MankerBeer.com

Photo: SeriousEats.com

At last year’s Copenhagen Beer Celebration one of the best stands, according to me, was the one all the way in the back where breweries like Westbrook, Farmer’s Cabinet and Cigar City could be found. Not much of a surprise as we Scandinavians aren’t too spoiled with beers from either of them. For CBC 2013 two of the three are coming back (Westbrook and Cigar City) and there were cheers coming from all over the beer community when the CBC crew announced that Cigar City was coming back. The brewery are sending over head brewer Wayne Wambles to spread some of Florida’s best beery love and as the brewery are expanding into the restaurant business and are establishing plans to produce mead and cider we took the opportunity to see what he would be bringing to CBC and what is happening over at the brewery in Tampa.

MankerBeer (MB): Wayne, how would you present Cigar City for someone new to craft beer?
Wayne Wambles (WW): Cigar City Brewing is a brewery that embraces its surrounding culture and environment. Their beers often have tropical fruit notes and/or tell the story of the history of the surrounding area, which is Tampa, Florida. Ybor city has a rich history of hand rolled cigars. In the 1880’s, cigar manufacturers attracted thousands of immigrants from Spain, Cuba and Italy, which rolled millions of cigars for the next fifty years. The city of Tampa became referred to as the Cigar City.

The brewery also uses items like Cuban espresso and guava in their beers. Cafe con leche, which is made from Cuban roast espresso and scalded milk, is a drink that was popularized by Cuban immigrants. Cigar City produces a sweet stout with this same coffee roast. Another Cuban import is the guava pastry. The brewery uses guava in one of their saisons.

Finally, the brewery doesn’t limit its concepts to strictly local culture. It intends to be more diverse by making beers like Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout. This beer is a transplant from central America. Hunahpu is the Mayan god that gave chocolate to the Mayan people. This beer is a fusion of culinary and zymurgy. It blends the religious and culinary concepts of the Maya with modern day mole and the Holy Trinity of chili peppers. Mole is a secret sauce made from a combination of chocolate, chilis and spices. The Holy Trinity is a combination of ancho, guajillo and pasilla chilis, which is used in the beer as well as Peruvian cacao nibs, Madagascar vanilla beans and Ceylon cinnamon. The Mayan culture made the first chocolate drinks using meticulously hand ground cacao nibs, chili peppers and spices.

Cigar City Brewing paints a vivid picture of history and culture infused with culinary on a canvas of zymurgy.

MB: After working for almost six years at Buckhead Brewery & Grill and then at Foothills Brewing for a little over a year you joined Cigar City in 2008 (march 24 if I got my facts straight). What experiences and lessons have you brought with you from your past employments?
WW: Buckhead Brewery is where I was allowed a great deal of initial creative freedom. This is the brewery where I solidified most of my recipe formulation for traditional beer styles. I also was constantly experimenting with different raw materials…hops, hop extracts and many specialty grains, as well as yeast strains. This chain of brew pubs went through a fairly rapid expansion that I was a part of several times. This allowed me to see what kind of issues one has to face when constructing a brewery.

Foothills allowed me the first view of a hybrid facility. It was a production facility and a brew pub that was also self distributing. I learned many things about self distribution but could not apply them to my experience at Cigar City because Florida is limited to the three tier law. Raw material purchase strategy and hop allocation were things that I discussed and attempted to harness during my time in North Carolina.

To be quite honest with you, there were many things that I wasn’t prepared for when I left North Carolina to work at Cigar City but I promised myself one thing. I constantly reminded myself that this opportunity was a “do or die” situation and I pursued it that way to the best of my ability. I might not have always made the best decisions but I’m still breathing so I guess that I managed things fairly well.

MB: Many of your most sought after beers are only made in small batches, poured only at the brew pub or sold locally. What is the Cigar City brewing capacity and how do you handle the demand on some of the beers?
WW: Our current brewing capacity is around 25,000-30,000 bbls a year. That is a decent chunk of beer. It is a little more complicated than you think, however. Allow me to explain.

In 2009, we sold beer for the first time. There was some consumer demand in the local market but we found that we had extra beer. Our first market outside of Florida was New York. They embraced our brands. All was good.

Next, we went into Philly. They also liked what we were doing with our product and would have taken more.

Shortly afterwards, we brewed a collaboration with Mikkel at Cigar City Brewing, thus developing a relationship with Mikkel and Jeppe. Henrik was also involved and began to import our beer to Denmark and spread it throughout Europe.

