Day 317-Beer 317 Little Norway, Sawdust City Brewing Co, Arendals Bryggeri, Arendal Norway

Sawdust City Little Norway Pale Lager  Only in Norway

Well this is an interesting brew, my Daughter was in a grocery store in Norway and saw picked up a beer for me because it had a red maple leaf on the label and its states that it is a Canadian Craft type beer. Well when you look closer is has the name of a brewery from Gravenhurst Ontario on it. Sine the rest of the label is in Norwegian it meant a little research had to be done and as it turns out it is possibly the first intercontinental brewing collaboration to feature a Canadian brewery, a beer co-created by Sawdust City and Arendals Bryggeri. The result is Little Norway Pale Lager, a beer that they describe as being inspired by Sawdust City Gateway Kölsch, but with a number of tweaks:

"We elected to make a hoppier version of the Kölsch, and being that Arendals is a lager brewery, we used lager yeast for simplicity. I worked with their Brewmaster and then sent them a recipe for the beer. It’s very similar to our Kölsch but with Saaz hops instead of Spalter and a lager yeast instead of an ale strain. "

And so they called it a pale lager and since it is brewed with 4.7%ABV it can be sold in the grocery stores in Norway as their limit for grocery sales is 4.8%ABV.


It poured a clear golden colour with little head and little lacing, the aroma was fairly mute with a hint of caramel malt and some floral hops. The taste was an average lager with just a hint of extra hops giving it a spicy touch. Overall it might be a big cellar in Norway but I don't think it would be a hit in Canada. 3.2 out of 5