To prevent oxidation. It was previously used to avoid the off flavours that can develop in a beer containing too much oxygen. Antioxidant can be ascorbic acid or sulphite, formed naturally during fermentation.
B
Bajer
A popular name for beer, originally only for bottom-fermented beer. This type of beer originated in Bavaria (Bayern in German and Danish).
Balling Until 1986, brewmasters measured the extract content of beer in Balling. The unit takes its name from Carl Joseph Napoleon Balling who was a professor at the Czech Polytechnical Institute in Prague and published a series of scientific publications about brewing. Plato has now replaced the Balling.
Barley There are different types to choose from for brewing – two-row and six-row winter and spring barley. Two-row barley is used for malting in Denmark.
Beer The word comes from the Old Nordic alo. It can be seen in the English ale and the Dutch aal, and in the Finnish olut
Beer Drive The delivery of draught beer directly from road tankers.
Black Gold A pale, bottom-fermented beer launched in 1984. Previously called Carlsberg 25, after the special 25 cl bottles it was sold in at that time.
Bottle opener was invented with the crown cork in 1897
Bottle top also called a crown cork. A cap is usually made from tinned metal with a lining of plastic, formerly cork. In Denmark, corks with a wire cage were used until 1936.
Bottles In Denmark, the bottles belong to the breweries and must be returned. Most beer is sold in a standard bottle. There are around 203 million bottles of this type in use. A bottle can be used and re-used around 35 times and has a life of between four and seven years. The current bottle was introduced in 1963, replacing a design from 1949. The bottle contains 33cl.
Bottling of beer is done in a bottling plant. The bottling plant is done in a production line consisting of a rinsing machine, a bottling machine, a pasteurising tunnel and various automated steps for checking cleanliness and filling height, together with packing machines for crates and pallets.
Bottom-fermenting yeast sinks to the bottom during fermentation after having released carbon dioxide – unlike top-fermenting yeast. Bottom-fermenting yeast is used in lager and pilsner.
Brewers Association An industry association that looks after the interests of beer and soft drinks manufacturers. The association was formed in 1899.
Brewing In the brewhouse, starches from malt are converted to fermentable sugars. A special mill crushes malt to grist that is mixed with other grains in water. This ‘mash’ is heated gradually to 75-80 deg. C. The mash is sieved and the liquid, known as wort, is boiled with hops, cooled and sent for fermentation. The remaining spent grain is used as cattle feed.
C
C 25 Carlsberg 25 was a pale, bottom-fermented beer bottled in 25 cl bottles designed by the American Richard Runyon. C25 was launched on the export market in 1968 and in Denmark in 1978. In 1987, C25 changed its name to Black Gold, dropping the Runyon bottle.
Calories An expression for nutritional value that is being replaced by the joule. One kilocalorie is equivalent to 4.18 kilojoules.
Carbonic acid is produced during fermentation. Most of it rises to the surface as small bubbles of carbon dioxide, but around 15% is dissolved in the beer. Excess carbon dioxide can be cleaned and used for putting ‘fizz’ into fizzy drinks among other uses.
Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914) brewer, art collector and philanthropist. Son of Carlsberg’s founder J.C Jacobsen. He started as a tenant brewer in 1876 in a brewery his father built next to his own. The brewery was called Ny Carlsberg (New Carlsberg). He built his own brewery next to it in 1881. It was here he continued the Ny Carlsberg brewery after his father cancelled the tenancy agreement on the first brewery. After the merger of the old and new Carlsberg, he became the company’s first managing director until his death in 1914. In 1902, he gave his brewery to the New Carlsberg Foundation, an independent foundation under the Carlsberg Foundation. He commissioned the Church of Jesus and established the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in 1888. He donated many sculptures that can be found in Copenhagen's squares and roads.
Carlsberg was founded in 1847 by brewer J.C Jacobsen. The first brew on November 10, 1847 is considered Carlsberg’s birthday.
Carlsberg 47 was first brewed for Carlsberg’s 125th anniversary on November 10, 1972. The beer was so successful that it has been brewed every year since as a strong Christmas beer.
Carlsberg Foundation was established by brewer J.C Jacobsen in 1876. J.C Jacobsen left his brewery, Gamle Carlsberg, to the Carlsberg Foundation in his will. The foundation took over the brewery in 1888 and in 1902, Carl Jacobsen gifted Ny Carlsberg to the foundation. The two breweries came under the same administration in 1906 under the name of The Carlsberg Breweries. The Carlsberg Foundation's aim is to support scientific research and the Museum of National History in Frederiksborg Castle. You can read more about the foundation here
Carlsberg’s logo was first drawn by architect Thorvald Bindesbøll in 1888 for the Great Nordic Industry, Agriculture and Art Exhibition in Copenhagen. It first appeared on a beer bottle in 1897 when it was used on a Gamle Carlsberg Pilsner label. It appeared again on Carlsberg Pilsner in 1904 and has been in constant use ever since.