Slowly, year after year, our home market of Florida was demanding more product. The locals were finding our brand and seeking it out. The demand became so great that we could no longer supply the consumer demand in the state of Florida. This, in turn, forced us to pull our beer out of all other markets, even the panhandle of Florida, and focus heavily on our local market.

In the last month or so, we have moved back into the panhandle of Florida again but we currently have no plans to distribute outside of Florida anytime soon. That is the grand scheme of things but I don’t think that answers your question.

We believe in making solid base beers. A solid base beer allows us to add many things to one beer and develop different concepts inside of a single brand. There is a branch of the brewery that works on development of small volumes of beer that is just for the tasting room. They don’t make the beer but rather use existing beer to create blends and variations of different brands. We take these beers and sell them at the tasting room to see how the consumer responds to them. It allows us to take a little more risk at minimal waste of product should we make a bad blend.

That is why these beers are more limited.

MB: What brewing style would you say you personally have and how well does it mirror the beers Cigar City produce? When at home, what would your personal pick for the evening be?
WW: I have gone through multiple stages of approaches to brewing.

Initially, I wanted to learn as much as I could about raw materials and process. Then, I moved on to trying to identify and produce examples of various styles of beer, which is probably the stage that I dedicated more time to than any other thus far. I still like to use the style approach occasionally but I also attempt to bend that style into my personal interpretation. That can sometimes evolve into something that is very different than it was in the beginning of the process.

I also attempt to bond with the concept of the brewery. As I have stated above, I feel like tropical notes in many of our different styles is just one of the many things that I can do to breathe life into our concept and make it tangible for the consumer. We live in the subtropics with water and tropical flora all around us. I feel that it should be present in our beer as well.

I also feel that there is a rustic element based on the history of cigars, the immigrants that performed that function and the cigar in general. I have approached this in several ways. We have used Spanish cedar, the wood used in the construction of humidors for cigar storage, to age our beers on. This provides forward notes of white grapefruit and more subtle notes of white pepper, sandalwood and clove. The use of chili peppers and dark malts can also add rustic notes like tobacco and leather.

My personal pick for the evening would be Jai Alai IPA. I drink it more than any other brand that we produce. I designed it to fit our concept and as a result it is one of my favorite beers on the planet.

MB: You brew classic styles but often with a twist – either in the form of cucumber extract in the saison, baseball bats in the IPA or mint in the brown ale. Where does this experimental gene come from?
WW: Every single one of the above examples weren’t my ideas.

The cucumber concept came from an event that we were doing with a martini bar that specialized in cucumber martinis. We decided to take a sessionable saison and add cucumber essence(essence is different than extract…it is distillate of the actual cucumber with no alcohol added…it’s a concentrated version of real cucumber) and the result was a Summer hit. We brewed five or six more batches than we planned during the Summer of 2012. It has become an official Summer seasonal now.

The baseball bats are part of a nonprofit organization called Operation Homefront. It is for a great cause. They supply financial support to the families of soldiers that never came home and to wounded soldiers. The sales of the beer are donated to this cause and the baseball bats that the beer ages on are auctioned to the public to raise even more money for this organization. We participated in this last year and we are proudly returning to participate again this year.

Finally, the mint brown ale was a small volume beer that we blended for Christmas one year.

The cucumber beer and the mint beer were both developed by the same department that makes all the small volume beers that are featured exclusively in our tasting room. We refer to that branch as the “Treatment Department”.

My creativity started with cooking and then moved towards brewing. I worked in restaurants and bars for many years(from the age of 15-25). It taught me the importance of the knowledge and quality of raw materials. I also learned that process can make a big difference in final product. Perhaps one of the most important things, I was constantly exposed to many cultures, having worked in Mexican, Greek, Italian and many other types of concepts. Having that breadth of contact allowed me to explore global possibilities.

MB: Florida has not really been famous for the amount of breweries, but lately it seems as it if starting to change? What does the Florida beer scene look like and why?
WW: The Florida beer scene has been changing for quite some time now.

As I have stated above, most of Florida has this tropical feel. South Florida also grows many exotic and tropical fruits.

The climate of Florida is warm most of the year. It encourages many consumers to drink lower alcohol beers. As a result of the climate and the access to tropical fruit, a new style of beer has emerged in Florida. We call it Florida Weisse. It is a Berliner-style weisse that is infused with different tropical fruits. When I say fruit, I mean fruit. Lots of it! Many of these beers have so much pectin haze that they will never drop clear. It makes for a refreshing, tropical drink during the warm months(most of the year).

