I have always thought that the good folks at Yukon Brewing were very brave (and possibly a bit feverish) for opening a brewery in a remote location with a small population. It seemed impressive to make a go of a brewery in a city of 20,oooish people.

But that now seems like a metropolis after I discovered Nanoq Beer. Nanoq is a small brewery located in Narsaq, Greenland (yes, you read that right). Population? 1600 (and shrinking). Now THAT is brave (or foolhardy – one of the two).

Actually two of the beer made by Nanoq, which opened in 2010 out of the remnants of a failed brewery in town, made  their way to Alberta this summer. I will admit, I bought them almost exclusively because of the story and the thought of drinking a beer created in Greenland made me giggle. And then I decided it might make a good column for Vue Weekly, so I wrote up a review (which you can read here).

I tried the Mammut Pale Ale, which I assume is their flagship beer. As you can read I was a bit underwhelmed but not put off. It seemed to be brewed decently enough, but just was a bit timid. Plus it seemed to be showing some signs of age (a wet paper aroma and flavour in the background) – which might be expected given it probably took a circuitous trip to get here (my instinct it went to Denmark, then by ship to an Eastern port, then trucked to the St. Albert Logistics warehouse). It makes me think that fresh at the brewery it might be a decent English-style Pale Ale (though it is hard to think I will ever happen to be in the neighbourhood to swing a brewery tour).

Still, you gotta love the determination of Nanoq’s owners. I wonder if part of the motivation is just to ensure a steady supply of beer for the 1600 residents to get through the impossibly long winter. Come to think of it – 1600 people could probably drink A LOT of beer during a Greenland winter. Maybe not such a bad business model after all.