Carlsberg’s name The brewery is named after J.C Jacobsen’s son, Carl, born in 1842, and the hill or ‘berg’ the brewery is built on.
Consumption In Denmark, consumption per person is around 90 litres per person per year.
Crate
Plastic crates were introduced gradually from 1968 to 1972. A crate holds 30 beers and weighs 22.3 kg when full and 2.1 kg when empty. Previously, wooden crates were used that could carry 50 bottles lying on their sides. When full, these crates weighed 42 kg.
Crown cork The brewers’ name for a bottle top The crown cork was invented by the American William painter in 1897. Crown corks were used for the first time in Denmark in 1905 for export beers. Before crown corks, beer bottles were sealed with a cork fastened with a wire basket. Patent bottles haven’t traditionally been used for beer, apart for ‘theatre beer’ because it took so long for waiters to open beer with corks during the intervals between acts.
D
Dipylon means ‘double gate’ in Greek.The gate was commissioned from architect Vilhelm Dahlerup and built in 1892. The Dipylon gate spans the road running through the brewery, Ny Carlsberg Vej, and was the entrance to Ny Carlsberg from the Copenhagen side.
Draught beer Beer that is served from a keg, rather than from a bottle. Beer was originally stored in an oak barrel, although unlike wine, the barrels were coated with pitch so that the wood wouldn’t flavour the beer. Recently, experiments have been made to brew gourmet beer using raw oak barrels. Draught beer is softer when it is served as Carbon dioxide is released.
Duty In 2008, alcohol duty is DKK 50.90 per litre of 100% pure alcohol. The duty for a 33 cl pilsner beer with a strength of 4.6% is 0.33 x (4.6/100) x 50.90 = 77.27 øre per bottle. To which should be added 25% sales tax.
E
Easter brew A bottom-fermented, often dark, beer type with a volume strength of over 5.5% ABV. Easter brew first came on the market in 1905 as a draught beer. Previously, such beers were called March beer (Märzen in German). Before the advent of modern brewing techniques, it wasn't possible to brew in the summer, so the winter brewing season was finished with a strong beer that had a long shelf life.
Elephant is a pale bottom-fermented beer. It has been on the Danish market since 1959. Originally, the beer was produced for export markets in Africa. The beer was popular here and it was said that the label with three elephants had a positive effect, as three elephants were said to bring luck.
Elephant Gate was built at Carlsberg in 1901 by Carl Jacobsen who was inspired by the elephant carrying an obelisk at the Minerva Square in Rome. The four elephants are hewn from granite quarried on the Danish island of Bornholm. The idea for the elephants was Carl Jacobsen’s and the architect was Vilhelm Dahlerup. The elephants bear the initials of Carl Jacobsen’s children Theodora, Helge, Vagn and Paula. You can also see Ny Carlsberg’s trademark - a swastika. Over the gate is the motto: Laboremus Pro Patria – Let us work for our country. From a loggia at the top of the tower, Carl and Ottilia Jacobsen look down on their work in the form of a double bust by Ludwig Brandstrup. The elephants symbolise strength and faithfulness. The tower is a symbol that depicts Carl and his descendents working faithfully for their homeland.
Emil Christian Hansen (1842-1909) was the first leader of the Physiological department of the Carlsberg Laboratory. He became world-famous in 1883 with the discovery of a method for propagating pure yeast. The method has since been used by more or less all breweries and the yeast industry all over the world. The scientific name of this yeast is Saccharomyces carlsbergensis.
Extract A description of the amount of carbohydrates, proteins and salts in wort and beer by weight. Expressed in percent Plato.
F
Fermentation takes place after brewing. The wort is cooled to 8-10 degrees and then yeast is added. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks where the temperature is strictly controlled. During fermentation, the sugar in the wort is converted to alcohol, carbon dioxide and aromatic compounds. After about a week, the yeast is removed. It can be reused about 10 times. The last part of fermentation, where the beer is matured, used to be called lagering.
FF stands for Fine Festival, a pale bottom-fermented beer from Tuborg. It was first sold in 1955.
Foil Aluminium foil used to cover the top of the bottle at the labelling stage, most used on premium beers.