There are a great deal of nanos popping up everywhere. Some of them have rapidly moved to larger production due to the success of their brands. That’s inspiring to many home brewers and that is what continues to fuel the nano movement in Florida.

MB: Johnathan Wakefield brewed some collaboration with you that are now ranked among the top beers of the world, with him opening up his own brewery – is there a chance that we will see collaboration with him again, maybe one that will get bottled?
WW: We brewed another collaboration with him late last year. It was based on the Aguas Frescas concept, which are fresh fruit drinks that are served at Latin restaurants and bodegas. We decided to start a series of beers called the Cervezas Frescas series in which we would use large amounts of fruit to create these concepts as well as consider making versions of Carribean cocktails in the form of beer.

The first beer in this series is called Guanabana. It is a tropical fruit that is also referred to as soursop. It has a flavor similar to a mix of pineapple and strawberry with sour citrus and finishing with a creaminess that resembles coconut and/or banana. The base beer was a higher alcohol version of a pale ale hopped with New Zealand and Australian hops for the tropical fruit notes to tie the base beer to the fruit. It was only available draft.

We are working on another brand to continue the series. So far no plans to bottle any of these beers yet but there is a good possibility that will happen in the future.

MB: On the topic of collaborations and your collaboration with B.Nektar (Camp Braggot Ghost Stories) – our mead loving guest writer Kristopher wanted to ask if you are considering trying that again.
WW: That collaboration took well over two years of planning. We kept pushing it along slowly. The label design took just as long as the recipe. The feds didn’t like the fact that we put the word “meadery” on the label, claiming that it was misleading so we had to drop the title to the name of the meadery and leave it at that.

Our next move with B. Nektar is to make a mead in Michigan. We are currently discussing spontaneous, wild or sour. Not sure what we will end up with.

MB: What does the future hold for Cigar City; any expansions, new markets or crazy beers in the pipeline?
WW: Yes, no and always.

We will max out our fermentation capacity in the new facility this year. That will allow us to produce up to 50,000 bbls annually by the end of year six. This year(the end of year five) should put us in the neighborhood of 30,000 bbls. I’m still amazed when I think about how we were able to obtain regional status in four years.

MB: What should beer fans really not miss at Copenhagen Beer Celebration?
WW: This will be my first year attending. Perhaps I should ask them/you that question.

We are going to be pouring a three year vertical of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout. I would recommend that to attendees.

Cheers! Looking forward to sharing a beer with all of you!

We thannk Wayne for taking the time to answe all our questions and for giving us a hint of what we can expect from Cigar City in the future. The Hunahpu’s vertical will run over all three sessions (or as long as they last) and as always changes in the below line-up may occur and the other three beers will not be poured at all sessions. Go pink!

Cigar City CBC Beer List:

• Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout 2011
• Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout 2012
• Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout 2013
• Humidor Black IPA.
• Cheers.
• Jai Alai

Nästa steg för oss på MankerBeer att ta plats i ölsverige kommer att ske redan nu på fredag. Efter att ha haft en dialog med Lasse Råde, som vi förhoppningsvis får se kan leda till något positivt så tar vi själva nu klivet ut i etern. Nej, det är inte MankerBeer TV som nu lanserar en digital kanal i ultra 3D HD med häftiga ölreportage utan det är dags att ni ska lära er tyda M2s skånska och min ljuva röst i radio. I fjol när öldokumentären Beer Wars släpptes på den nordiska marknaden så blev vi tillfrågade att vara med i Bandit Rocks morgonprogram Rivstart för att prata öl, då tyckte vi att Brill & Co’s ‘Pop-Jonas’ Danielsson gjorde sig bättre varpå han satt och drack öl istället för morgonkaffet. När vi nu åter blev tillfrågade för att inför Garrett Olivers besök under nästa vecka prata lite öl så var det självklart att vi ställde upp. Så på fredag morgon ska ni tune’a in Bandit Rock så får vi se hur det hela slutar. Kanske hamnar jag och M2 i någon obskyr gränd drickandes Dogfish Heads Pearl Jam-öl Faithfull Ale eller så blir det kalas och vi ser ännu ett steg till att föra ut bra öl till de innan mindre intresserade massorna.

Oavsett vilket får vi se nu på fredag hur det går och vad det blir, vi slänger upp lite mer information på Facebook när det närmar sig!

