Working at Valby Bakke
Most of us have done it, do it currently, or will do so in the future: go to work. But what does it mean to have a job, and what role do the workplace and colleagues play?
On the occasion of the Golden Days festival, we decided to ask the employees about their experiences working at the Carlsberg Brewery on Valby Bakke. Throughout the summer, Home of Carlsberg has been reaching out to former employees who worked at the brewery before it relocated to Fredericia, Jylland, in 2008. We've heard from coachmen, brewery workers, office trainees, managers, and many others, all sharing their stories about working life at the brewery.
Thank you to everyone who contributed and for your work here at Valby Bakke.
Hanne about the dresscode
Title: Office trainee, assistant, chief assistant and administrative officer
Employed: 1970-2015
Hanne Buch-Larsen started as an office trainee and worked in several different departments throughout her Carlsberg career.
”It was a hot summer day in 1971, and as a young office trainee, I arrived at work in fashionable hotpants and a light shirt blouse. In the administration corridor, I met an older gentleman who asked me what my parents thought of my attire. I cheekily replied that there was no problem. The man was the managing director, A.W. Nielsen, and when I came up to my department, there was a huge commotion because I had answered him so freely.”
The photos show Hanne on her 25th anniversary, as well as a group photo with Hanne and the other new office trainees.
Thorkild about the coachman's day
Title: Coachman and sales driver
Employed: 1970-1998
”My day started at 6.30 am, and I drove the distribution in the city centre. In the beginning, it was tough labour. The beer crates were made of wood, and when they were wet in winter, they were really heavy. We often had to climb narrow stairs, small cellars and poor access. On an easy trip, we were back at the brewery at 12:30 pm, and then I did the accounts for what we had sold during the day. I was off work at 2 pm but usually stuck around and had a couple of beers. You could drink all the beer you wanted.”
Jette about employer benefits
Title: Trainee and employee in the data department
Employed: 1967-1975
Jette started her career at Carlsberg as a 17-year-old, where she began as a trainee in the data department.
”I started as a trainee with a salary of DKK 700 per month, which increased by DKK 200 every three months until I graduated after 18 months. My last salary in 1975 was DKK 6900 per month. Back then, salaries at Carlsberg were higher than elsewhere.
Those of us who were full-time employees had two cases of beer delivered to our address every three months. Back then, there were wooden crates with 50 beers in each crate. There was Easter beer and elephant beer, and at Christmas, we got the one called Light Lager with 9% alcohol, which was exported to England.”
Like many other Carlsberg employees, Jette had her daughter in Carlsberg's daycare.
”Carlsberg had several properties in Copenhagen, and I was lucky enough to get a two-bedroom apartment in Jerichausgade, where I lived from 1971-1975. I had my first daughter in 1971, and back then, you had maternity leave for 13 weeks. My daughter was looked after in Carlsberg's nursery.”
The first picture shows Carlsberg's daycare, where employees could have their children looked after.
Lindy about experimenting
Title: Assistant in the chemical department, brewmaster and security manager
Employed: 1970-2004
“The lab asked for help to develop a non-alcoholic beer. I was an assistant to Professor Martin Ottesen, who was an actual researcher, and such a task was far outside his area of interest. That's why I was given the task. After many attempts to get the last traces of alcohol out of a poor Carlsberg Light Pilsner, I succeeded in producing Denmark's first non-alcoholic beer. It was an exciting challenge. The task was to get the alcohol content below 0.5%, which is the limit for when you can call a beer non-alcoholic. The only frustrating thing was that the final product (the NAB beer) didn't taste very good, mainly due to the heat treatment. The current non-alcoholic beers taste much better.“
Later, Lindy became manager of Gamle Ølkam and Ny Ølkam, which supplied the bottling halls. Here, he experimented again:
“In the 1980s, I stopped the use of asbestos, which was in the cotton filters that filtered the beer. I started using non-asbestos filters but it didn't go very well. During that time, I had to hear a lot about the cloudy beer that was the result of it! I was saved by my experience with different types of centrifuges that I worked with for the non-alcoholic beer.”
Per om traditioner
Title: Brewery worker, second-in-command at Carlsberg's depot at Islands Brygge, chairman and later manager at Carlsberg Tapperierne, logistics area manager
Employed: 1962-2004
“Carlsberg has, in many ways, been my life. My great-grandfather, my father, my uncle and my brother were all employed at Carlsberg. My grandmother told me that as children, she and her sister visited Kongens Bryghus in the old Carlsberg site daily for a sip of white beer. It was much healthier than the water in the early 1900s.”
