Sheep herds? There must be. Yes, I say - yes! And likely a few gulls, too, with this much being sold:
The Icelandic love of specially-made Christmas beers knows no bounds this year…that is until all of it has been sold. Nearly 500,000 litres of Christmas beer have been sold in Iceland so far this year — and that does not include sales of ‘normal’, standard beers which are available year-round. The most popular Christmas beer is once again Danish; but its Icelandic competitors are close behind. Already by yesterday 473,000 litres had been sold since Christmas beers became available in the middle of November.
Do you see what I mean? I mean, Iceland has only 320,000 people and Christmas beer was only released in mid-November. So, that is a lot of beer per person - man, woman and child - over the last five weeks or so. If this chart has any meaning, I don't see any difference in strength for these beers. We read it's a bit darker, has more taste. What the hell does that mean? Jolabjör seems to have a cultural place that might be not quite explicable. This blog seems to suggest it's a "cross between mulled wine and a barley wine... a sweet and spicy beer with a rather large body" but also, disconcertingly, requiring "typical goat taste."
Good luck to them. Good Yule. Enjoy the goat taste.
Comments
Steve Lamond - December 23, 2011 3:42 AM
The Danish Easter beers were pretty tasty when I visited a few years ago, but the local Winstock brewery wasn't really brewing then. Strange place alcohol wise though! A lot of people hold down multiple jobs (maybe less so after the economy collapsed) and yet still find time to go on long pub crawls into the wee small hours. Over Christmas/New YEar people stay indoors and get completely blotto
Gustav F - December 23, 2011 8:12 AM
I believe the jólabjór is fairly similar to christmas brews across Scandinavia: A dark lager related to Munich Dunkel and Bock. The Danish beer is probably the 5,6% Tuborg Julebryg, sold as Tuborg Christmas Brew in export markets.
Knut - December 23, 2011 8:55 AM
Bock taste, not goat taste, that makes a bit more sense, doesn't it?.
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, Alan!
Alan - December 23, 2011 9:02 AM
Saved by Knut! Yes, I figured that was what that meant - but how does the Google algorithm get from "bock" to "goat"?
Ed Carson - December 24, 2011 9:05 AM
Maybe bock=goat in the Icelandic/Danish branch of the Germanic languages. Most of the bock beers I've had always had some sort of goat on the labels. Gleðileg jól og Hamingjusamur Nýtt Ár!
Glædelig Jul og et Godt Nytår!
Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues Jahr!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Elli - January 30, 2012 6:00 AM
hi,
me and my friend have this website, it is all about Icelandic beer. if you have any question about beer from Iceland we would be happy to answer them.
www.bjorspjall.is (it is in Icelandic)
Alan - January 30, 2012 8:49 AM
Hellooooooooooo!!!! [Waves to north east.]