Keep on rockin!

At Copenhagen Beer Celebration 2012 the brewey which sold out their beers the quickest was probably Danish phantom brewery Xbeeriment. With incredible sours beers lovers asked for glass after glass of their beers and suddenly most of the beers were all gone. Later in 2012 we interviewed one of the brewers, Thomas Hoelgaard for and article in preparation of Stockholm Beer Festival and as we now have added his beers to the CBC 2013 list we thought we should look back to what he said last fall, about Xbeeriment, the beers and the Danish beer scene.

 

MB: Many Swedes will try your beers for the first time at the festival as. In short, what is Xbeeriment and what kind of beers are you focusing on?

TH: Xbeeriment is a phantom brewery. Both of us had been homebrewers for some years before we decided to go semi-pro and open Xbeeriment in 2008. We had been part of the Danish homebrewing circuit that grew rapidly in the first decade of this century. A lot of the guys that we knew here started their own microbreweries, these were guys like Christian Skovdahl (Ølfabrikken, Beer Here) and Mikkel Borg Bjergsøe (Mikkeller). What Mikkel did with Mikkeller was an inspiration to us – in the first many years he ran his brewery as a part time occupation besides his regular job as a school teacher. That was what we wanted to do as well – to open a brewery where we weren’t financially dependent upon selling large quantities of beer rapidly but instead being able to just focus on brewing the beers that we wanted to drink ourselves.

In the beginning we wanted to make extreme beers with a high level of experimentation but these days our focus has changed a bit. We still like to experiment but our main focus when making beers today is to make beers with intensive flavours but also great balance. Even though most of our beers are quite strong in regards of alcohol, we have immense focus on the issue of drinkability. Xbeeriment beers will never be cheap beers, so we feel we have an obligation to make sure that one can actually drink a whole bottle of any of our beers. So we guess the answer is not so much what kind of beers in terms of beer styles we focus on, it’s more a question of a house style in all our beers.

 

MB:  You attended Copenhagen Beer Celebration back in May 2012 and quickly sold out on several of your beers and a great amount of the visitors held your sours beers among the best beers of the festival – what was your experience of CBC?

TH: The CBC was an absolutely amazing experience! For us as brewers we were honoured to be asked to participate and also a bit scared, really. Before the festival we thought that with well-known breweries like 3 Floyds, Cigar City, Hoppin’ Frog, De Molen, De Struisse, Mikkeller, Evil Twin …… on the ticket, we should probably be happy if we poured half a keg of each of our beers during the 2 days.

But when the CBC opened we were surprised to see that the people coming to the festival didn’t just go for the big names, but instead were eager to simply try beers that they hadn’t seen before. And also that the word travelled fast if there was something of particular interest somewhere at the festival. And suddenly we realised that the rumour of our sours was one of the tips going round.

And we did notice a lot of Swedes amongst the very international crowd at the CBC. Therefore we are proud to be able to offer the very last reserves of our lambic at Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival 2012.

 

MB: Compared to many European colleagues the Danish breweries seems to be experiementing a lot more. Why could that be?

TH: It probably has to do with the fact that few other European countries have had the lack of variety in beer as Denmark had from the end of World War II and until about 12-15 years ago. Until the late nineties you could seriously not find any other types of beer than cheaply made lagers in different alcoholic strenght and a few baltic porters on the Danish shelves. Most danes had never tried a top-fermented beer! So when the interest in craft beer took off in Denmark we weren’t bound by a lot of traditional ways to make craft beer, and a lot of the pioners of Danish craft beer like Brøckhouse, Nørrebro Bryghus and later on Mikkeller and Ølfabrikken had turned their eyes towards the US for inspiration. That is probably why the European country, whose craft beer scene has the most resemblance to the American scene, is Denmark.

That being said, most Danish micro breweries still make beers that are not at all experimenting, but just rather bland imitations of classic European styles.

But yeah, there is also a very creative, very experimenting small group of Danish micros. These are the ones beer geeks outside of Denmark have heard of, and most of these – ourselves included – actually sell most of their beer outside Denmark. Funny thing is, though, that most of these are phantom breweries. Only very few of the breweries with an actual physical brewery has taken the experimental road.

If you were at CBC last year and tried their beers you know how good they were, the below list  (changes may occur, for more info on the beers please check out the full list of beers) is equally exiting and I know where I will spend a great part of the celebration. That Thomas and the other from the Xbeeriment crew are great and friendly people who love to talk about their beers doesn’t make it worse.

