In most people’s minds, the notion of a beer is something perhaps connected to Belgian beers or having an ice cold pint in an English or Irish pub. Certainly not something Iceland would be famous for. It is definitely an overstretch to claim that Iceland is famous for its beers. However, for a country where beers were banned until 1989, Iceland has surprisingly many quality beers today, only 25 years later. In fact, in the recent years, microbreweries have popped up almost like a wildflower in Iceland and each year a new beer is added to the growing list of Icelandic beers.
While this change is positive for Icelandic beer enthusiasts, for a foreigner this can be tricky. Some folks might have the chance and stamina to taste the whole range, most people that visit Iceland might just stay for a too short time to be able to do that.
There is no doubt that some beers like Egils Gull (Gold) and Viking are Icelandic classics but there are far more exciting options out there nowadays. Even though it is hard to pick one over the other, here are my favorite:
Kaldi
Kaldi is an Icelandic beer, brewed by a Czech recipe and only from the best possible materials. This beer is as healthy and fresh a beer can get, with no added sugar nor preservatives. Kaldi is brewed by Bruggsmiðjan, microbrewery which additionally produces Stinnings Kaldi which is brewed with an Icelandic mountain herb. This gives the beer an additional earthy taste. The name of Kaldi comes from the Icelandic cold winters and literally means ‘cold’. However, Kaldi also means cool in Icelandic.
Here is from their website:
“Bruggsmidjan Kaldi was founded in 2006 by Agnes and Ólafur.
Ólafur had been a fisherman for 26 years but in 2003 he got injured in his knee during his time at sea. Ólafur and his wife, Agnes, were looking at difficult times because there was no other work in their little town Árskógssandur. Everything was about the fish during that time.
Two years later, in June 2005, Agnes was watching television when she saw an interview about a Microbreweries and their overall increasing popularity around the world.
The interview was about a small microbrewery located in Denmark.
At that time there were no microbreweries in Iceland, only two large mass production breweries, Vífilfell and Ölgerðin.
Agnes had always talked about how lucky they were to have such good and clean water in our little town that comes out of a spring from a mountain that stands above Árskógssandur, then she got this crazy idea: Let’s open a microbrewery!
You would think that it took a while to convince her husband but that was not the case and only a week later they were off to Denmark to visit that same brewery she had seen on the news.
The Danish brewery helped them a lot and gave them good ideas and advice, they pointed out that Czech beer has good quality style and ingredients.
The Czech Republic is famous around the world for their quality made and unique beer.
This trip to Denmark inspired Agnes and Ólafur and they saw a chance to make a new beer for the Icelandic market.
They wanted quality made beer with a lot of taste so they chose a Pilsner style beer, made by the century-old Czech brewing method.
They had two choices, buy a recipe or get their own brewmaster to make their own beer from their ideas.
They chose the second choice and by a miracle, they got in touch with David Masa through a brewery equipment manufacturer.
David is a Czech brewmaster in the fourth generation and has studied brewing for 9 years. He has specialized in helping microbreweries get on their feet all over the world
In October 2005 they made purchase agreements on brewery equipment in the Czech Republic and in December that year Bruggsmidjan Kaldi was formally founded.
In March 2006, a 380 square meter sized house rose in the small town Árskógssandur, population 100.
Árskógssandur is located 35 km from Akureyri and 12 km from Dalvík.
The first beer was brewed on August 22nd and first bottling on September 28th.
Kaldi formally opened on September 30th, 2006.
Our goal was to make a high-quality beer and chose the best ingredients available. All ingredient comes from the Czech Republic and then we use our Icelandic water that comes from a mountain called Sólarfjall.
The outcome is Kaldi: Icelandic beer, brewed by century-old Czech method, unpasteurized, without preservatives and added sugar.
