Icelandic Beer History & Culture with Óli the Brewmaster – Ep19

My love of delicious beer and curiosity about Iceland blended together perfectly when I sat down to chat with Óli, the brewmaster at Ægisgarður brewery. While there are bigger and well known breweries in Iceland, I was drawn to Ægisgarður for a few reasons. The first is that I got married in that brewery in 2017 and I had the pleasure of attending a beer tasting earlier in the spring of this year. Óli conducted the beer tasting and dropped some major knowledge about Iceland’s complicated history with beer and other types of alcohol. After that, I just knew that I needed to chat with him about his role as brewmaster, the complicated history that I mentioned, and how the beer culture has evolved in Iceland.

The Questions I Asked Ólafur About Icelandic Beer History & Culture

  • Iceland has a complicated history with beer and other types of alcohol, can you talk a little bit about that history? How has the beer culture evolved?
  • When did you first become interested in brewing beer?
  • What is your favorite type of beer?
  • What is the weirdest brewing combination that you have created or tasted?
  • Is there any type of beer that Icelandic people seem to drink the most?
  • Today, there are a decent amount of small craft breweries in Iceland and the variety of beers is amazing. When did the small craft brewery scene take off here? Do you think it will continue to grow?
  • Why do you think beer and other types of alcohol are so heavily taxed in Iceland?
  • If there was only one Icelandic beer you could recommend that people taste, what would that be?
  • What is your favorite Icelandic word or phrase?

Inside of Ægisgarður brewery in Reykjavík Iceland

Visit or Contact Ægisgarður Brewery

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Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega

Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!

About the Author
Jewells is a native New Yorker that fell in love with an Icelander and now lives in one of the most fascinating countries in the world. As the host of the All Things Iceland podcast, she shares about Icelandic culture, history, language and nature. When she is not making podcast episodes or YouTube videos, you can find her attempting to speak in Icelandic, hiking up mountains, reading books and spending time with her family.

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