Happy Holidays. We’ll catch up again in 2017 – Weekly Brewery Update

This is our last brewery update for 2016. It’s been a fantastic year. So many collaborations with so many great breweries. Awesome festivals. Lots of travelling, and some pretty great beers were had along the way.

This week we’re talking about Russia, Berliners, Systembolaget and a lot of Low ABV beers.

From Russia. With Love.

They say the world is your oyster. It helps when four of your six owners are immigrants to Sweden from the furtherst reaches of this globe. South Africa, Australia and New Zealnad. At the moment we’re exporting to 13 countries, and are always open to new markets, new influences and new experiences.

This last week our two head brewers Adam Norman (Aussie) and Richard Bull (Kiwi) headed to the Kazan in Russia for three days.

Kazan is about 80km east of Moscow and is one of many Russian cities where the action is, with regards to Craft Beer. Coming from Gothenburg where the same trend can be seen, we couldn’t say no.

The invitation came from a BrewPub called Petzold, who we have met a few times at various festivals. The goal of the trip was to brew beer which has not yet yet become as popular in Russia. Two beers were decided on, the one a Berliner Weisse and the second an Imperial Stout. So it wasn’t just a social visit, it was also to work.

They wanted to know more and learn first hand, about brewing such beers and we were happy to help. You never get back from such a trip without learning something yourself, and perhaps the collaboration opens up new doors for everyone.

Our collaborations have mostly been with Scandinavian Breweries, and one from Italy. This collaboration has moved the boundaries much further along, which is a positive.

2016 was a year for Berliners. 2017 will have some more surprises in store.

Eight. That’s how many Berliners we ended up with in our range by the end of 2016. The latest one will ship before the end of the year. More on that one later.

For me personally these beers have been a lot of fun. As the person who takes care of everything on the outside of the product, I had the opportunity to bring my illustration and design skills out more.

The illustration work is easier when these beers have the crazy names like they have. ”What’s better than roses on your piano?” or ”A Passion for Strawberry Blondes”.

These beers all came out in bottles, as it was just at the end of launching the sixth one, that we installed the canning line. The canning line, as well as the future Tap Room influenced the seventh version a lot.

Our Berliners move to a can and we drop the alcohol to 3,5%.

Number seven was ”What’s better than eating a Mandarin?”. This is the first one to go into a can. Not going into the reasons why we believe cans are the future right here. But they are 🙂

We also decided to take the alcohol down from 3,8% to 3,5%. For those that are not from Sweden, this might seem like an idiotic thing to do, as there’s really no difference. But let me explain.

In Sweden, the state owned monopoly, Systembolaget, has the sole rights to sell alcohol over 3,5%. Alcohol free, as well as over 3,5% I’ll add. Everything else, 3,5% and under may be sold at supermarkets, or as in our case, from the brewery as well.

The opening of our Tap Room, now allows us to sell all of our low ABV beers or Folköl, as we call them here in Sweden, directly to the public. Buy one. Buy a six-pack. Buy a box. Everything goes, except the beers on 3,6% or higher. Those you can taste at the brewery but not buy to take home, as you can in all other European countries.

Nah… just had some ice cream. A new Blueberry, Lactose & Vanilla Berliner.

Number eight in the range is out before the end of the year. It’s a fabulous mix of Blueberries, Lactose and Vanilla, and pours a lovely red from the tank. It’s my personal favourite so far. The name is from a joke about a penguin, which we’ll share another day. For now you can simply look out for ”Nah… just had some ice cream” 🙂

More low ABV beers on the way. Folköl as we call it in Sweden.

2017 is the year where we’re looking to have more functions, parties, beer launches and events at our Tap Room. For all of these gatherings we’d like to have as many different kinds of Low ABV beers (Folköl) available for you to take home. We’ll always have a six pack special on the go.

These beers will also go to our Supermarket customers such as ICA and Hemköp here in Sweden, as and when they are released.

Right now we have five different styles available.

New Merchandise. There’s still time to fill up that Christmas Stocking.

Our webshop has just been updated with some new merchandise. There’s more than ten different colours available, in men and ladies models, in all the sizes.

So pick your favourite and wear it with pride 🙂 or buy one for your favourite Craft Beer drinking friend.

Hello Sweden. Hello Systembolaget.

In 2017 we have plans for launching a lot more new beers at Systembolaget here in Sweden. You will be able to order them all to your closest store or your front door. Pop Corn Hop Porn IPA has a release date of February, and Sabotage, or Black IPA collab with O|O Brewing is in line for March. More news on that soon.

Right now we have 9 beers available. Just hit the shop now button, it’s as easy as that.

And finally

This weekend we had our Tap Room open again, with a really exciting beer list. Four beers were available to try side by side. Single Hop Mosaic IPA besides Single Hop Mosaic Apricot. Mocha Latte Stout could also be had alongside Mocha Latte Stout Double Shot Vanilla.

That is it from us for this year. Thank you for the good times, we’ll catch up again in 2017.

Cheers