Or, at least, future vacation destinations. How could I resist a place that has a Devil’s Brewery, Bryggeriet Djævlebryg, and markets a godless beer?
Gudeløs
Type: Imperial stoutData: 8.9% alc/vol, OG app. 1.090, IBU app. 65
What? Bryggeriet Djævlebryg and the Danish Atheist Society have entered into an unholy alliance and the result is “Godless”: This first batch is a somehow accessible imperial stout with its 8.9% abv. It offers burnt notes from the malt mingled with sweet nuances and a warming depth from the alcohol. This brew is primarly aimed at members of the Atheist Society, but it will also be available in selected shops and bars. In these times, when companies are expected to show social responsibility, we in the brewery have decided to follow suit: For each bottle or draft sold we donate 1 danish crown to the Danish Atheist Society.
It sounds like the antithesis of Coors…and that’s a good thing all around.
It could read “THERE IS A GOD AND YOUR GOING TO HELL FOR NOT BELIEVING” and I’ll drink it if it’s a good Imperial stout.
Now because it is named godless, well, all the better.
The photos accompanying the articles on the Danish Atheist Society’s page really make me wish I could read the language.
This is the reason why we swedish go to Denmark to buy alcohol. That and the taxes.
They still can’t speak properly though. Must be all that beer, I guess.
This in particular.
Who knew that angels were all hot blondes who smoked Marlboros and drank Jack Daniel.
Maybe I could be converted….
This is one delicious wine. The name is just based on a legend in Chile, but I love this wine. And when I asked what’s its name, it became a favorite: Casillero del Diablo (Devil’s Cellar)
Great name, awesome flavor.
Bottoms up!
We would gladly welcome you, PZ.
Contrary to what Swede says, howrever, it is the Swedes that cannot speak properly. It has been some time since they were under Danish rule.
The article is about the church losing money and members. Best illustrated by an angel hitting the bottle^^
Do they export to the USA?
Rasmus:
I believe the old saying is “We evolved, you didn’t.”
ZING!
How did I know you’d fixate on that one? :) Honestly, even I found that intriguing. Seems to be something in the air today…all this talk about anointing Glory Zones and such…
Oh we have also evolved. Nothing is static in evolution, you know that :)
We have diverged, but it is not too late for you swedes. You can still interbreed with Danes.
According to a local travel agent, it is one of the more expensive destinations in Europe. Almost on par with Venice.
(she was commenting on our plans to visit my brother who is now stationed in Copenhagen, and my daughter’s desire to visit Venice)
See? Now sex-shop spam on two-year-old threads.
I gotta get me some ;-).
And don’t forget that Quebec stuff we brought you when we were out there…
I didn’t even know we had an atheist society – I guess I’ll have to go look it up if we don’t have a proper secular society.
Swedes speak properly and their orthography is nicely shallow. I really do wish people would stop going on about how great Danish is.
And it’s a stout! Hm, I wonder how Denmark would fare as a honeymoon destination…
The beer sounds rather good. Pity it will probably been pretty hard to get here in the UK.
Still I always have Guinness Export Extra.
And always PZ shows himself to be a person of taste and discernment.
I’d encourage all beer-loving Danes to try out Djævlebryg. They make some mighty fine beer, though I have yet to try “Gudeløs”.
Wow. Venice is super expensive. I had lunch there on my way back from Croatia, and I think it cost as much as all of my meals in Croatia combined. Still, it was worth it. I would love to visit Denmark – I’ve heard nothing but good things.
Can’t help but notice that Denmark, which I certainly loved when I hitch-hiked through it years ago, has an official state religion. So do a number of other highly secular nations, like England. Maybe we should recognize the paradox instead of denying it and we in the US should also have an official state religion (presumably on a rotating basis for fairness) then we too will feel more at ease in treating it the way we do with the rest of the offcial state BS and its beaurocracy…so when some clergy complain about this or that we’ll feel completely at ease ignoring them, and possibly threatening to shut off their pay if they don’t put a sock in it. Subsidise, subduct and subsume…think about it.
PZ – While you are waiting for your immigration papers from Denmark, and since you will be in Denver on Friday, why not give this Imperial a try? If you’re drinking, I’m buying.
Oh, and screw Coors (the Coors Foundation donated $$ to College Republicans at CU-Boulder when I was an undergrad).