Xbeeriment CBC Beer List:

• 1. # 44 Smoked Stout Whisky Barrel
• Agent Orange
• Bertold Brett Reads Das Kapital
• Black Force One XO
• Agent Cooper’s Delight
• Bretty Boop
• Black Force One Bourbon B.A Ed.
• Acid Jazz
• Brett the Elder(Berry)

Då var man åter hemma i Stockholm efter ett händelserikt veckoslut i Göteborg som så klart kröntes med En Öl & Whiskymässa. En mässa jag redan har betat av ett par av de negativa sakerna med, vilka jag hoppas att vi får slippa nästa år då vi förhoppningsvis åter få se mässan. Kvar är allt det positiva; alla människor, känslan av att en hel stad äntligen kunde stå stolta över en egen festival och så klart alla de bra ölen.

Det börjar nästan kännas som en festivalvana att hylla Skåne. Är det inte något av bryggerierna så är det Elixir Wines och något från deras portfölj, men så har Skåne också väldigt mycket att vara stolta för. Göteborg var så klart inget undantag och när vi stod hos Malmö Brygghus hade jag till slut svårt att flytta mig de få montrarna ner till Brekeriet – ölen var för bra. Malmö Brygghus hade tidigare en negativ stämpel på sig och ett rykte om halvtaskiga öl och få spännande nyheter, men så kom nye bryggaren Thomas in, fick fria händer och vipps har det hänt saker. Förutom att den nu snart två och ett halvt år skånska lambicen Grand Crew har växt oerhört sedan Stockholm Beer i höstas så är det svårt att inte hylla Hop-Man IPA eller den fenomenala IPA’n Canned Wheat IPA. Den senare har hela 50% mältad och omältad vetemalt och för tankarna åt Three Floyds Gumballhead. Ölet är friskt aromhumlat där den lätta kroppen för fram en fräsch och smakrik öl med allt från blomster till grape och inslag av tropisk frukt. Att också få höra om bryggeriets kommande öl och vad som ligger i gömmorna på bryggeriet vittnar om att Malmö Brygghus bara kommer att växa och växa.

Inte långt bort, vare sig geografiskt eller på mässan stod bröderna Ek från det alltid lika välförtjänt hyllade Brekeriet. Med sig på mässan hade de nyponölet Rosaldin och den snabbt utsålde Breidur (mango och äpplen) – båda öl som jag inte kunde göra annat än att ge väldigt höga betyg. De lyckas verkligen med att fånga upp de rätta inslagen från de frukter och bär de använder och Rosaldin är en öl jag gärna hade haft ett sexpack av hemma. Sedan får man inte glömma öl som BP1 (brett porter 1), BPA (Brett Pale Ale) eller den trevliga Grisetten (3.4% stark brettad saison) – alla med samma höga kvalitet man förknippar med Brekeriet och alla ett bevis på att Sverige har en gömd skatt som säkert skulle kunna nå långt i USA. Ska ni ned på ölfestivalen i Skåne så får ni verkligen inte missa Brekeriet.

Vänder vi temporärt blickarna mot mässans arrangörsstad, Göteborg så fick vi äntligen prova två stycken premiärer. CAP, Mattias Hammenlinds nya projekt öppnade klockan 4 på fredagen upp sin kub för att bjuda på sina två första öl, en Double IPA och en Imperial Stout – båda brygda hos Dugges (därav Göteborgsanknytningen). De båda ölen släpps nu i vår på Systembolaget och tyvärr är de inte värda de 199 kronorna de kommer att kosta per flaska och i vår lilla besökargrupp gick åsikterna isär. Vissa tyckte att de var helt okey, andra att DIPAn var sådär medan stouten bara var bra. Själv tyckte jag att DIPAn var härligt ofiltrerad, utan för mycket beska och med bra smaker av humlekotte, grape och gräs medan stouten kammade hem det högre betyget av de två – riktigt välgjord och full med smak utan att bli för tung. Värt att köpa en flaska i vår, i värsta fall får ni dela den 2-3 pers.