G
Glyptotek a Greek word that means a collection of sculptures. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek was established by Carl Jacobsen in the present day Carlsberg Museum. It was opened to the public in 1882. The Glyptotek on Dantes Plads (Dantes Square) in Copenhagen was inaugurated in 1897. The state and the Copenhagen Municipality paid for the building, while Carl Jacobsen donated his art collection.
Gold Export The name of a pale, bottom-fermented premium beer brewed by Carlsberg. It was launched in 1913, replaced by C25 in 1978, which was in turn replaced by Black Gold.
Grøn Tuborg or Tuborg Green Label The name of Tuborg Pilsner, Denmark’s first pilsner brewed for the first time in May 1880.
H
Hans Bekkevold (1837-1905) was Tuborg’s first brewmaster who created Tuborg Pilsner. It was sold for the first time on May 1, 1880.
Hof a popular name for a Carlsberg Pilsner. In 1904, Carlsberg was the first Danish brewery to receive a royal warrant to supply beer to the court or ‘hof’. The popular nickname came into use the llowing year.
Hops A creeper and a member of the hemp family that can reach a height of 4-8 metres in its cultivated form. Its Latin name is Humulus lupulus. Beer brewing only uses unfertilised female flowers, which give beer its characteristic flavour and contributes to its ability to remain fresh over a longer periods. Hops were used for brewing from the middle ages. In Denmark, hops were grown mainly on the island of Funen. Today, all hops are imported, mostly from central Europe.
Hvidtøl
Hvidtøl or ‘White beer’ is a duty-free top-fermented beer. Dark hvidtøl is lightly hopped with a sweet taste that is achieved by adding a sugar solution, while pale hvidtøl has more hops are added. The name comes from the malt, which was originally air dried, unlike colour malt, which is roasted in a kiln. Until 1847, all Danish beer was top-fermented – hvidtøl. Most beer contained little alcohol, but stronger types were also available, for example, ‘gammeløl’ or ‘old beer’.
J
J.C. Jacobsen (1811-1887) Carlsberg's founder. During his travels in Germany, he learned the method for brewing with bottom-fermenting yeast. He brought the yeast home that established the foundation for modern Danish brewing. On November 10, 1847, he brewed for the first time at Carlsberg in Valby. This date is considered Carlsberg’s birthday. He founded the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1875 and a year later the Carlsberg Foundation, which according to his will became the owner of Carlsberg when he died. He donated money to Danish society, to the rebuilding of Frederiksborg Castle, to the beautification of the Royal Theatre and financed the building of greenhouses in the Royal Botanical Gardens. He was politically active as a member of the Danish parliament and Copenhagen's municipality to influence the development of the fire service, the Copenhagen water supply and fire insurance.
Jacobsen The Jacobsen Brewhouse opened as part of Carlsberg’s Visitors Centre in 2005. The brewery has taken the name of Carlsberg’s founder J.C Jacobsen. The brewery produces speciality beers in small batches called Limited Edition that are only sold in the Visitors Centre and served in the centre’s Bar Jacobsen and a few well-chosen gourmet restaurants. The brewery also produces slightly larger batches of beer for shops, restaurants and bars.
Joule An expression of nutritional value. A pilsner contains 560 kilojoules. The term is named after the British physicist James Prescott Joule (1818-1889).
K
Keg A container for draught beer, generally made from stainless steel. In Denmark, a keg holds 25 litres.
Kiln A malting kiln is used to dry malt. Warm air is blown through the malt, reducing the water content from 45% to 3%-5%.
L
Lager In Denmark, lager is used to describe a dark bottom-fermented beer. From 1880, when J.C Jacobsen started brewing Bavarian beer, until 1880 when Pilsner was introduced, all beer was the dark Bavarian style. In the United Kingdom, lager means all bottom-fermented beer. Danish ‘lager’ beer would be called dark lager in English.
Little Mermaid Presented to the city of Copenhagen by Carl Jacobsen. It was created by sculptor Edvard Eriksen and unveiled in 1913. Carl Jacobsen was inspired to create a sculpture after seeing the ballet The Little Mermaid that was based on HC Andersen's fairytale.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French scientist that proved that yeast consists of microscopic living cells able to split sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This discovery formed the basis for Emil Christian Hansen’s method for pure propagation of yeast.
M
Madonna Carlsberg’s four-masted schooner is called Madonna. Read more on www.madonna.dk
Madonna A popular term for a bottle opener. When the bottle top was invented, the first bottle opener was a hook-shaped tool.
