Heimdal bankrupt

It saddens me to find out that the micro brewery Heimdal Bryghus has filed for bankruptcy. I like the beers and I like the people involved. So unless the miracle I am hoping for happens, this might be the first Danish micro brewery that will cease to exist since the beer revolution began some years ago.

Heimdal Bryghus never got to be a brick-and-mortar company. There was not yet a brewery and the beer was brewed on a couple of other smaller breweries. The company was run as a private limited company, that sold shares in the company to those interested. This sale was to finance the physical brewery at some point. I looks like that will never happen now :-(

Cheers Heimdal

Brooklyn Brewery has nice enough logo to copy

Evidently the logo of Brooklyn Brewerry is so good that it is worth copying. In the effort of staying current, a supermarket has taken the logo of Brooklyn Brevery as a template for their own logo. The copy is hard to tell from the original. Despite that fact, the supermarket owner claims that the two are not alike at all.

Brooklyn Brewery is currently trying clear up the 'confusion' and will probably use legal means, if kind requests are not met.

On the positive side, it is kind of a compliment.

Does this kind 'brand copying' happen often?

Brewer leaves Coors and starts own company

I like to make fun of Coors. That is mainly because if their war against beer served at temperatures where you can taste it.

So this former Coors brewer, Tony Vieira, has started his own brewing company, Naked Lion Brewing, in Memphis, with his beer brewed at City Brewing in Wisconsin. Vieira started in the brewing business in 1989 when he worked in Budweiser's research brewery, doing experiments on beer.

The first beer, Copper Flask, is described as “a full-bodied lager that uses a sour mashing process similar to the one used to make some whiskeys.” The Vieira family chose the company name because lions are featured prominently throughout brewing history. For example, Lowenbrau, a Munich brewery, features lions on its labeling. Its name means "lion's brew," a reference to when it was first brewed in 1383 at The Lion's Inn in Germany.

Tony Vieira, who has an MBA from Vanderbilt University, financed the $500,000 start-up himself to maintain equity in the company.

I am somewhat curious abut the serving temperature of the new Copper Flask.

Gourmetbryggeriet opens brewbub

Gourmetbryggeriet has made an agreement with Bryghuset Vendia in Hjørring, Denmark. On the 18th of june the installation of the brewery began. The equipment is from JTMBrew and the 800 liter pot is being lifted in place below.

The installation only took about one hour. After that the equipment had to be ajusted ant that took the rest of the day. According to Gourmetbryggeriet, Michael Knoth is really looking forward to try the new brew ware together with Morten Pedersen of Bryghuset Vendia.






"Careful guys! This is a MAX 30 MIN parking zone, so get moving"


Hmm - can I have the same, please?

The head of Brøckhouse leaves

One of the pioneers of the Danish craft brew revolution, Allan Poulsen leaves the brewery he built himself. Allan will no longer be the manager and brewmeister at Brøckhouse in the small Danish town Hillerød.

Brøckhouse was one of the early movers of microbrewries in Denmark and has grown considerable since then. The company have experienced growing pains as quality control became more and more difficult and the product suffered. Being back on track the brewery is nothing like the original. Allan Poulsen says that he have had some interesting years and has been part of the movement towards making Denmark a true international center for beer. He feels that is have been tough times, and is ready to let new people run the company. Allan Poulsen says that he is an entrepreneur and wants to start something new.

Good luck with that.

New Ølfabrikken beer: Columbus Pale Ale

The new beer from Ølfabrikken this summer is a tribute to the breweries favourite hop variety – the Amarican Columbus hop.

It is a copper coloured beer of 5% vol. with clear notes of grape fruit and pine. After fermentation the beer is dry hopped with even more Columbus hops, that intensifys the hoppiness of the beer.

The strong hop aroma combined with the moderate alcohol content and a semi bitter and dry finish makes the beer refreshing in the summer heat, and still have som caracter.

Try to catch it – it has just been released and will hit the broader Danish beer shops within a week.

The funny guys at Coors introduces cold bottle indicator

Coors is often the source of funny and stupid inventions. I have reported on them before (in Danish). If all goes according to plan you can soon look to the mountains on the bottle, and find out whether or not your beer is ready to drink.

The Golden-based Coors Brewing Co. has launched its new Coors Light Cold Activated Bottle. When the beer hits the correct temperature, mountains on the label turn from white to blue. As part of Coors' plans to market the concept nationwide, it has announced the "World's Most Refreshing Happy Hour." Company "ambassadors" will work with retailers to promote the new bottle.

Coors Brewing Company executives, employees and distributors are joining forces to build awareness and trial of the company’s latest innovation, the Cold Activated Bottle. Mountains on the label turn from white to blue when Coors Light is at the optimal temperature for cold refreshment. In cities all over USA, Coors ambassadors will be working with retailers to engage consumers and encourage trial of the Cold Activated Bottle.

When drinkers choose Coors Light, they're looking for refreshment. The Cold Activated Bottle is designed to ensure that drinkers experience the coldest, most refreshing beer possible.

said Andy England, chief marketing officer for Coors Brewing Company.

On May 18, we are celebrating our newest innovation by inviting consumers to come out and raise a cold one for the World’s Most Refreshing Happy Hour.

According to Coors Light research, consumers want to know when their beer is cold enough to drink. The bottle works by Thermochromatic ink that turn blue when Coors Light has been chilled to the perfect temperature for ice cold refreshment. But what if you go colder than that?

In Denmark we have had that system available for years. Small stickers with exact same function, even the colours are the same. But it never caught on.

