If all you want for Christmas is … great beer, then put on your Santa pants and stop by Nørrebro Bryghus where they have made a special Christmas menu inspired by that most joyous of concoctions. 

Steer straight for the beer

Beer is very much the focus at Nørrebro Bryghus, providing the inspiration and very often one of the dominant tastes in each dish, but that doesn’t mean to say they don’t take their food seriously as well. 

I recommend you have yourself a merry little (pre)Christmas dinner and go for the beer menu to accompany the food, as it’s safe to say the two work well together.

Pairings come in pints

When the weather outside is frightful, a smoked Jerusalem artichoke soup is delightful. Perfectly creamy and served with crispy ham on top, the first course of the night was well received and went down a treat. The soup was well accompanied by a New York Lager – its taste of caramel and malt worked well with the saltiness of the food.

By the second course it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas, a traditional Danish Christmas that is, when we were served a roasted duck breast and confit duck leg topped off with winter berries and root celery.

Most Danes have either duck or flæskesteg for Christmas, and the duck served at Nørrebro Bryghus definitely lived up to this Dane’s expectations. 

A brewery secret

The bird was served with the brewery’s Christmas beer, an offspring of its Ravnsborg Red with some added Christmas spices – which we unfortunately were informed is a trade secret. 

But we were told they had added banana extract, which brought to mind foam banana sweets at first. However, after a few sips, it began to taste more like brunkager, the Danish Christmas cookies, with a hint of cinnamon. 

This was our favourite beer of the night; the sweetness served a nice balance to the very tender and tasty duck.

Diversity in every taste  

Since Nørrebro Bryghus opened in 2003, its beer philosophy has been to ensure it offers diversity in flavours. There has to be something for every taste; whether you prefer sweet or bitter, light or full, you are guaranteed a unique beer experience every time. The beer menu gave us a taste of this diversity, even though we only tried out four different ones.

The third course consisted of Swedish and Danish cheeses served with a quince puree and malt along with a Bombay Pale Ale on the side. The more fermented beer complemented the cheeses, and it was nice to have a lighter beer after the very full and sweet Christmas beer.

Careful how you go

By the last course and the fourth beer, the Sweet Beast from the East – a Baltic porter, potent at some 7.9 percent – it had become clear we wouldn’t be driving home for Christmas. The beer tasted a bit like a mixture of coffee and liquorice, and it went well with the classic Danish Christmas dessert, the chilled rice pudding.

The last beer was a bit too heavy for us, so instead of finishing it we chose a refreshing rhubarb cocktail to end the night, and then we tiptoed home before we turned into two red-nosed reindeers.