J.C.) Jacobsen founded Carlsberg, naming it after his son Carl and a mountain (Berg) as the brewery was built on a hill outside Copenhagen. Carl grew up and followed in his father’s footsteps, by starting his own brewery but it seemed it wasn’t all that harmonious, so after some fighting/discussion it was decided that J. C’s beer would be called Gamle Carlsberg (Old Carlsberg) and Carl’s Ny Carlsberg (New Carlsberg), so as not to confuse people. We were already confused by this point.

Staff enjoying some of their 4 litres daily allowance, which was reduced to 2 litres (now it’s just lunchtime drinking – do you remember the new story about the strikes when that happened?)

Can you spot Zagan?

Like Coca-Cola, Carlsberg is everywhere

New Carlsberg unfortunately took the Swastika as its logo, and until the 1930’s emblazoned on everything from bottles to huge stone elephants. A paper note next to several bottles in the museum explains that the symbol was in use way before it as adopted by the Nazi party, but these days it is still quite shocking to see.

Old Carlsberg and New Carlsberg

We carried on all around the old brewery, mesmerised by steam driven-machines to mix the mash, peering into tunns and eyeing up our reflections in the shiny copper coopers. We then got to meet the dray horses, who no longer deliver the beer around the city, but are now ambassadors for Carlsberg, appearing at events and offering rides around the beer yard. Finally we made it to the ‘free’ beer.

This 1950’s poster tells you that a Carlsberg has the same nutritional value as the other items!!

Bottling plant

Jay chose wisely going for the Porter, which of course was the strongest one available, while I opted for a Sommersby Cider – yes they are brewed by Carlsberg, as are many, many other brands that we didn’t realise. As we supped I downloaded the app for the visitor’s centre and played its beer brewing game. The app kept taking me back to the start, so by the time I managed to get all the way to the end, I was a master at tapping the screen to grind up the grains, shaking the phone to mix the mash and swiping to heat the brew.

Enjoying our ‘free’ beers, surrounded by beers dressed as wine

As we sat in the bar supping another ‘free’ beer, we did the actions together, four hands are better than two, and submitted our score under Jay’s name. The top score each hour won a free beer, but it was getting on for 5pm, last orders. We checked with the bar man if we could still get our beer after 5pm when the results would be known, he smiled wryly saying not many people have worked it out, but yes if we won we could claim it. And of course, we did win, so Jay got another beer, this one was actually free.

Another free beer, and this one is free!

As we sat in the bar waiting for our big win at 5pm we watched a coachload of tourists from China come in, use one token to get a beer, taste it and leave it. We needn’t have bothered with the app, we could have just asked them for their second token or collected up their hardly touched drinks and had a right bender. As it was, one cider for me and a few beers for Jay and we were happy enough.

We headed back to Zagan and took Charlie for a walk. The brewery covers a huge area and the sites around it are being redeveloped as housing. We walked through the ‘Star Gate’ which was the entrance to the Old Carlsberg Brewery, then along Louis Pasteur street (large scale production of lager beer was only made possible by his work) to the buildings of the New Carlsberg Brewery – yes they were right next to each other.

Entry to the ‘Old Carlsberg’ Factory

Carl Jacobsen – the son and founder of the New Carlsberg Brewery

Carl Jacobsen and his wife were huge fans of the arts. He found inspiration in Bernini’s obelisk-carrying elephant in the Minerva Square in Rome, which led to the creation of the Elephant Gate – where visitors to the brewery are greeted by four life-sized elephants.The elephant is a symbol of loyalty and strength and characterises Carl Jacobsen’s Latin motto “Laboremus pro patria” – We work for our country.

Of course Carl and his father made up in the end, the two companies merging to be simply Carlsberg. It’s always good to have a happy ending.

We loved the Elephants!!

Ju x