Here in Quebec we have Unibroue, the brewer of the excellent Maudite (Damned), Fin du Monde (End of the World), and Don de Dieu (Gift from God) beers.
Well I mean… come on.. its got two of my favorite things.
Whiskey and women.
:)
Be sure to make a Danish Pharyngubrunch or whatever if you come here on vacation! Yeah, we may have a state religion (though probably not for too long) but I lived 25 years before finding out that there are actually people who believe The Flood and Genesis. Before then I wasn’t sure if there had ever been anyone who believed it literally, but I could not have imagined that there would actually be people alive TODAY who believe it.
Sounds like an offer.
Actually, I’ve never met any Danish girls as an adult (there used to be some Danes who lived on our street when I was a kid, though).
Slottskällans Bryggeri in Uppsala does a fine imperial stout, but at 9%, you wouldn’t want to drink a lot of it.
As a brewer myself, I’ve been working on my “Organic Dark Soul Atheists Ale” it’s a black stout with licorice and espresso, high gravity, of course! – still working on designing a label, though. If anyone’s got some graphic design talent….
Sweet, I’ll have to track it down here.
I don’t think I ever knew that, but as an 11-year-old altarboy, I sure believed they were. (In contrast, who but a Catholic priest would envision a world full of harp-strumming cherubs and call it heaven?)
And sduford, I should have guessed the same brewery is behind both Maudite and La Fin du Monde. Even here in the land of Big Rock, those beers are discussed in reverential tones.
PZ is going to be in
Denver this friday? Where? When?
Oh – and Denmark isn’t all that perfect. The gubmint is getting increasingly crazy, reactionary, paternalistic and laissez-faire (at the same bloody time!). And the party that form their parliamentary basis is nothing but a bunch of backwards, nuckfuts, jingoïstic xenophobes.
There is a ‘researcher loophole’ in the immigration laws, but you might have trouble getting your wife with you (trophy(tm) or not). You do get two years with only 25% taxation, though.
Hmm. I wonder if ‘Gudeløs’ is still available here as a custom plate. I am imagining the conversations it might start for me.
Where are these bad angels? I’ve often heard that atheism is some morally void sex, drugs, and rock and roll filled life. Instead I get Dawkins and PZ. Not that they aren’t handsome gentleman, but I think its about time I get some angel hussy benefits that I’m damned to hell for enjoying.
8.9% abv… yes! I’m buying. And a kewl name to boot.
And it’s not only the beer here that’s Godless. Denmark also has Thorkild Grosboel, the priest who openly professed that he didn’t believe in God.
I dunno… drink enough of that, and you’ll be kneeling at the porcelain altar calling Jesus.
They tend to go together.
Don’t know where you’ve been. We’re all over. :)
dark beer + high alcohol content = happy atheist
(if atheist = me, at least)
Can’t help but notice that Denmark, which I certainly loved when I hitch-hiked through it years ago, has an official state religion.
Yep, and since there’s religious education in school, the corollary is that it’s all right for members of atheists groups to discuss atheism in schools, as in one of the ateist.dk news stories.
This quote was interesting:
The chairman of the association for religious teachers says that atheism is an entirely legitimate subject for religion class. Atheism as an ideology can be discussed just as well as buddhism or satanism(!).
(I know you Americans are used to people equating buddhism, atheism and satanism, but this guy might actually be sincere: does it come across that way to native Danes?)
There you go, this is the brew I’m going to import a LOT of from now on.
Det er sgu dejligt at være Norsk i Danmark, heeh ;)
-Internal scandinavian joke people, sorry about that.
But hey, cheers!
One of the most effective boycotts in American history was the boycott of gays against Coors Brewery. Even now, there are still some gay men who will not order Coors. Even though Coors still supports Christian conservatives; they also support many a gay organization as they don’t want another boycott. After all, how much beer do Baptists or Mormons drink!
Darwin Brewery in England makes Evolution Beer!
http://www.darwinbrewery.com/Evolution.html
“Clean, dry and hoppy. A beer to satisfy your thirst and renew your sparkle. Strong enough to satisfy, light enough to refresh. Brewed with pale and specialist crystal malts together with Fuggles and Cascade hops to give a clean and satisfying finish.”
Re: PZ in Denver this Friday.
@38:
Yeah, I’d say the teacher comes across as sincere when saying atheism should be discussed as an ideology on a level with religions like christianity etc. Actually, religion class in Danish schools is mostly of the “history of religion” sort (and that’s all religions, not just the monotheistic ones), with some emphasis on christianity due to it being an important cultural factor in European history (but not being pushed as true).