Kanske har man blivit för van med ölmässor och att kunna prova öl från Närke Kulturbryggeri i ohälsosamma mängder, men det går inte att komma ifrån att de är ett av landets bästa bryggerier. Förutom att ha tweakat till receptet på den redan prisbelönta Death by Hops, såklart till det bättre så var det en riktigt färsk dubbel IPA i Huvill och en ett stycke historia i Dubbel Singel Urapa. Jag tror få förstod vad jag menade när jag la upp bilden här till höger och fråga om någon kunde urläsa storheten i ölet och likaså var det nog inte många som på mässan förstod vad det var de drack. Ela Noibla Wen blir spegelvänt New Albion Ale. Med andra ord har man tagit receptet på ölet som tillsammans med Anchor’s Liberty Ale (som kom något år tidigare) nog kan sägas skapade den amerikanska pale ale’en och brygt ölet rakt av. Ölet i sig var långt ifrån de aromhumlefräscha “aporna” vi ser i USA idag, men det är det här jag älskar med Närke – de tar till vara på ett tycke tradition och historia som annars lätt kan gå förlorad. Extra kul då det är få ölnördar som provat New Albions öl.

Mer skånskt då? Elixir Wines portfölj har växt och mognat lite för varje ny festival och mässa och nu har Stronzo funnit sin plats, bryggerier som Hornbeer, Xbeeriment och Det Lille Bryggeri fortsätter att hålla en hög kvalitet och Amagers storhet behöver väl inte förklaras vidare. Just Stronzo körde på stort med sin Honey Badger, en nästan 18% stark imperial stout med mer kaffe och honung än vad som får anses vara det normala intaget för ett halvår. Gillar man en rejäl kaffebomb i ölet så var både Honey Badger och de båda varianterna på imperial kaffestouten Crude Oil (Ravnsort och Papua Nye Guniea) rakt på sak. Jag förstår de som inte uppskattar öl som saknar balans eller som håller tillbaka lite för att hitta en enhetlighet, men här är det all in. Andra öl jag vill lyfta fram från Elixir Wines monter är Det Lille Bryggeri Black Elixir, Amager Lust och Hornbeer Viking Chili Stout som ni bör prova om chansen ges. När Amagers Sinner Series nu är klar, de sista ölen kommer till Systembolaget i vår – så är det klart att vi ska vara glada att ha fått prova på alla ölen. Vissa var väldigt bra medan någon enstaka var okey, men som smågalet projekt får jag ändå säga att det var väldigt lyckat. Sedan är det inte varje dag vi får så mycket av Amager tillgängligt att köpa med oss hem heller..

På Facebook har jag redan under mässans gång berömt Mohawks båda nyheter Belgian Grand Cru och Double Barrel Imperial Blizzard, där framförallt den första av de två är ett garanterat köp om den hamnar på bolaget senare i år. En öl som lätt skulle kunna lura mången belgofil, Skrubbe akta dig. Dessutom kommer de att lagras riktigt bra. Stefan berättade också lite vad som ligger i görningen och det är han och Malmö Brygghus som kommer att stå för moderniseringen av den svenska ölscenen. Inget om alla andra, men nu kommer vi att få se ölstilar och öl vi normalt sett inte förknippar med svensk öl.

Likaså vill jag tipsa om Poppels goda APA och Van Eecke Hommelbier Nieuwe Oogst Fresh Harvest 2012 som båda har just den där sommarflörtiga och nykära blommigheten med toucher av fruktkorg och sol. Mässans bästa öl på många sätt var annars Charlis Brygghus och O/O Brewings CPA – en öl  framtaget för och marknadsfört av GIL, Göteborgskooperativet för Independent Living. Alla kan tycka om och vilja dricka öl, oavsett om man har ett funktionshinder eller ej – gå in på deras hemsida och läs med – gillar du öl ska du stödjadetta!

Andra höjdpunkter får väl vara Brooklyn Brewery’s nya mörka IPA There Will Be Black och Mjödhamnens Lingonlunda, en utsökt mjöd med syrliga lingon – ni måste verkligen prova att beställa hem lite av deras produkter från Systembolagets beställningssortiment. Nu sätter vi om fokus mot Köpenhamn och Copenhagen Beer Celebration, ingen vila här inte.

Uploaded 15/4
Updated 16/4 (new beers, new link to document)
Updated 17/4 (Lervig’s beers added, Kernel’s beers added)
Updated 18/4 (Lagunitas beers added)
Updated 21/4 (Lervig update, BrewDog beers added)
Updated 26/4 (Siren added, new beers added)
30/4 list completed, see below link!

