Aass Brewery
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Aass Brewery (Aass Bryggeri) is Norway's oldest brewery. Founded in 1834 in Drammen, Norway, the brewery's primary products are beer and aquavit. However, they also produce a wide range of soft drinks. Their products are exported to North America.
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[edit] History
Originally a company dealing in timber, groceries, baking and brewing, the brewery was bought by farmer's son Poul Lauritz Aass in the 1860s. The brewery is still owned by the Aass family, which makes it one of Norway's few remaining independent breweries. As an independent, it has built up a reputation for high quality products and tasty beers, brewing strictly according to the German Purity Law (reinheitsgebot).
Drammensølets venner (the Friends of the Beer from Drammen) is an association that supports the brewery, arranging various events and publishing a newsletter about 4 times a year. It is the world's 2nd largest such association, currently boasting about 35,000 members.
[edit] Beers
Juleøl (strong seasonal Christmas beer), Pilsner, Classic (amber), Bock Beer and a dark Munich-style lager called Aass Bayer.
[edit] Trivia
The Aass beer was ridiculed on The Late Show with David Letterman because of the name's similarity with the English word ass (Biff Henderson said something to the effect of "I'm not drinking that!"). The word aass is a family name and probably an archaic spelling of ås, which means ridge or low hill. It is pronounced to rhyme something like "horse."