And incidentally, I’d warmly recommend Djævlebryg beers – I sometimes serve as an external examiner on some courses that Stinus Lindgreen (one of the brewers) teach, and make sure to attend tastings when possible. Hmm, my wife also works with the chairman of the Danish Atheist Society, and he used to study right next to the lab where I did my undergraduate studies. Damn, Denmark is a small country!
Anders has it right. Though I don’t speak
Danish, I speak Swedish, the tone of the comment is that atheism is a suitable world view in a religions class. The comment does NOT equate atheism with anything else.
My favorite Danish beer is made by Thor Brewery in Randers DK.
Ken, er from Kent, er Kent, WA
The problem with Denmark, in my experience (two visits for a total of about 1 1/2 weeks spent in the country) is that the Danes are really obsessed with making sure everyone does things the way they are supposed to be done. Really into order and bureaucracy. And this is the impression of someone who feels comfortable in Germany. Any Danes want to tell me I got it all wrong? Because I’d love to have an excuse to go visit and reappraise the place. (Must admit, though, I won’t be trying the beer. Can’t stand beer, godless or godly.)
Just another concurrence.
Roughly translates to “or whatever”. He’s just pulling out examples – not equating them in terms of substance, truth or value.
Whenever I see Scandinavians making fun of each others’ languages, I am reminded of this:
http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002704.php
Another win for atheist brewers everywhere. Cheers!
Hey, PZ, if you’re a fan of the imperial stouts, there is an awesome variety brewed in the Twin Cities by the folks at the Surly Brewery. Their Darkness is released every fall around Halloween and is the best beer I’ve ever tasted.
http://www.surlybrewing.com/index.php
Hey, PZ, you are welcome to join me here!
I laughed when I saw the article of the society arranging bus tours to Northern England, where some atheist discovered the big bang burnt on a piece of toast bread! (Ateistisk Selskab arrangerer bustur til Huddlesfield i Nordengland! – Ateist ser billede af Big Bang på et stykke ristet brød!) :-D :-D :-D
Well, other Scandinavians think Danes are the easy going, fun-loving types. Make of that what you will.
It’s certainly not the first “godless” beer though. Here in Belgium we have a very fine beer called DUVEL (Dutch dialect word meaning “Devil”) since 1923! It is quite popular actually. It has an alcohol content of 8,5% and it tastes delicious… but of course I’d like to try the Danish one as well!
I have lived in Denmark for nearly a decade now. No country is perfect, but one of its strengths is that it is an almost entirely secular society.
The official state church is almost entirely funded by a 0.5% optional church tax (unfortunately the only optional one). Something like 85% of Danes pay it but those with actual religious convictions must be less than 5%. Why is this? Because they like a traditional ceremony for weddings, funerals and the like and almost nobody takes religion seriously anyway. To summarise, they don’t give a f**k. How refreshing. Separation of Church and State? Who cares? It’s a matter of form over content.
Religious issues simply don’t exist at all in most people’s daily life, the business of government or the media. Those in America reading this, please pause for a moment and try to imagine this.
@52
We get Duvel here in the States, and I have to concur. It’s an excellent beer. If I could go to one place in the world for the sole purpose of drinking beer, it would be Belgium. Say what you will about their silly religion, those Trappist monks make some fine brew.
PZ, you have been warned. Written Danish is a close approximation of the lowest common denominator of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish — but spoken Danish is a complete barrier to communication.
:-o
Scary.
<shudder>
And, yes, Denmark is a very expensive place to live.
Mmmm…. m-m-m-m-m…must be because it’s so dark up north in winter — the Danes get the most sunshine.
Wohl den Dänen und denen, denen die Dänen wohl sind.
It sounds like the antithesis of Coors
Sorry, PZ, but the antithesis of Coors is called simply “beer”.
Youse can complain all you like about Gould and his NOMA thing when it comes to Religion vis-à-vis Science, but NOMA is clearly valid in analysing Religion/Atheism vis-à-vis Beer. If PZ and Dawkins themselves brewed Coors, I still wouldn’t drink it (it is what it is without having to pass through my kidneys first). Conversely, I’d drink Budweiser* or Leffe even if Ratzinger himself were the Braumeister.
* The real version, mind, not the
AmericanBelgo-Brazilian sort!I was advised a long time ago that “a language is a dialect with an army”.