More and more beers from the Copenhagen Beer Celebration 2013 list are announced and who knows, maybe a new brewery or two might show up – no one knows. Along with new brews being announces, others soon to be admitted we have gathered not only the ones announced so far (here and at the event page) but also added some extras for all you thirsty dawgs out there. We will add more beers to the list as they are presented (or just add one every now and then for kicks), so bookmark this post as I might have to change the link to the document if Google Drive messes up my file.

Tomorrow I’ll publish the interview with Wayne Wambles from Cigar City and maybe I’ll throw in what Brian ‘Stillwater’ Strumke is bringing? Sounds like a good deal? Then follow the below steps and mind the gap.

1. Bookmark this page, you will have use for it later
2. Press the below link
3. Get psyched for CBC 2013.

Okay, so here is the list – I haven’t had the time to update it with all the sessions, ABV’s etc. so edit the fields you prefer. Remove the ones you won’t be able to try or add comments to the ones you liked!

MankerBeer’s Beer List for Copenhagen Beer Celebration 2013 – POW!

Amager Brygghus is a small Danish brewery with an impressive list of beers, several awards and ranked highly among the best breweries in the world and despite being close to Sweden (where I live) their beers can sometimes be difficult to lay your paws on. The respect Morten Valentin Lundsbak and Jacob Storm have earned throughout the years have paved ways for collaborations with well-known breweries such as De Molen, Hoppin Frog, Port Brewing and Goose Island and as you soon will read there are a couple of new collabs being brewed later this spring. Over the last 12 months they have also gone from a two-man operation to hiring two additions to their team as well as making an investment in a new brewing system. The beer list, which you can read at the end of the article is really interesting with a brand new line-up of beers including a one-off lambic series, a Flemish red and a black American pale ale. We asked the brewery team all the questions you might need an answer for to get to know the brewery better before the celebration as well as their suggestions for where to drink the best beers after the sessions. Do not miss them at CBC!

MankerBeer (MB): Founded in 2007, Amager Bryghus is one of the most known and well-respected Danish breweries, what is the success story of Amager Bryghus?
Amager Bryghus (AB): Well, that’s not a question that is easily answered in short 🙂 From the start off we have been following a strategy with 2 legs: we have brewed a series of beers with local names aimed mainly at the local market. Good, solid and well brewed beers, but at the same time not very challenging beers. These beers sell really well locally – being our “cash cow” if you prefer.

But it’s no secret that our heart lies elsewhere. Our second leg is what makes brewing fun: hoppy, huge, weird, black, sour beers – you name it! We love to experiment, we love to play around and have fun. It would simply kill us if we had to brew the same 5 beers for the rest of our lives. These are the kind of beers that have opened the eyes of beer geeks nationally and abroad. And as a consequence has made us interesting for beer importers all over the world. In 2013 almost 50 % of our production will be sold outside Denmark, Amager beers can be found in 15 countries.

Many Danish microbreweries have bowed down since the boom of the “Danish Beer Revolution”. We believe that we’re still here because we cater to all beer drinkers – and we respect all beer drinkers. And when it comes to investment and expansion we’ve always been extremely conservative preferring to make the money before we spend them.

MB: You have received great awards from all over the world and made collaborations with several of the most respected brewers and breweries in the world – what have been the high peaks so far?
AB: There have been many! Perhaps the first was the first time we finished an order to our US importer, Shelton Brothers. Standing there looking at 10 huge export pallets of Hr. Frederiksen truly made us proud. In a different category completely is the first time we ran our automatic bottling machine. After years and years of handbottling you cannot believe what a relief that was. Most small brewers that have grown can attest to that…

And yes we really enjoy collaborating, that’s our play day when those are happening. One particular great day was when we had Mike Rodriguez and Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing/ Lost Abbey visit to brew the first batch of Wookiee IPA. That beer has been so successful that it has become a member of our regular line up of beers.

Actually, in the 3 days just before CBC starts we’ll be doing 3 collaborations 3 days in a row – with Against The Grain, Three Floyds and Cigar City. Really looking forward to that – it’s a great way of making friends in the brewing business, and to exchange views, opinions and tricks.

MB: Apart from the Nordic countries and northern Europe you export to North America and Australia. When I visited the brewery 2 years ago I was told that there soon was not capacity enough to still the demand, you then acquired a new brew work. For how long can the new equipment satisfy the demand and can you expand further within the current premises?
AB: Well, that’s actually a very good question. Already in the first year with the new brewhouse we doubled our production and had no problem selling every drop. In 2013 we’ll probably add another 20-30% to that and then – once again – we’re at maximum capacity. So now what? Well, as said before we’re rather conservative in the way we handle capital, so everything we do is considered in detail – and for very long. We cannot really expand in our current rented facilities, so the next step would be finding or building our own brewery. Right now we’re very happy with the way we share warehouse facilities with Mikkeller and drikkeriget.dk as they bring a lot of dynamics and life into the house. So hopefully a future move could still maintain a working business partnership with these guys which we also consider good friends. But bottom line is that we’re staying where we are – at least for now – working hard towards our next step.