Malt Is produced from barley. The barley is soaked in water (known as steeping) and sprouting before being dried in a kiln. Depending on the temperature and the water content during drying, different types of malt can be produced. During sprouting, enzymes are created. During the brewing process, these convert starch in the malt to fermentable sugar. Malt is used for brewing, but can also be used for whisky and other spirits.
Malt beer A dark ‘hvidtøl’ with a high extract content and low alcohol content. It has a high nutritional value and was previously recommended for children and patients.
Mash The name for the ground malt and water in the brewing process.
N
New Carlsberg was the name of Carl Jacobsen’s brewery, whose trademark, a swastika, was registered in 1881.
New Carlsberg Foundation was established by Carl Jacobsen and his wife Ottilia in 1902. The foundation, which later became part of the Carlsberg Foundation, has the aim of supporting the New Carlsberg Glyptotek and other Danish art museums, to promote the study of art and art history and in general to develop and fulfil the appreciation of and need for art in Denmark. State-approved art museums in Denmark have received works of art from the foundation along with other public institutions including teacher-training colleges, schools, nursing homes and libraries. Read more at www.nycarlsbergfondet.dk
O
Old Carlsberg The name given to the original Carlsberg brewery in 1882. It was built in 1846 but burnt down in 1867. The brewery was rebuilt the same year. After a quarrel, father and son reached an agreement in 1882 that the original brewery owned by J.C Jacobsen would be called Gamle Carlsberg (Old Carlsberg) while Carl Jacobsen's brewery would be called Ny Carlsberg (New Carlsberg). The two breweries came under the same administration in 1906 under the name of The Carlsberg Breweries. Gamle Carlsberg is today the home of the Carlsberg Visitors Centre and the Jacobsen Brewhouse. Gamle Carlsberg’s trademark is a 12-pointed star.
Original gravity measures the density of the wort in Plato. This gives an idea of the amount of sugar and therefore the amount of alcohol in the final beer.
P
Perikles A much-loved character in a Tuborg advert. In connection with the brewery’s 70th birthday, Tuborg asked well-known cartoonists to answer the question 'When does a Tuborg taste best? Among the answers was “Every time!” exclaimed by the tramp Perikles drawn by Storm P.
pH Expresses the acidity of a solution. The expression was introduced by the scientist S.P.L Sørensen (1868- 1939) who worked at the Carlsberg Laboratory. In distilled water, pH7 and all values below 7 represent an acid solution, while all values above 7 represent an alkaline one. pH in beer is around 4. 4.
Philip W. Heyman (1837-1893) Merchant, owner of several abattoirs and an exporter of butter and bacon. He was the driving force behind the establishing of Tuborg in 1873. The company was founded at Tuborg Harbour in Hellerup. It originally comprised several exporting companies, A sulphuric acid factory, a glassworks and an export brewery. He was the manager from 1880 until his death.
Pilsner In Denmark, pilsner refers to pale, bottom-fermented beer with an alcohol strength of up to 6% ABV, typically around 5% ABV. The name comes from the Czech city of Pilsen. Pilsner beer was first brewed by Tuborg in may 1880. The English name for pilsner is lager.
Plato A measure of extract content. The Plato table, published in 1900, is based on measurements of the density of a sugar solution. Fritz Plato (1858-1938) was director of the German weights and measure institution.
Porter Porter - or stout – is a very dark bottom-fermented beer in Denmark. It is often referred to as Baltic Porter. Bottom-fermented porter was brewed for the first time in 1885. In England, from where the beer originally came, porter and stout are top-fermented types. The English beer was favoured by market porters – hence the name.
R
Red Tuborg Tuborg' lager beer, brewed for the first time in 1875. Now it is brewed every year on Tuborg’s birthday. It was first officially called Red from 1923.
Reinheitsgebot A German decree issued in 1516 by Duke William IV of Bavaria. The regulation states that only malt, hops and water could be used to brew beer (yeast was added later). The decree was aimed to protect Bavaria’s brewers and agriculture from foreign imports.
Return deposit
On beer bottles and crates was introduced in 1942 with 15 øre per bottle and DKK 3 per crate.
S
Shelf life Since 1985, it has been a legal requirement to put the shelf life on beer labels. Shelf life for beer is 270 days, but strong beers can easily last longer. Shelf life can be shortened unless the beer is protected against light, and is stored in a cool place, protected against frost.
Silver Export A strong lager beer. The name was used from 1937 to 1957.
Special Brew The name of a strong, bottom-fermented beer sold on the international market in 1953. The beer was sold in Denmark from 1955 to 1959.
