TIps on Drinking Copenhagen

After a short holiday in Copenhagen, I have a few drinking epiphanies:

1. Bartenders in Copenhagen are excellent.  I saw so many outstanding examples of beer service, style explanations and patron-to-beer matching that I'm not even going to give a specific example for fear of offending by omission. The service industry is not only working hard to grow craft beer in their community, they are providing insight and education as well.

2. Bring money. Not a shocker, but it's so easy to spend monopoly money, especially when numbers in Kroners are about 5.5 times higher. The numbers are so big that I just started to blow them off.  But, a 50 Kroner beer is a nearly $10 pint. Smaller glasses run 25 to 35 Kroners, but it adds up quickly.

3. Walk and ride. The public transportation is great. It's one subway ride from the airport to the heart of the city. Occasionally using the metro, we walked most everywhere with little effort.

4. Wear a waterproof jacket. Copenhagen, at least over the holidays, was in near constant overcast with significant drizzle or dampness. Never really raining hard, I pulled out my umbrella once to protect my snow-of-Minnesota appropriate wool coat from getting soaked.  From watching the locals, just dress like it's Seattle.  Layers go a long way toward adjusting to the on-again, off-again sunshine, temperature changes and the ever looming darkness.

5. Danish beer geeks are knowledgeable and friendly. We found true believers of craft beer almost everywhere. Great time interacting with locals and not-so-local lovers of good beer. Careful, Danes can more than hold their own drinking.

6. Don't forget Sweden. The train ride to Malmo is just over a half hour.  It's a pretty city in its own right, bagging another country is fun, and all of this comes with the joy of Malmo Bryghus.

7.  Beer for all.  Reading over my hit list for this trip, the cross-section of bars and brewpubs range from upscale like Nørrbro Bryghus to divey local like Lord Nelson and whatever one wants in between.  There's a real egalitarian feel to the beer drinking in Copenhagen.  Drinking is a part of Danish life and beer drinkers seem to hit wider cross-section of society compared to a pub atmosphere in the US.