Per has spent his entire working life at the brewery. As a brewery worker, he delivered Carlsberg products to customers in Christianshavn, lugging wooden beer crates with 50 beers in each and taking the empty crates back. He later worked for 25 years at the bottling plant.
“I worked on the columns in the old and new bottling hall. A column was a bottling line where the used bottles were washed and sanitised, and the clean bottles were checked by female brewery workers who checked all the bottles with their eyes. The bottles were then bottled, pasteurised, labelled and manually placed in red wooden crates. It was hard physical labour for both the male and female brewery workers.”
Per then became involved in creating Carlsberg Logistic, which developed new methods for transport, distribution and storage. For example, forklifts became part of everyday life and made it easier to fill the large lorries with beer-filled pallets. The heavy, manual tasks were continuously mechanised and are now fully or partially automated.
Jon about Tuborg vs. Carlsberg
Title: Brewmaster at Tuborg, international technical services for Europe, Asia and Africa, technical director, qualities director for Lao Brewery and brewmaster at Carlsberg's nano brewery Annex Brewery
Employed: 1980-2018
”I started as a brewmaster at Tuborg in 1980, where almost all the brewery workers had nicknames such as ‘wet arse’, ‘off my arm’, ‘big drum’ and ‘silver fox’.
There was a big difference between Carlsberg and Tuborg, both in terms of choice of technical solutions and management, and there was a clear competitive element between the two breweries in terms of quality and overall performance.”
After his time at Tuborg, Jon had a long career abroad, including in Laos, where he worked for Carlsberg. When he returned to Copenhagen in 2017, he became responsible for running Carlsberg's new venture, Annex Brewery, located in Carl Jacobsen's New Carlsberg Brewhouse. The concept was that ordinary consumers could create their own beer and design a personalised label. You could order as few as 12 bottles per order and had to decide on the level of bitterness, alcohol strength, colour and overall aroma. The project ended in 2019 when the speciality beer production was moved to the brewery in Fredericia.
Jette about the community
Title: Brewery worker
Employed: 1965-1966
Jette started at Carlsberg in 1965 and describes her time there as fun and with many good colleagues. However, her time there was short, as she wanted to apprentice as an accountant.
”I worked in columns 2 and 5 at Gammel Tap. We collected cardboard inserts and put them in cardboard boxes. We put the boxes on the conveyor belt, where others filled them with beer bottles. Carlsberg was a good place to work. We had the freedom to organise the work and breaks ourselves as long as the line was running. For that reason, we took turns stopping work an hour before our shift was over so we could have plenty of time to wash our hair and take a shower. Few of us had showers at home, so it was great that we had that option at Carlsberg.
Occasionally, there wasn't enough work in the column, so we were sent to the ‘Prop Hole’, where we pulled up beers and put them into a carousel so the beer could run out. It could also happen that we had to clean when the column was stationary. The big fear was if you had to clean the stairs, which were so long that we called them the ‘desert stairs’.”
Kristian about the special scent of beer
Title: Trainee and product manager assistant in the marketing department
Employed: 1980-1985
”På vej til arbejde passerede jeg hver dag Ny Carlsberg Bryghus, der lå ved Elefantporten. Jeg kan stadig huske duften af malt og humle og fornemme dampen, der steg ud ad vinduerne, når jeg gik forbi. I regnskabsafdelingen skulle jeg tjekke passersedler af varer, der kørte ind og ud ad bryggeriet via porten på Pasteursvej. På Ny Tap lavede jeg accordløn-beregninger for bryggeriarbejderne, og i marketing lavede jeg planer for lancering af julebryg og var med til lanceringen af Sort Guld.”
The other young students and I often wanted to go out on Fridays. So we'd go to the salaried employees' union, which was in the northern part of the brewery, and have a couple of beers or more before we went home. As an employee, you could drink whatever you wanted inside the brewery. It was a very special time and a time I look back on with great pleasure. If you worked diligently and took care of your job, Carlsberg took care of you."
The first picture is of Kristian and the other trainees from 1980.
Ølhunden Bonzo
Title: Family dog in Ole's family and watchdog
Employed: 1970-1982
Bonzo the German Shepherd belonged to Chief Inspector Ole, Keld's father (you can read about Keld's time at Carlsberg in this article). In addition to being the family dog, he was responsible for chasing beer thieves on the run. Bonzo was especially busy on weekends when thirsty souls tried to raid Carlsberg's premises. One weekend, Bonzo managed to stop no less than seven intruders, all of whom ended up in Valby Police custody.