Here's a crazy idea for the Coors Brewing Co: Come up with a new tasty beer. No really, that IS the idea :-)

All-grain brew machine

This years Ølfesival in Copenhagen has left so many impressions that I do not know where to start.

Getting right on track with a craft brew story: Housebrewer, an all grain beer brewing machine

I met Morten Steen Pedersen from Housebrewer a company so new that they do not even have a website yet (will probably be www.housebrewer.com). Morten who is the software delveloper for the project, showed me the machine. It is supposed to be aimed at cafés, restaurants etc. Housebrewer brews all-grain beer and therefore is able to brew the full range of beers out there. It measures 60x60x100 cm and has a batch size of 25 liters. The materials are stainless steel and glass, so that you actually can watch the brewing process, and all the ingredients while it brews. Unlike my set-up Homebrewer has very little manual work involved. Just add the ingredients in the different compartments and turn it on - out comes the chilled wort ready for fermentation.

Morten promised that a future version of the software would support BeerXML.

The price is approximately 1.600€ so this machine is not to be confused with anything you can buy on TV-shop (or that crappy beermachine.

Beer pint served in two seconds due to impressive engineering

The turbo tap poors a complete pint of beer in just under 2 seconds with just the right amount of head. It's unique, patented system taps in to a bars existing beer lines and pulls the beer out in record time.

Though they sell mostly systems for pro they also offer home systems for sale.

Video1 – the inventor tells about being an entrepreneur.



Video2 – speed test of a normal faucet compared to TurboTap.



This is an amazing device that attaches to any normal beer faucet. It can pour a beer four times faster than the common faucet. You also yield more beers off every keg, with less beer going to be foam. It pays for itself, this thing is revolutionary in the world of beer drinking and sales. For more info go to TurboTap.com

War on good beer?

In my recent visit to the Danish microbrewery Ølfabrikken, I was surprised to see no sign by the road. To be more accurate the sign was there, but it had been painted over.

I thought to myself that they just wanted to update the sign, and went on in. As always, in small breweries it is interesting to talk to their employees. Here I got the real story of the sign; It had been painted over in the the middle of the night. The empty sign was the result of pure vandalism.

It seems that one or more of Ølfabrikken’s neighbours does not appreciate a brewery being located where they are. At my previous visits to the brewery I have talked to several of the locals, many of which own part of the brewery and all being excited by their products and their mere existence.

My plea to the neighbour(s) in question: RELAX, have a homebrew. If you are annoyed by something at or about the brewery, go talk to them! They are really nice people, and you CAN talk to them. Please stop childish acts such as blocking their driveway with your car.

We need no more terrorists in the world – we need dialogue! I guess that everybody *but* the people I am writing to in this post, will read it. But now I started a dialouge instead of smashing up the car in question with a baseball bat :-)

NOTE: I picked up 'Ølfabrikken India Red Ale' and it is to die for.

Smag verdens ældste øl

På Ølfabrikken i Tisvildeleje har Christian og Co. genskabt en øl ud fra en 4000 år gammel opskrift.

I 1930’erne fandt man nogle ældgamle Sumeriske lertavler, der ved nærmere granskning viste sig at indeholde en detaljeret opskrift på øl. Opskriften er navngivet ”Hymne til Ninkasi” og beskriver i detaljer hvordan man forarbejdede bygkorn, honning og dadler til en naturligt gæret drik.

Christian Skovdal Andersen, fortæller om projektet :”Det var vigtigt for mig at resultatet skulle fremstå så autentisk som muligt. Da vi bryggede øllet, fulgte vi så vidt muligt den oprindelige opskrift slavisk – selv når det stred mod nutidig brygvisdom.”

Smagen af det ældgamle øl beskrives som en blanding mellem øl og vin med en snert af røg.

Øllen kan smages gratis på Ølbaren, Elmegade 2, 2200 København N hele weekenden fra torsdag d. 15/6 kl. 19.00 til og med lørdag d. 17/6 eller indtil der ikke er mere.

http://www.olfabrikken.dk/ninkasi

"Ale'n er så rød, mor"

Sådan starter en nyhedsbmail fra Ølfabrikken, der hilser foråret velkommen. Og det er også på tide at vi ser lidt sol og varme. Jeg har lige ligget med halsbetændelse med masser af feber, tjo jeg længes efter lune sommeraftener med en god øl.

Hver måned laver Ølfabrikken et nyt forsøgs bryg ude på fabrikken, der laver øl. I april er det en I.R.A. Der er altså ikke tale om irske terrorister men om øltypen India Red Ale. Tidligere har Ølfabrikken haft held med at lave kraftigt humlede versioner af eksisterende Øltyper, selv om vi endnu ikke har ikke set 'Agent Orange' på programmet endnu, en af deres 'hemmelige' opskrifter. Sidste år var det en kraftigt humlet udgave af Ølfabrikken Brown Ale som de valgte at kalde Ølfabrikken India Brown Ale.

Denne gang har Ølfabrikken gjort noget tilsvarende. Blot har de taget udgangspunkt i øltypen amber ale, der er gjort forårsklar med blomstrende humletoner. Ifølge dem selv, er bitterheden ikke voldsom i forhold til fx Ølfabrikken Rug IPA, da maltprofilene er tilbageholdt med en tør afslutning. Øllet er tørhumlet i tre uger på hele humleblomster, hvilket efterlader en helt unik frugtig og forfriskende aroma.

Slutteligt skulle den være til at få fat i allerede denne weekend!