Our first barrel aged beer in a can is done, just as this goat in Iceland tries to sniff out the hops in Bobek Citra – Weekly Brewery Update
It was with great excitement this week that we canned our first barrel aged beer in our canning line, right about at the same time as we started getting some really great feedback from our customers about our sixth Berliner, A Passion for Strawberry Blondes. But more on those two stories later.
Bobek Citra. What’s in a name?
Just got in touch with a friend from the brewery today who had spent the summer on horseback across Iceland. Yes it is a strange choice of destination for your summer holiday, to a place that has the word ice in its name. But I was assured it was a great trip, and not quite what one would expect.
Safe to say, Emily met a lot of animals on her way. Most of the photos I’ve seen have one of our cans next to an animal of sorts. Horses, goats, cows and so on. But I got thinking about this one with the goat and a can of Bobek Citra and how it got it’s name, because it’s a question we get quite often when we have tastings.
You see, we’ve done 25 different Pale Ales since we started three and a half years ago. Bobek Citra, or actually “Pale Ale Bobek Citra” as it was called back then was our 5th beer we brewed. And only our second Pale Ale. Back then we didn’t try and be clever and come up with all kinds of names. We just took the easy route and called it what it was. Style. Hops. Easy peasy. So this was a Pale Ale made with Bobek hops from Slovenia and Citra hops from the US.
Over time the name actually changed to “Bobek Citra Pale Ale” and shortened even further to just Bobek Citra. For those who drink this a lot, they order it just by its street name “Bobek” 🙂
Hops plays a big role in why beer smells and tastes the way it does. We do mostly one off beers, but this one is in our standard assortment, and we’ve brewed it more than 30 times. Citra and Bobek hops work really well together and made Bobek Citra one of our most loved beers.
Bobek
The full name is Styrian Bobek, but in the trade is known simply as Bobek, and is from Slovenia. The two other hop varieties that come from Slovenia are Blisk and Buket.
The characteristics are a pleasant floral aroma and pine. It’s purpose in brewing is for bittering and for aroma.
Citra
Citra is an American hop variery that was bred. If it wasn’t for human innovation this would not exist. It was released in 2008 after first being bred in 1990, and is what is called a high-impact aroma hop. The lineage is complex and includes the likes of Hallertau Mittelfrüh, East Kent Golding, US Tettang and Brewer’s Gold.
The charactaristics of Citra is Citrus, grapefruit, lime, tropical fruits with a harsh bitterness. It’s purpose in brewing is for bittering and for aroma.
More cans, more cans, more cans.
We’ve been talking about doing more cans for a while, but this week it finally came true. We’ve added one more can to our current four can range. These cans will be hand labelled in the brewery, which means we can do smaller batches than what we usually do in cans.
The first beer to go into a labelled can is our Barrel Aged Eternal Darkness, on 11,5%. It’s going to be beautiful to crack one open in winter in front of a fire.
You can expect some more beer from us to show up in cans. The brewing schedule looks busy. So the four below won’t look so lonely in the future.
Have you had a passion for strawberry blondes?
We’ve had some fantastic feedback from some of our customers about how our latest Berliner “A Passion for Strawberry Blondes”, has been received in the market. Norway sold our before the shipment got home 🙂 We’re always very pleased when our customers and the public appreciates what we do. Warms the heart.
The range is starting to look impressive. I would need to get a new table to include the next one. Yes the next one is already planned… it’s something about a mandarin.
That’s it from us for this week. Don’t forget to get in touch with our member’s club, if you’d like to attend the Member’s club event on the 16th of September. There’s limited space.
Until next week.
Keep well.
More Updates
Read about the other things happening in the brewery.
Webshop
If you’d like to get hold of the same Beer T-Shirt Henrik is wearing then you’d need to get to our webshop soon. We have limited stocks available.
But fear not, we’re releasing our new merchandise range soon, so keep watching this space.
Festivals
All in Beer Festival 4-5 November 2016
One of our favourite festivals is the All In Beer Fest. The reason? It’s just about beer.
We’ll be attending again this year, but if you’d like to attend, then there’s two ways to go about it. Buy a ticket, or enter our #FreshestCanInTheLand competition, where you stand the chance to win two entrance tickets.
Finding our beers in Sweden
Systembolaget
Have a look at our Systembolaget page, where you’ll find a map that features the stores that have our beers on their shelves. If you live in other parts of Sweden, then you can follow this link to order the beers directly from Systembolaget.se to your closest store.
Folköl (Low ABV Beers)
Visit our Folköl page if you’d like to find out which Stores & Supermarkets, such as ICA & Hemköp stock our low ABV or “folköl” across Sweden.
You can also follow us on Instagram
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