Skip to content

Tag: brewery

First Stop: London

First Stop: London

Published on 9 October 2026

A trip to Scotland inevitably—for me at least—includes a train change in London. This time I really made the most of it, and included a visit to a museum, a brewery taproom, and an Indian restaurant for dinner. 

Of course of all days there was a national strike in Belgium today, disrupting public transport quite a bit. Luckily the metro and tram lines I needed to get to Brussels Midi station were still running, albeit less frequent. 

When I arrived—well ahead of time—the Eurostar terminal looked slightly different from last time… I soon found out what changed: whereas the British border control had been an automated passport scan for a quite a while already, the Belgian side now has similar gates as well. No human interaction at all required anymore! 

After boarding, I quickly found my comfortable solo seat, number 61. Not the one The Man in Seat 61 usually books, since his is in Premier class, while I was ‘just’ travelling in Plus. Note to self: check which power socket a booked seat has, because a UK plug and a USB-C cable aren’t much use when the seat only has a EU socket and USB-A outlet…

Plus class includes a light lunch, and today it was a grilled courgette and marinated fennel salad bowl, with Sicilian gemelli pasta with tomato, capers and olives, and basil ricotta. 

After arriving perfectly on time, I first headed to a Stasher location near Euston station, to store my bag for the day. After a rather short night, I was desperate for a coffee, so I headed to Origin Coffee Shoreditch for my first one. 

I picked that area to be already near the Museum of the Home, a free museum I hadn’t been to yet. It turned out to be quite nice! Although you start to feel old when the more recent interiors seem very familiar…

Time for another coffee at Gram’n Degrees, mainly to kill time until the Great Beyond Brewing Co brewery taproom opened. At the brewery they were still in full Oktoberfest mode, but luckily had some non-lagers—brewed in house, of course—as well!

Since my stomach was still on Belgian time anyway, I decided to beat the Friday night dinner crowd and head to Punjab restaurant early. I had one of their specialties, the Acharri Murgha, with some garlic naan and a mango lassi of course. Delicious!

After picking up my bag, I made my traditional stop at Euston Tap, for a last pre-train beer. Or three… 

The Caledonian Sleeper guest lounge wasn’t too full when I arrived, and I had my room key, some shortbread and Irn-Bru in no time. 

After boarding, I headed to the Club Car to hand in my breakfast card, and secured my stool at the window bar. While I was enjoying a Black Isle beer, the Caledonian Sleeper London Euston – Fort William departed perfectly on time. Just 925 km in 12h45 to go…

Misery Fest 2026

Published on 25 July 2026

It had been way too long since I had been in beautiful Harzé to visit Misery Beer Co.… After a failed attempt last year, I finally made it to their birthday festival again this year!

When I visited their opening festival, there was a bus going all the way from Brussels. This time, there was just a shuttle bus from Liège station. It suited me just fine, since this way I had time for a coffee first.

The festival itself was all what I expected: great beers by Misery and three guest breweries—L’Ermitage, Verdant, and Pophin—terrific music, and tasty food. It was a hot day again, so I skipped the imperial stouts, but I tasted pretty much everything else.

After the last band, it was about time to get on the shuttle bus to the train station again. Some would come back the next day for more beers and different groups, but for me, just the one day was enough…

C-C-C-Copenhagen 

C-C-C-Copenhagen 

Published on 19 June 2026

The last full day of my trip! And it has everything: croissants, a castle, a Copenhagen museum, a craft brewery, coffee, crunchy onions, and crisp beers…

Since there didn’t seem to be any nice breakfast places nearby, the prospect of enjoying a croissant while seeing the city from the tenth floor, and a rather strict schedule in the morning, I had my breakfast in my WakeUp Copenhagen hotel. 

The strict schedule was enforced upon me by my Rosenborg Slot ticket: whereas all other tickets I bought in advance just specified the day, for this one I had to pick a specific ten minute slot, and risk being refused entry if missed… It was worth the hassle though, because the castle was a lot more connected to Danish royalty than I realised, and some of the items on display are still occasionally being used by them! 

The time-sensitive part over, I could relax with coffee at La Cabra, and a standing lunch with a spicy grillmedister hot dog from one of the Den Økologiske Pølsemand stalls. 

I then headed to Københavns Museum, a museum I somehow only noticed the day before as I passed it on my way to another museum, but was definitely worth a visit. 

Back in the centre, I checked out the Torvehallerne. I already knew the Mikkeller & Friends Bottle Shop would be there, but I also seized the opportunity to have frikadelle smørrebrød at Hallernes Smørrebrød. 

My brewery of the day was BRUS, where To Øl CPH has a small brewkit, and a lot of nice beers brewed right there, or wherever To Øl brews in bigger volumes. 

Too Old To Die Young was just a five minute walk from there. While it still exists as a brand, the bar didn’t really have a connection to any brewery, or at least not anymore, so they explained to me.

Then it was time to solve the mystery of the Koelschip, or is it the Mikkeller & Friends bar? Well, it’s still not any clearer, but I received a stamp for each in my Mikkeller Passport, and was able to claim my first free beer here. 

A quick coffee and a sweet snack at Coffee Collective, but across the street I noticed a craft beer bar I had not heard of yet: Haven. Well, I had to pop in there as well, of course!

My last beer stop in Copenhagen was Peders, another atmospheric basement bar. Since the next day would start way too early, I then called it a night. 

Danmark!

Danmark!

Published on 17 June 2026

A new day, a new country! Well, actually Danmark was the only one of the Scandinavian countries I had actually been before, although I didn’t see much of it, and I definitely didn’t try the craft beer bars then…

But before I even got there, I still had a couple of hours to go on the MS Nordic Crown. Since the sun rises quite early that far north, so did I, and before eight, I was already enjoying the very extensive breakfast buffet, again in the Kull restaurant. 

Since I had already packed my bag, I had plenty of time to observe the arrival process. It certainly seems to be precision work!

Finally back on land, I hopped on the train for a couple of minutes to get to my hotel. To my delight, Wakeup Copenhagen already had a room ready for me. That meant I wouldn’t have to come back to check in, saving me quite a lot of time.

Just down the street was one of many Original Coffee outlets, which satisfied my coffee needs for the morning. 

Then it was just another short walk to the National Museum of Denmark. There I learned that Danmark once was quite a bit more imperialistic than I ever realised. 

After a coffee and a rye bread smørrebrød with chicken at Sonny, I headed all the way to Mikkeller Baghaven, which was not even on my original itinerary, because it was quite far…

A bus and a metro—with a light show in the station—then brought me back to another hip part of town, for a coffee at Prolog Coffee Bar. 

Just around the corner was Fermentoren, an awesome, quirky beer bar I would love to have in my neighbourhood. 

But I really had to go to Warpigs Brewpub for at least some of their locally brewed beers, and some of their Piggy Poppers.  

For a proper dinner I went to Chicky Grill, where I had Flæskesteg (roast pork). Love a bit of pork crackling!

After that I was up for a few more beers: one at Mikkeller Bar Viktoriagade—they didn’t have more than one that appealed to me on the menu anyway, but I did get my stamp—and a few more at the half-in-Tivoli-embedded Anarkist Bar.