Johannes Blomqvist, our latest brewery helper, created a Rauchbier.
Our staff are the reason Beerbliotek is what it is. And what would a brewery be without its fair share of interns helping out from time to time?
As part of our interns brewery education with us, we create the opportunity for them to design & brew their own recipe, with some guidance from our brewers on our small scale Experimental Brew Kit. This extra hands-on solo project provides a space for more freedom to gain valuable experience, confidence and knowledge whilst learning how to work with beer, before they head out into the world.
Johannes was born and raised right here in Gothenburg, and since it’s become the beer capital of Sweden, he has no plans of leaving. After his time studying English and Philosophy of Science at University, Johannes realised even though he found the subjects interesting, the academic route wasn’t for him. Deciding to do something of a more practical nature, he stumbled upon the Campus Nynäshamns brewing program and chose to pursue his interest in beer – “the brewing education immediately felt right”.
Hej Johannes! Do you have a favourite beerbliotek beer?
“The one I’ve had the most is definitely A Moment of Clarity (Session IPA), but I’ve grown a bit tired of IPAs, so my current favourite is Stocking filler (Schwarzbier). I really enjoy light, dark beers; like Porters or Schwarzbiers. I feel like way too many Porters are Baltic, and way too many Stouts are Imperial these days.
When you’re not in the brewery, what are you doing?
“I have quite a broad range of interests ranging from sports (like tennis, floorball and discgolf), to computer games and live music (mostly heavy metal). And you might also find me enjoying a good brew, of course.”
What’s the next step for you after this internship?
“After the internship, the only thing that remains of my brewing education is my final thesis. I’m doing my thesis on beer without hops, with the background that the growing of hops requires a lot of water, and is therefore not very environmentally friendly. On top of that, with the current haze craze, more and more hops are used in beers and it’s mostly American hops as well, meaning long transports and further strain on the environment. I will brew four batches of Hefeweizen (since Hefeweizen only requires hops for bittering); one with hops, as a reference, and the others with three different alternative bittering agents. A panel will then test them to see if they can tell the difference. My hope is that it will be hard, but I guess we will see!
When the thesis is done and I’ve graduated, at the end of February, my hope is to find a job at one of the Gothenburg breweries!
Can you tell us about the beer you brewed during your internship with us?
“Since I just started experimenting a bit with smoked malt as a homebrewer – my first batch being a smoked porter – I wanted to take it to the next level when I got the opportunity to brew at a slightly larger scale in the brewery. This time I wanted the smoky flavours to be a bit more in the forefront, being that the porter had a lot of other strong flavours as well (chocolaty, roasted etc). The beer is influenced by the Helles Rauchbier style, but I chose to let a significant portion of the grain bill consist of Munich malt in order to get more of a malty bread character to complement the smokeyness. This, however, will make it a bit darker than a Helles normally is.“
Johannes beer, Experimental Brew: Rauchbier, will be available at our Tap Room and at one of our local Restaurant Piga.
Make sure to read our other interns’ stories & their beer creations, on Our Blog.