“…and navy”.
Which was first written in one of the more famous dialects, Yiddish:
“A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot” — Max Weinreich
( “אַ שפראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט” )
46 Years ago, on my 5 month plus thumb tour of western Europe, I stopped for a weekend in Copenhagen on my way to Sweden to check out the land of my ancestors. Six weeks later I was almost out of money except for what I needed to get to Luxembourg to catch my Icelandic Air flight home. I still haven’t made it to Sweden.
Oh such fond memories!
A very timely post. I’m off to Europe next week for a tour celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the telescope and will be spending a few days in Denmark. I’ll have to track some of this stout down and try it. Purely in the nature of research of course :)
It’s not on their website but Dragonmead made a beer called Dark Heathen Triple Bock for the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, WI this year. It was very good but their Final Absolution was excellent.
#45
Not a Dane, but I’m an American that spent 4 months in Copenhagen and I’d say it doesn’t seem too wrong of an impression. There really does seem a social expectation for conformity that can be especially jarring as an American where it seems we value individuality more than a lot of other countries. I think this might be contributing to the appeal the of the jingoïstic xenophobic party that Sili mentioned above. It’s not so much being against people from other cultures as it is not liking that people aren’t behaving like “proper” Danes.
Still other than that aspect I loved my time in Copenhagen and want to go back sometime.
The morning after I arrived in Copenhagen, for reasons I no longer remember I showed up an hour early for the 10:30 am tour of the Tuborg brewery. Instead of telling me to wait, the receptionist called a PR guy who took me to the hospitality room where I had two beers before the tour even started. In addition to my impoverished student self, there were 3 or4 other civilians and a group of 6-8 British sailors whose ship was in port. MOst of the sailors were bored stiff with the tour and doing all they could to move things along and get to the hospitality room. They groaned every time one of the rest of us asked a question. Finally the tour was over and they had just brought us our first round of beer when 3-4 Shore Patrol sailor showed up. Two of the sailors on the tour had, against regulations, skipped out of sick bay and they quickly sloshed down those beers as they were literally being dragged out of the hospitality room. Fortunately both they and the SPs played their roles with good humor. I had two or three more beers and the rest of the day was pretty much a lost cause.
Go.
NOW!!
WTF are you waiting for? Make everyone happy. Leave the place you live in and so clearly loathe.
You’ll be needing pizza with that beer. Check out Hells Pizza at hell.co.nz. The best marketing ever – I love ordering “Lust”. You can even sell your soul on line to them as well.
My friend from the MidWest tells me this just wouldn’t work in his small town. Why is that? (Hell is expanding in to the UK soon).
Great Lakes Brewery in Ontario makes “Devil’s Pale Ale” 6.66% ABV. Good stuff, and I generally don’t like blonde beers.
http://www.greatlakesbeer.com/brands.html
By the same token, I cannot help but wonder why nobody, the idiot troll doesn’t take its own advice and stop visiting Pharyngula.
Copenhagen is a really neat city, everyone I met there was friendly, and full of funny stories. Plenty of good beer to drink there, too.
Hey, beer is one of the great successes of Christianity, so at least give them some credit for that!
Don’t know how so many teetotalers arose form the same tradition, though. I’m guessing it’s a gender thing.
Is this Pharyngula or some biker blog? ;-)
Not that I mind but, really, all this stuff about “atheist” beer sounds a bit like the “christian” goods. Although this is a question of taste, not science, let’s face it, the best beers right now are made by monks. I’m speaking of Belgian Trappist beers of course. And, for me, Orval is unique among these. Although Westvleteren’s exclusivity makes many adepts.
The “trick” is the same that makes Belgian beers, not only monkish ones, also the best of the world. Not those known brands cited here but all the different beers from very small breweries located in small villages. Most of these cannot even be found outside Belgium. Very small productions allow very special products.
And Trappist monks can produce the same kind of product (although less diverse) with the same kind of quality and certain advantages. For example the monks are certainly a cheap and docile labour force :-) I don’t mind as this is not like child labour. As my wife says: “Sarna con gusto no pica”.
To make this less off-topic: Never heard of a theory about being beer and not bread the reason for switching from a nomadic to a sendentary life? ;-)
—
El Guerrero del Interfaz
“By the same token, I cannot help but wonder why nobody, the idiot troll doesn’t take its own advice and stop visiting Pharyngula.”
