Christian Firtal Pale Ale Festival 2016

Since its more humble beginning as the pub’s ten years anniversary celebration, Christian Firtal Pale Ale Festival has become an institution on the local beer scene in Odense. It’s a celebration of hoppy beer, and more than 100 different beers will be on tap during this weekend. Lots of Danish beers but also hoppy beers from around the world.

It all begins tomorrow, Thursday 5 May at noon, and until Saturday night, beers will rotate twice a day. Every day at opening, and again at 6pm, all the beers will change, meaning that 40 different beers will be served each day. It’s Ascension Day tomorrow, and it’s a public holiday in Denmark, meaning that every year, there is a sunny weekend in May where Danes have Thursday off, and often also Friday. All in all, the perfect time for the three day Christian Firtal Pale Ale Festival.

The beautiful thing about Christian Firtal is that it caters for beer geeks and completely normal people alike. I can go there and taste 60 different beers a day, and other people will just come and drink a few pints from their favourite brewery. And there will be plenty of candidates for favourites. Among them a probably a couple of brand new beers.

Sampling different beer is encouraged though. You can buy sample size, or regular sized beer. For the sample size, you buy tokens sold in bags of ten. And during the festival, using tokens is actually the cheapest way to drink your beer, cheaper than buying pints.

Amager Springtime in Tårnby is brewed especially for Christian Firtal Pale Ale Festival. It’s promised that it will be a juicy little session IPA. It’s 5% ABV, and brewed by the most hopalicious brewery in Denmark, Amager Bryghus. The brewery is in the lovely little Amager town of Tårnby, for those wondering about the name.

Ugly Duck Obama is a new 4.8% pale ale, from one of the other great hoppy breweries in Denmark. It’s a rather dry pale ale, brewed with the juicy and tropical Mosaic and El Dorado hops. In November, Stefan and Jesper won the local home brewing championship, and won the right to brew a beer at Ugly Duck. Stefan works at Christian Firtal, so of course it had to be a pale ale, and of course it had to be ready for this weekend. I have already tasted it, and it’s great. Looking forward to try it on tap!

On Sunday there will be left-overs, as some of the kegs that were taken off at the daily beer change will be on again. And there’s hangover barbeque, which I’m sure will be a great way to end a great weekend. Oh, and a final little revelation. On Friday afternoon, you can meet the blogger on the other side of the bar. I’ll be working the afternoon and early evening shift.