Anders Melsen, 28, is cycling through Jutland to visit every brown pub in the region. On Wednesday he reached day 19 of the journey, still in Southern Jutland.
Avisen Danmark reports that Melsen was sitting at Dueslaget in Haderslev on Wednesday morning, the first pub of the day. He began the trip in Padborg and has not yet left Sønderjylland. By his own calculation, the route covers roughly 3,000 kilometers and around 300 brown pubs.
Melsen told the newspaper that the trip is going well and that his mood is high, though he needs a day off soon. He limits himself to a maximum of three pubs a day and one to two beers at each stop. He sleeps in a tent, in shelters, or with people he meets along the way.
He documents each day on the Instagram profile Værtshusrytteren, which now has more than 16,000 followers. According to DR, he was on day nine on 9 August 2026, having visited 16 pubs in Southern Jutland, with more than 10,000 followers at that point.
Din Avis reported on 18 August 2026 that the tour started at Toldboden Øl og Vinstue in Padborg and is planned to end at Linie 74 in Skagen. The route includes Skanderborg, Aarhus, Favrskov and Djursland. Din Avis added that he quit his job, gave up his apartment and sold his belongings before setting out.
Melsen has saved 200,000 kroner for the journey. He said he is barely using the money at the moment, because people he meets in the pubs offer to buy his beer. He expects it may take about half a year to reach Skagen, and guesses he will visit pubs in Aarhus in a couple of months.
Different figures in other coverage
A TV 2 News segment on 18 August 2026 described him as cycling to around 600 pubs in Jutland, a higher estimate than the roughly 300 reported by Avisen Danmark and Din Avis. The segment also cited the 200,000 kroner in savings and a duration of about half a year. None of the outlets cite an official count of brown pubs.
Melsen said he has traveled by bicycle for years and had a dormant dream of living as a vagabond. He combined that with his interest in brown pubs, and he uses his videos to highlight the communities around them. In each video he checks for what he calls the holy trinity: darts, a billiard table and slot machines.
JydskeVestkysten covered one of his stops in Aabenraa on 11 August 2026, describing him as a pub vagabond. Melsen, who is from Ebeltoft, lived in Aarhus for the past two years, first studying philosophy before dropping out and working to save up. He said he will take breaks for family birthdays and will stop if he tires of the project.
