The claim
The beer hall in the cellar of Mack's brewery, opened on 29 February 1928 and for forty years the preserve of Tromsø fishermen and trappers, served from ten in the morning. Women were not admitted until late in the 1960s, and the company changed again when the university opened in 1972. Seventy-two taps now run along what the brewery calls the biggest bank of them in northern Europe, all Norwegian beer.
What the records show
The 1928 is the brewery's own and is given to the day. Norwegian Wikipedia has the house established on 29 February 1928 in the cellar beneath Macks Ølbryggeri, citing the northern Norwegian tourist board's account of it, and adds that it kept hours unusual for a pub - ten in the morning until six at night - that it was for decades a room for fishermen and trappers, and that women were not admitted until late in the 1960s, the company changing again after the university opened in 1972. Mack's own pages give 1928, the opening hours and the count of taps; Visit Tromsø, the regional visitor company, prints the same year separately. No paper of 1928 has been read, and the house belongs to the brewery whose date it is, so the year rests on their account and the tourist board's. Whether a drink is served on its own needs no argument here: the house pours seventy-two Norwegian beers, sells them in tasting glasses and serves from noon. OpenStreetMap records it as a pub, carries 1928 as its start year and was last edited on 3 September 2026.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1928 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1928 | First record of a drinking house here | Wikipedia |
What to look for inside
- Opened on 29 February 1928 in the cellar of Macks Ølbryggeri
- A room for fishermen and trappers; no women admitted until the late 1960s
- Seventy-two taps, all of them Norwegian beer
Visiting
Ølhallen is in Tromsø, Norway, at Storgata 4, Tromsø. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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