Releasing our collaboration with restaurant Barr, we’re now at Alko in Finland and there’s more to IPAs than meets the eye – Weekly Brewery Update
This week we have some news on our collaboration Berliner Weisse with Barr, noma’s new restaurant in Copenhagen, there’s news on two beers that are now available in Alko in Finland, and we carry on the discussion on West Coast IPAs and New England IPAs.
Hello Finland.
We’re in Alko 🙂
Great News. Our Finnish distributor, Viinitie, have just got in touch to say that two of our beers just got accepted into Alko, the Finnish alcohol monopoly. The two beers are Bobek Citra and Hip Hops, which are now available to buy in Finland, not just in pubs and restaurants.
These beers have been available in the Swedish Monopoly, Systembolaget, a long time already, and this is great news, and a feather in the cap of our brewers.
What the…?
You mean there’s more than one kind of IPA?
You mean there’s more than one kind of IPA? That was the question I was faced with more than once over the weekend while doing my shift at our Tap Room.
Let’s, for the sake of clarity, start a little further back than this past weekend. In Sweden, where we live, the word IPA became mainstream about 3-4 years ago, I would guess. When I mean mainstream, I mean if I had to walk up to a random person on the street and ask if they knew what an IPA was, then more often than not they would say yes.
So now, in pubs and restaurants, you hear people ordering IPA as they would’ve ordered Lager ten years ago. The word IPA has become part of our vocabulary. But then just as everyone here starts getting to know the word and the beer IPA, we brewers change things up a notch.
West Coast or New England? What? You mean there’s more than one kind of IPA?
This weekend at our Tap Room, we had both styles of IPA on tap. Side-by side. This did not only give our customers the chance to try them both, side-by-side. It gave us the chance to explain the difference.
In short, the three things that came out from this weekend, as the difference between the two, both from my own opinion, as well as from the feedback was this:
- West Coast IPAs are more bitter.
- New England IPAs are more cloudy. (As you can see in the images)
- West Coast IPAs are Hoppier.
What we try to do is educate our customers so they know more. Now when they stand in a pub with a tap list of 30 plus beers they do don’t have to feel intimidated. They can say they would like a New England IPA cause they like their IPAs less bitter, or that they would like a West Coast IPA, cause they like hoppy IPAs.
But as a lot of us know, there’s more than just those two styles. But that’s for another day.
Collaborating with restaurant Barr.
A new kind of restaurant from noma.
On the 20th of June we brewed a collaboration beer. It was all secret and what not, but finally we can talk about it 🙂 We were asked to collaborate with the noma’s new restaurant, Barr, which opened last week, Wednesday, 5 July. For them we brewed a Berliner Weisse with Redcurrant, Blackcurrant and Rose pepper. It’s a fantastically red coloured beer that tastes delicious. If I have to say so myself 🙂
“Barr will not be another Nordic restaurant. Rather, it will draw from the eating and drinking traditions of the North Sea; an area that spans Scandinavia, Benelux and the British Isles. The name Barr is an old Irish word for “crops” and an old Nordic word for “barley,” a staple throughout this stretch of Europe, and, of course, one of the foundations of beer. Barr will celebrate this diverse region’s cold-country cooking, its breweries, and its shared devotion to conviviality.”
At Barr, they will serve familiar foods in the best way they know how, building on the gastronomic development in Copenhagen, the last decade. They want to carry the spirit of experimentation and knowledge, serving their versions of traditional dishes, along with a great selection of beers and aquavit from this extraordinary area.
The Barr experience is sure to be welcoming, comfortable, and delicious, a place you’ll visit regularly with your family and friends.
Barr will be open for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, and lunch Friday to Sunday. From August 6th, the restaurant will introduce its special Sunday lunch menu, designed to share, and bringing families and friends together and reservations are now open at the Barr website: restaurantbarr.com.
So don’t miss out on this experience if you’re in the area. Barr. Strandgade 93, Copenhagen.
Some News.
Move over wine; Craft Beer is surging for weddings.
Since we started, three of our owners had weddings. At two of them, Craft Beer was a central theme. Here in Sweden, Craft Beer is slowly creeping into the fabric of weddings. There’s nothing better than free beer on tap at a wedding, especially the weddings of brewers.
It’s not yet mainstream, as the drink everyone still toasts with, will undoubtedly still be a glass of Champagne or Cava. But things are changing. The rapid growth of Craft Beer can be seen globally, and its presence in wedding receptions also continue to grow.
Untappd has a lot of different challenges, where you can earn different badges for checking in beer. Summers are usually also wedding time and that’s where the badge “Here Comes the Brew” comes in. To unlock the badge you, obviously, first need to be invited to a wedding, where you can check in any beer you want. The trick is to include the word “wedding” in the comments section.
Craft beer has elbowed its way onto the table of weddings over the past decades, as craft beer drinkers have grown and people see the high quality, well-crafted nature of this beverage.
Introducing Tiago.
He’s brewing and cycling around the world.
This past week we had the pleasure of having Tiago work with us at the brewery. If you like brewing beer and love cycling, it’s worth following him on Instagram or his Facebook page.
His a brewer that’s currently cycling around the world. I had the pleasure of drinking a few beers with him at our Tap Room, the day before he headed out of Gothenburg, on his way to Örebro, then Stockholm, followed by Helsinki and then onwards.
He’s a friendly guy, living the dream. Get in touch with him if you know someone that can assist him on his way, or if you just want to wish him well.
And finally.
It’s time you opened a can of Whoop Ass.
Whoop Ass was supposed to, as with so many of our beers, be a one-off. But so far we’ve brewed it six times since we collaborated with All In Brewing in October 2016. It’s one of my personal favourites and a low ABV beer (Folköl) you can drink all day 😉
It’s just been brewed again this past week, as we try to match demand for summer beers. If you have not tried it, then try and get your hands on it. We’ve exported it to most of our distributors, and in Sweden you can get hold of it not just on tap in pubs, but also a quite a few supermarkets, as it’s classified as a low ABV beer (folköl) at 3,5%
That’s all from us, enjoy your summer.
Until next week.
Cheers
Get hold of our beers in Sweden.
Systembolaget
Visit our Systembolaget page, to see the entire range. All of them can be bought can buy in-store at certain stores, or you can order them to your closest store via Systembolaget.se.
Folköl (Low ABV Beers)
On our Folköl page you can see our entire assortment, as well as the Stores & Supermarkets, such as ICA & Hemköp that stock them across Sweden. When our Tap Room is open every second weekend, you can also come past to buy them directly from us. We always have a 4-pack or 6-pack available.
Get hold of our beers internationally.
Have a look at the beers from our Standard Assortment, or the new beers from our Special Assortment.
If you’d like to get hold of our beers from the distributors, then get in touch, and we’ll link them up with you. If you’re keen to distribute our beer in your country, then get in touch, and we can discuss possibilities with you.
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