Food & Drink

“Beer Bad”: The Rise of Iceland’s Microbreweries

Banned until 1989, beer’s made a serious comeback in the Land of Fire and Ice (and foam)
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Few cultural stereotypes pervade more than the historic image of the thick-bearded Viking male supping ale from a drinking horn. And in the days when the tales of Odin were taken as word, and the Nordic people were traversing the Atlantic Ocean discovering new continents and raiding English shores, it was perhaps an accurate image, as these things go. But whilst the Viking’s relationship with grog is fairly well documented, modern Iceland’s relationship with beer is a far more intricate (and surprising) tale.

For the Land of Fire and Ice is also the land of microbreweries: “There’s been an awakening” our Icelandic guide Fjalar Sigurdarson tells me, “in the last 5 years, many micro-breweries have been sprouting up”. I’m in Reykjavík, where, like the UK, the craft beer reigns supreme. The demand for artisanal ale has a thirsty market here, stoked by the recession, where smaller luxuries have become order of the day. But the appreciation of craft beer takes on a new meaning when you realise that beer was prohibited in Iceland until 1 March 1989.Whilst prohibition might only have lasted 13 years in America, in Iceland it was an altogether more successful (and elongated) affair. In effect from 1915, the prohibition of alcohol was slackened in the early 1920s to allow for the growing trade relations with Spain. “The Spanish imported our Icelandic fish” Fjalar explains, “but in return, they wanted us to import something from them”. As one of Europe’s leading producers of red wine, the Icelandic government relaxed the restrictions on the import of red wine in 1921, as alcohol began returning to Icelandic shores. In 1922, the State Alcohol Company (ÁTVR) was established, and a state monopoly.

Beer on the other hand, was a different matter, and its ban was debated repeatedly amidst heated rhetoric over the ensuing decades: “There were apocalyptic speeches about what would happen if the ban were lifted”, Fjalar says, smiling, “but beer banning was a relic of prohibition. It was never outright banned; it just wasn’t permitted”.

“There were apocalyptic speeches about what would happen if the ban were lifted”

Despite the legalisation of alcohol in 1935 – and the creation of brennivín by the ÁTVR, a national schnapps that earned the nickname “the Black Death” – the movement to legalise beer production only began to gain real momentum in 1980. But curiously, Fjalar points to something else as the turning point in the war on beer, and an altogether more unexpected ally… “In 1986, we got a new TV station in Iceland”.

Where previously, only one state operated channel was available, a second, privately owned station (the cannily titled Stöð 2, ‘Channel 2’) set up operation. And as you might expect from a country with only one state-run channel – RUV, who also stopped programming for the whole of July every year up until 1983 – Stöð 2 ran a lot of British and American television to fill their schedule, much of which, naturally, featured beer consumption. “They showed sitcoms and staples like Upstairs Downstairs, and ‘Allo ‘Allo”, Fjalar remembers, the latter set in a French café that seemed to serve more beer than brioche. Finally, in 1989, the government lifted the ban.

Iceland has been making up for lost time ever since. 1 March is National Beer Day, and the country (which has a tiny population of around 320,000 people) now boasts a dozen micro-breweries as well as two major breweries. Icelanders consume 45 litres of beer per capita every year* (though they’re still behind the UK, where in 2010, we guzzled 74 litres per capita).

“Despite the legalisation of alcohol in 1935 – and the creation of brennivín by the ÁTVR, a national schnapps that earned the nickname “the Black Death” – the movement to legalise beer production only began to gain real momentum in 1980”

In 2011, major brewery Egils’s won the coveted title of ‘World’s Best Standard Lager’ with Gull, and other major brands Viking and Thule (made by Vifilfell, the Icelandic fanchisee of The Coca-Cola company) also proving popular. But it’s the micro-breweries that are really seeing a spike in interest: Ölvisholt Brugghús’s smoked imperial stout, Lava, is widely drunk in Reykavik, but also further afield in neighbouring Scandinavian countries, and now in the United States and Canada.

Ölgerðin own microbrewery Borg Brugghús, who took home the coveted title of ‘Europe’s Best IPA’ in 2012 with Úlfur (Wolf), andEinstök micro-bewery is also fulfilling international ambitions shipping its beers – Pale Ale, White Ale and Toasted Porter – to the UK and US markets.

From lager to red ale, wheat beer and stout, Iceland is producing its own range of beers for domestic and international markets. A personal favourite is Steðji’s Korona, a delicious and fresh lightweight citrus Pale Lager, which we enjoyed over lunch. But whatever takes your fancy, odds are, Iceland has it covered. Just don’t expect to be able to pronounce any of the names…

*Information relates to 2010 international beer consumption figures, taken from a report produced by Kirin Holdings Company