Bjesk of the year
The Bjesk team at Hirtshals Museum were once again the winners of the Bjesk of the Year. Big congratulations!
This year's Bjesk was, as tradition dictates, chosen during the Hirtshals Fishing Festival 2024.
This happened on Saturday 3 August in the "Skibet" tent.
The competing teams this year were:
- Bjeskteam NordsøPosten
- The Manor's Bjesklaug
- Thornby Bjesklaug
- The Bjesk team at Hirtshals Museum
All the teams had received a bjesk kit from the Hirtshals Museum with different essences and taste-neutral schnapps and had all immediately started experimenting. It was about putting together the best mixing ratio of essences, possibly by using only some of them.
The committed judges were Hanne Kvist, Ib Dalsgaard, Mona Kjeldsen Jensen and Tor Ove sorlie, who after careful tastings voted the Bjeskholdet at the Hirtshals Museum as the winner for the second year in a row.
Around New Year's, Årets Bjesk 2025 will be released and can be bought at Hirtshals Museum against bringing a bottle of clear aquavit yourself and paying entrance to the museum.
The Bjesk of the Year 2025 must go well with a herring dish, as the Bjesk of the Year will be paired with the Herring of the Year 2025, which will be awarded in September.
Do you want to take part in the selection of the Herring of the Year, which will take place later this year?
Keep an eye on our website, where tickets will soon be on sale!
Proud traditions
In Hirtshals, there have been proud traditions around the bjesken for many years.
Correct it became popular with home nurse Signe Hansen, who came to Hirtshals at the turn of the year 1932/33. Signe made many different baskets, which included dune plants that she collected in the Hirtshals area. Later, Signe Hansen's traditions around the bisque were continued at the Hirtshals Museum by then manager Hugo Nielsen. It was also him who started making an annual report from the museum every year from the beginning of the 1990s. Since then, the museum's staff has been responsible for composing the "Bjesk of the Year", but today the "Bjesk of the Year" is found and awarded in connection with the Hirtshals Fishing Festival, which always takes place on the first weekend in August.
Herring and Bjesk – a pair of mates
By making a competition and an official selection of the Bjesk of the Year, it is hoped that we will get even greater attention to both the "Bjesk of the Year" and the "Herring of the Year".
The awards for "Bjesk of the Year" and "Herring of the Year" are staggered. Thus, the Bjesk of the Year is chosen for the coming year in August in connection with the "Hirtshals Fishing Festival". In this way, the herring marinaders (from various restaurants from all over the country) get some flavor notes to match their marinade to when they start creating their take on the best herring marinade in the spring. "Herring of the Year" is chosen every year in April/May at a major event at the North Sea Oceanarium, and from this time "Bjesk of the Year" is also released for sale from the laboratory at Hirtshals Museum.
Partner Hirtshals Museum
Over time, people came from near and far and wanted advice and guidance in relation to collecting plants and brewing bjesk, and at the same time you could have a bottle of Brøndums Snaps turned into one of Signe's many types of bjesk. That could be done at Signe's home without charge.
Hugo Nielsen, who was the first manager of Hirtshals Museum and before that a fishing skipper, and Signe had known each other for several years, and they were both interested in beer brewing. Together they developed new recipes, and in 1981 the Hirtshals Museum opened an exhibition about "Signes klitbjesker". At the opening, Signe presented her recipe book to the museum with the recipes for 66 of her bjesk mixes. The recipes can be seen in the book which was published by Hirtshals Museum in 2001 with the then manager Christian Hansen as the author. It has the title – leaves from Signe Hansen's book...
After some TV people made the documentary "Signe and Bjesken" in 1982, there were even more - both private people and companies all over the country - who wanted to make bjesk at Signe. She found it very difficult to say no to people, and therefore local friends such as Hugo Nielsen stepped in and helped to collect plants for Signe's garden. Her leggings could no longer withstand the same long trips after the plants as before.
After Signe's death in 1985, Signe's sideboard and decanters were donated to the Hirtshals Museum and Hugo continued in Signe's spirit as Denmark's leading bjesk brewer by transforming the bottles of Brøndums Snaps that the guests brought to the Hirtshals Museum into one of the many types of bjesk that Signe had developed and there were also some pieces of his own recipe.
In addition to the exhibition in here and the laboratory in the kitchen, a "bjesk garden" was also set up in the garden, where you can see the various plants that can be used for bjesk brewing all year round.
At the Hirtshals Museum you can still have bjesk made today, it is incl. in the price, when you have paid for an entrance ticket, which costs DKK 50. From time to time, Bjesk lectures are also held at the museum during the year. In the month of July, it has for many years been a weekly event with Bjeskinfo as part of the summer garden activities, and otherwise it is held a few times a year as an evening event - usually in the spring with a small preview of the new Bjesk of the Year and one in the month of November about the Christmas tree, which is a little special compared to the dune trees.
Partner Arcus
The ideal gastronomic partnership between aquavit and fish
Fish must swim, and they do so naturally in water. But gastronomically, fish swims best in aquavit or bjesk, and preferably served with beer. Akvavit is Danish like Harald Blåtand and Holger Danske and is excellent as an accompaniment to both fresh and cooked fish. Therefore, it is quite natural that you often hear the words at a well-laid fish table: "Let the fish swim" - which means let's toast in aquavit and send the fish on from the mouth to the stomach.
"Bjesk or akvavit taste really well with fish. For example, the fish's often discreet, sweet sea taste is ideal together with the sweetness found in the aftertaste of a well-distilled aquavit, which has a discreetly sweet taste of anise. In addition, the spices found in the aquavit, dill, cumin, anise, amber, lemon peel to name just a few, are often the same ingredients that are used when cooking fish. It is thus a completely natural partnership between the ingredients in prepared fish and aquavit - yes, they are naturally related to each other. In addition, fish from Hirtshals locally are almost neighbors with Aalborg Akvavit, which is produced in Aalborg. Some talk about the taste of North Jutland," says Lars Kragelund.
Sip and taste
There are many myths about the way to drink akvavit, but Lars Kragelund states that it is always permissible to sip and take your time to taste: "It is perfectly OK to sip and enjoy your akvavit, so that you get with all the nuances of taste. With its high alcohol strength, an aquavit unfolds quite naturally in the 32° heat of the mouth. A good akvavit is as complex as a whiskey and should be enjoyed in all its nuances. By consuming the aquavit in small quantities, the aromatics are released from the alcohol and provide full enjoyment - both if you drink the aquavit alone and with food. This way of consuming the aquavit also extends the enjoyment of the aquavit over the individual course.”
Akvavit may be taken with food.
Lars also looks at the overall meal experience, and says that this is enhanced by consuming aquavit with food - both gastronomically and socially. "The experience you get when you drink aquavit with food, especially if you chew the food first and then drink aquavit afterwards, is often an explosion of aroma substances - an interplay of aroma substances from both aquavit and food. There is also the social atmosphere that arises when good food and drink are on the table," says Lars.
