A brewery of brews, bigtime

After our eventful day, we plan on a lowkey event for Sunday. We'll go to the Carlsberg Brewery. Carlsberg, of course, is the largest Danish brewer and the fourth largest brewing company in the world.

Soon, we are in and we have our self-guided tour maps.

Right off the bat, the brewery leads with its best asset. It is in possession of the largest collection of unopened beer bottles in the entire world. It's true, it's certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. (Who knew an Irish beer company would certify a Danish beer company's collection of beer bottles?) It is very impressive, standing at 19,440 bottles on the day we saw it. The bottles themselves are in dramatic need of dusting. But, some of the labels are fabulous. There are bottles of beer from the 30s and 40s, with a vintage look. there are bottles of beer in every language (including Carlsberg in nearly every language).

From there, though, the tour falls apart. It turns out it's not actually a tour of a working brewery! Instead, we walk around the remnants of a very old brewery that has instructional videos from the 1970s to help us understand the brewing process. They don't work very well. Nothing even remotely photo-worthy.

But, we do end up at a bar. I go for the Carl's Special, which is a nondescript darker beer. It's only ok, at least it was included in admission.

Perhaps the neatest thing we saw was after the tour, when we were walking back to the train. A skyway connecting two buildings of the brewery was supported by four very large stone elephants. I'm sure they remember when this brewery tour was lots better.