Brewery, tank bar and restaurant in Kødbyen, Copenhagen

ÅBEN

Tanks Where the Carcasses Hung

3.5 of 5

This building was a slaughterhouse in 1932. The steel rail system that once carried hundreds of carcasses across the ceiling is still up there. Now conical fermentation tanks hang from it instead, reached by a galvanised walkway, and the original white tiles are still on the walls. Pihlmann Architects did the conversion, and it is the rare case of a design job that makes the beer taste better, because you drink right underneath where it is made.

ÅBEN runs several bars around Copenhagen and one in Aarhus, but the Kødbyen site is the brewery and the one to visit. Beer goes from the fermenters straight into fourteen serving tanks behind the bar, so nothing here has been on a truck. The brewers release new recipes every month. There is a proper restaurant with an open kitchen and a seasonal menu, with beer worked into several of the dishes and a beer pairing if you want the full argument.

Book dinner on a weekday, sit where you can see the tanks, and order the pairing. If you only want to drink, ask for a tasting across the tanks and let the bartender explain each one. Then take a walk around the meatpacking district and see what an industrial neighbourhood looks like when it decides to keep its bones.

Order this

A tasting of the fourteen serving tanks, The beer pairing with dinner, Whatever experiment the brewers released this month

The damage

$$

Go

A weekday evening, with a table booked for dinner

Find it

Slagtehusgade 15, 1715 København V

Website

aabenbryg.dk