The Fun & Quickly Growing Tradition of Craft Christmas Beers in Iceland

All Things Iceland

Because I’m very much in the holiday spirit, I’m dedicating the next two episodes, this one included, to Christmas related content in Iceland. Today, I have a special guest that has been on the show before, and that is Ólafur S.K. Þórvaldz, also known as Óli the brewmaster at Ægir Brugghús. Icelandic Christmas beer has quickly become an important part of the holiday season for brewers in Iceland and for those who enjoy drinking the beers, such as myself. Because of this, I thought it would be fun to have Óli pick his top 5 favorite Icelandic Christmas beers from craft breweries for this episode.

To be fair, he picked four beers and was nice enough to let me include my favorite one. Full disclaimer, my favorite is not from a craft brewery by Icelandic standards but as Óli points out in this episode, all of the breweries in Iceland would be considered craft breweries if you compare it to the U.S. or other countries with much larger consumption. We did this Icelandic Christmas Beer tasting virtually. We’re both tasting the beers and talking about what they tasted like to each of us. We also talk about the growing trend of Christmas beers in Iceland, give some travel advice and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu99ZHJmyH4

The Icelandic Christmas Beers we Taste Tested During the Interview

1. Jóli Bæjó by Mói Ölgerðafélag

2. Ekkert Sérstaklega Jólaleg Jól by Ægir Brugghús

3. Ris a la Sour by Smiðjan Brugghús

4. Grýla by Ölverk

5. Egils Malt Jólabjór by Ölgerðin

If you like to try beers, I definitely recommend coming to Iceland during the Christmas season. The amount of variety on offer is quite a lot for such a small country.

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