Spent grain The undissolved parts of the malt left after the brewing process that is left after the wort is filtered. This spent grain is sold as cattle food.
T
Tax bands A graduated scale was previously the basis for taxation of beer. The individual bands gave limits to the amount of alcohol contained, originally in Balling, but later Plato. The number of bands has changed significantly over the years since taxation of alcohol was introduced in 1891. From October 1, 2004, the banded system measure in Plato was abandoned in favour of a sliding scale dependent on the beer’s actual alcohol content. Beer under 2.8% ABV is free from taxation.
Taxation Denmark introduced beer taxation for the first time in 1891 to raise money to provide old age pensions. Duty and sales tax accounted for 41% of the retail price of a beer in 2006.
The Carlsberg Bequest was established by brewer J.C Jacobsen in 1938. The bequest aims to practical, socially beneficial activities, particularly in connection with science.
The Golden Words are from J.C Jacobsen's will that established the guidelines for the operation of his brewery. Carl Jacobsen also made them his own and had them inscribed on the Dipylon Gate. They are still relevant today:
In working the brewery
it should be a constant purpose,
Regardless of immediate gain,
to develop the art of making beer
to the greatest possible degree of perfection
so that this brewery as well as its products
may ever stand out as a model
and, through their example, assist in
keeping beer brewing in this country
at a high and honourable level
The King’s Brewhouse was Denmark’s oldest brewery and is first mentioned in 1443. The building with the characteristic high roof by Frederikholm’s Canal in Copenhagen, was built by Christian IV in 1618 as a brewery. The brewery originally supplied beer to the King’s household and the Danish navy. Later the brewery was moved to Langebro in another part of Copenhagen. The brewery was transferred to the ownership of the Copenhagen brewers’ guild and later became a partnership. One of the owners and managers was J.C Jacobsen’s father Christen Jacobsen who was a brewer in Copenhagen. The King’s Brewhouse became part of the United Breweries in 1891. The King’s Brewhouse’ strong top fermented beers were recreated in 2007 as a gourmet brew.
The United Breweries was formed in 1891 by several smaller Copenhagen breweries, the best known of which was the King’s Brewhouse. The move was instigated by Danish industrialist C.F. Tietgen. In 1894, Tuborg also joined the organisation. In the following years, a wave of mergers and rationalisations led to a reduction of the number of production sites to three: the King’s Brewhouse in two separate breweries and Tuborg. In 1970, the United Breweries and Carlsberg merged. The merged company was the called the United Breweries. This was changed in 1987 to Carlsberg, to avoid confusion with another brewery called the United Breweries, and Carlsberg was best known overseas.
Thirsty Man The subject of a Tuborg poster that has been in use since 1900. The poster was entered by the artist Erik Henningsen as his contribution to a competition to celebrate Tuborg’s 25th anniversary.
Top-fermenting yeast has the property that it can be lifted by the carbon dioxide bubbles as they are produced during fermentation. In this way, the yeast floats on the surface, unlike bottom-fermenting yeast. Top-fermenting yeast is used to brew hvidtøl and ale.
Tuborg was founded as Tuborgs Fabrikker (The Tuborg Factories) by the harbour at Hellerup on the initiative of the merchant Philip W Heyman and a group of merchants and industrialists including C.F. Tietgen. The idea was to establish a series of companies that could make good use of an export harbour.
Tuborg Bottle Tuborg’s exhibit at the Great Nordic Industry, Agriculture and Art Exhibition held in Copenhagen in 1888. It offered a view over the showground and contained Denmark’s first hydraulic elevator. The bottle stands on the site of Tuborg’s industrial area in Hellerup. The bottle is 26 m high and could contain 11.5 million bottles of beer.
Tuborg Foundation is part of the Carlsberg Foundation. The foundation was established in 1931. The foundation works for socially beneficial aims and supports Danish business life.
Tuborg’s name Tuborg started its business on the coast next to a weekend residence built by Jonas Thue in the 1600s. The property was called Thuesborg, later shortened to Tuborg.
W
Wort The name for the liquid that is left after the spent grain is filtered from the mash, and before yeast is added for fermentation.
Y
Yeast Is a single-celled organism, measuring around a hundredth of a millimetre. In the plant kingdom, yeast is a member of the fungi family. It is split up into wild yeast, baking yeast and wine yeast. As beer yeast, it exists in two forms: top-fermenting yeast and bottom-fermenting yeast. In 1883, professor Emil Chr. Hansen of the Carlsberg Laboratory developed a method for propagating a pure single-celled yeast.