He needs validation from his father figure.
I survived the Great Canadian Beer Festival this past weekend, but saw no evidence of this “Godless” brew. I’m going to have to conclude that it doesn’t exist until someone puts a bottle in my hand.
…please?
Incidentally, Rogue “Hop Heaven” and Victory “Hop Devil” are each darn good beers, but Heaven wins that taste test in my book.
Atheist beer is perfect with Hell Pizza
https://hellpizza.co.nz
And eating it riles conservative christians
http://www.familyfirst.org.nz/index.cfm/Action_Alert/Hell_s_Pizza.html
A few months ago, I read a book, The Exception, by a Danish author. It was an interesting concept, and suspenseful enough; not one of my favorites, but OK. I think one of the reasons I wasn’t crazy about it was that it lacked a sense of place to some extent. I would’ve loved more descriptions of Copenhagen, to get a feel for the tang of life there. Personal preference, I guess. Oh, well – better to visit and find out for myself. :)
Does Denmark have special immigration rules for those who have four great-grandparents who decided that farming in Wisconsin was better than in Denmark?
Drink one in memory of that unmelancholy Dane, Poul Anderson,founder of that admirable Prohibitionist Party, the Alforbundet, whose members yet strive to rid Denmark of the scourge of drink by consuming all the beer in the country.
As 8.9 % alchohol is Imperially stronger than a German reisling ,I reserve the right to try Coors as a chaser.
>>Even now, there are still some gay men who will not order
>>Coors.
That demonstrates that some gay men have tastebuds that work.
You think they’ll send a few free samples to Oz…being as we’re a mostly secular country and kinda related to the Danes now.
Yeah..I know Mary is/was a Tasmanian :p
We’ve had “Duvel” (http://www.duvel.be/) been in Belgium for ages (probably mentioned in one of the comments, but I’m too lazy to read them all)
Drink 5 in a row, you’ll know why it is called that… (I know… Don’t ask)
I’m sure I saw a bottle of beer called “Satan” once, somewhere.
Also, since I brew my own beer I could come up with a beer of my own, and give it any name I like.
How about a nice IPA called “cepholapod enlightenment”?
Well… we have quite a bit of good secular beer before this, but given the current political situation in Denmark where we follow the sad example of the US in violating privacy, you should probably consider Iceland instead and just import the beer.
But, isn’t satan or the devil a cristian concept? So this would not be really atheist would it? Give me a FSM beer anyday, please. Or why not this “holy ale” http://www.blacksheepbrewery.co.uk/Beers/BottledBeers/HolyGrail.aspx.
The beer will be introduced in the USA – but only in Alaska, and only in the Palein edition.
The beer will be introduced in the USA – but only in Alaska, and only in the Palein edition.
Gudeløs … the choice of Freedrinkers the world over.
I am actually in Copenhagen at the moment and I’m glad to see that Bryggeriet Djævlebryg will be at the European Beer Festival this weekend.
A little late to the party – I actually tasted the beer today at the European Beer Festival. It was quite nice – definitely worth trying, if you like dark beers.
The people from the brewery were aware that some big blogger had mentioned their beer, but didn’t know which one.
Damn! That was this weekend?! I completely forgot.
You can still make it today Sili.
#50 Fedor: The sad thing is that a Christian newspaper in Denmark printed an article where that fictional ‘trip’ was highlighted to show how gullible and stupid we Atheists are.
The writer just didn’t recognize it as satire.
A danish priest has teamed up with the brewery GourmetBryggeriet to market a beer called “Himmelkys” (trans. something like “Heavens Kiss” or “Heavenly Kiss”).
They describe it as “a declaration of love from God to his creatures“… A modest claim indeed.
They also state that the beer is made as a direct result of the beer Gudeløs/Godless that we launched in september.
Press relaese from GourmetBryggeriet (in danish, sorry).
Sincerely,
Rune Lindgreen
Bryggeriet Djævlebryg / The Brewery Devil’s Brew,
http://www.djaevlebryg.dk
__________
*May I remind you that Godless is brewed without any added superstition? If anything it is a declaration of my love for good beer … and rational thought ;)
…and just “by the way” (atheist or not): wait until you get your first tax bill after moving to Denmark.. maybe you’ll need a LOT of GOOD beer to get over it – you suddenly will understand why wages *have* to be comparatively high.
The good news is: you won’t run out of beer too easily in DK :-D