Saturday, September 22, 2007

Tuborg Gold Pilsner

Coming in at number 5 on the "Clean Out the Fridge Countdown" is Tuborg Gold pilsner in the golden-brown bottle. I could actually find some information on this beer, because it's a very well-known Danish beer. The Tuborg Brewery was founded in 1873 in Copenhagen, and began brewing its flagship beer, Tuborg Grøn, in 1880. Tuborg names a few of its beers after the color of the label, with Grøn referring to the green label. Other beers named this way include Rod ("red") and Guld ("gold", the beer I'm having).

Tuborg Gold itself was first brewed in 1895 for export (but has since grown popular in Denmark), and is nicknamed "The Golden Lady" after the company made TV commercials for the beer in the late 1950's starring model and actress Anette Strøyberg, a Danish Brigitte Bardot. It is currently available in Denmark, Switzerland, Croatia, Turkey and Nepal, but somehow managed to find its way into my Beers of the World pack. The beer, like the others in the Tuborg line, have been brewed under the Carlsberg family of breweries since the two merged in 1970. (About Tuborg (UK) (requires age verification), Carlsberg's Tuborg Gold Page, Annette Vadim (Anette Strøyberg) IMDB Profile, Carlsberg's History)


Here are the stats:

Tuborg Gold Pilsner
BREWERY: Carlsberg Brewery, Copenhagen, Denmark
FIRST BREWED: 1895
CALORIES/SERVING: per 11.2 oz. bottle
BITTERNESS:
ABV: 5.8%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY:
MALTS: "Lager"
HOPS:
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 41-46°F (5-8°C)
FOODS TO PAIR WITH: Fish dishes, spicy dishes
AWARDS:

I got the first brewed date, ABV, malts, serving temperature, and compatible foods from Carlsberg's Tuborg Gold website.

The first thing I noticed about the beer was its smell. This is a very aromatic beer, and I noticed the grainy smell from a couple feet away as I was taking that picture. The head was a half-foamy, half-bubbly white mixture, and it revealed a slightly cloudy golden-yellow beer in the glass. The taste was a very light grainy flavor with a slight metallic undertone that most pilsners have (I couldn't make out the fruit and nuts Carlsberg says I should be tasting, and I don't know what fennel is). While there wasn't a ton of flavor, the beer was very smooth and not at all acrid, finishing very cleanly and without aftertaste.

Overall, while this beer may not be the most flavorful, it's definitely one of the smoothest beers I've had, making it different from most pilsners. Try one if you're in Denmark (or Nepal, apparently).

Skål!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This used to be my favourite beer for years, I think now it's not imported any more, but every time I have a chance to be in Denmark I refresh my memory. Fantastic.

Anonymous said...

I'm in Nepal currently, and just discovered this beer last night! It's great, and it has advertisements all over the country, even in the small villages. It's very popular, as well as San Miguel, Corona, and Heineken.

cracker from florida said...

Back around 1982, I was living in Pensacola, Florida and I found this beer easily available at drugstores that sold beer. It was very inexpensive, which is what drove us college kids to try it. I'm thinking it was around $8 a case, or ~$2 a six-pack. I can remember us paying closer to $3 for Michelob, so we adopted Tuborg Gold as our acceptable/affordable alternative. And they had it by the truckload so we drank a lot of it. Can't say I've seen it again since then. The label was different too. Seems like the writing was all in a script-type font. The funny part was showing up at parties with a cooler of this stuff, and people would pull it out and say, "What the hell is this?" Then when they heard the price it was already an immediate favorite!

Norm said...

No need to go all the way to Nepal. I live in Calgary, Alberta and it is widely available.

Anonymous said...

Bring some back to the usa !! I tried some in Istanbul it was awesome and brewed in Izmir. I wish i could find some here in Atlanta but does the US even own any breweries still that are interested to make beers like this. You can't beat a delicious .fresh one.

Anonymous said...


Like others on her said, Tuborg used to be widely available in the US back in the 70s and 80s..Since then, I've been trying like hell to find it.