Carlsberg City District

Brewing at Carlsberg stopped on this site in 2008 and the ground has been redeveloped since as a new city quarter, which has left an unusual mixture: the nineteenth-century industrial buildings kept and converted, with tall new residential towers among them. The set pieces survive, above all the Elephant Gate of 1901, where four granite elephants carry the arch over the road, and the Dipylon gate, the old brewhouses, chimneys and the Jacobsen family villa. The visitor centre in the old stables covers brewing history and holds a large collection of beer bottles. The Carlsberg Laboratory here isolated the yeast strain used for lager brewing and published the pH scale, both of which the exhibition covers.

History

Looking for better water and more space, J. C. Jacobsen moved his brewery here in 1847 under a licence from the king, and the first beer was brewed in November that year; the main building, now the Carlsberg Academy, was inaugurated in 1853, and the brewery was rebuilt within the year after a fire in 1857. In 1870 an annexed brewery was leased to his son Carl, and in 1876 Jacobsen founded the Carlsberg Foundation and the Carlsberg Laboratory. Carl founded his own brewery next door in 1880, named Ny Carlsberg with his father's consent, while the original became Gammel Carlsberg; after J. C. Jacobsen died in 1887 the Foundation inherited his brewery, the Dipylon building followed in 1892 and the Elephant Gate and the Ny Carlsberg Brew House in 1901, and in 1906 the two breweries merged as Carlsberg Breweries. In 2006 Carlsberg decided to move its Danish production to Fredericia, brewing on the site ended in late 2008, and the grounds of more than 30 hectares are being turned into a new city district after an architectural competition won in 2007 by the small Danish practice Entasis among 220 entries (Wikipedia, Carlsberg (district)).

What's there

• The Elephant Gate - four granite elephants carrying the arch.
• Converted brewhouses - nineteenth-century industry among new towers.
• The brewing visitor centre - history, equipment and a large bottle collection.
• The Carlsberg Laboratory story - lager yeast and the pH scale.

When to go

Year round. Half a day for the quarter and the visitor centre. The centre is open daily; the district itself is public street at all hours. Weekdays are quieter than weekends.

Practical notes

Much of the district is a building site and will be for years. The visitor centre is a commercial brand experience as much as a museum and is priced accordingly. Beer tastings are included but limited. The new residential blocks are unremarkable.

Nearby

Valby is around it; central Copenhagen is a short S-train ride.

Key facts