MB: For being such a small country, Denmark has given birth to quite an amount of great brewers and breweries, what is it in the Danish gene pool that makes you such great brewers?
AB: If you had asked this question 10 years ago we might have laughed since the first wave of Danish craft brewing contained an awful lot of terrible and infected beer! So I don’t think a foreign beer lover would have considered the Danish beer scene back then as one containing a lot of great brewers. But luckily the general quality level has gone up for almost all breweries. But speaking in general terms Danes have always been curious. We’re one of the most travelling nations in the world we like to seek out new territory. It’s not anything different in the beer world. And since we had been starved for ages with breweries offering mainly bland lagers of little interest then the bubble burst with a big splash when it eventually burst – leading to the Danish beer revolution. Because abroad Danes had experienced that beer could be so much more than what they were offered in their local supermarket.

MB: The Sinner Series has now been completed; can we expect something similar in the future?
AB: The seven deadly sins are quite well known in the general public, helped a great deal by David Finchers great movie. But not many people know that there actually also exists the seven virtues. Somehow it just felt more….right….for us to start with the sins, considering who we are 🙂 But who knows, there might be a virtue series from us one day. “Chastity” by the way is one of these virtues, we’re sure that beer will be embraced by Systembolaget…

MB: You recently hired expert beer drinker/ticker Henrik Papsø – what will he be doing for Amager? How does it feel to go from a two-man operation to involve more people like Henrik and René Hulgreen?
AB: René has really helped boost production on the new equipment. With an extra brewer we can simply get more brews done, also at times where we holiday, have to travel or go to beer festivals etc. It’s been working perfectly, as René is a skilled brewer and a very pleasant guy to work with.

Henrik Papsø has actually been with us since the start – at least on the side writing press releases, label texts etcetera etcetera in his spare time, but only paid in beer! When we employed him, we let him pick his own title and he chose Head of Communications since he is a journalist by trade. But he’s also our Export manager, he conducts tours and beer tastings, arranges our participation in collaborations and beer festivals – and a ton of other things really.

Of course it’s always a challenge to bring in new people into a small closely knit organization of only two – and to be honest we might not always have the most easy personalities. But things have been going surprisingly smooth – probably because they were handpicked and we knew them very well beforehand. But their results are already quite visible to us. But you know, different opinions and views are very rewarding – even if we may not embrace them, the first time they are presented to us!

MB: As Copenhagen citizens what places (restaurants, bars, beer stores, historical places etc) would you recommend the beer freaks coming to CBC to visit?
AB: If you’re in Copenhagen for CBC only, I think your time to do touristy stuff is very limited. So why not use your few spare hours – to have a beer… With the recent openings of Mikkeller & Friends, Søernes Ølbar and Bryggens Ølbar Copenhagen has really turned into a beer haven. So check out some of these new beer bars – and support them for all their great work for the craft beer world. AND all the other established great beer places of course.

MB: As a CBC veteran, what is the best thing with CBC? How important is the interaction between brewers at a festival like this?
AB: Extremely important, and that’s part of what makes this beer festival different and very special. Because our brewery is so focused on exports, the breweries we compare ourselves with are quality craft brewers from the rest of the world. To meet them, try their beers – and have them try ours – and make friends across borders is both fun and rewarding.

MB: Amager Bryghus is probably bringing one of the most interesting line-ups of beer to CBC, what can you tell us about the beers?
AB: Well, it’s quite a challenge to be told to produce 9 new beers, but we thought – what the heck, let’s just bring 10! No Rice & Curry will be on during all 3 sessions – the other 9 on different sessions. But all are regular debuts at CBC. Some will appear on other festivals and a few of them will, also be released in bottles. But really, this was a great chance to try some of the recipes we had in the book. Hell, without the CBC some of these beers may never have been brewed!

MB: What should beer fans really not miss at Copenhagen Beer Celebration?
AB: Well, the 3 fruit lambics are one-offs for sure. We brewed the base lambic 3 years ago on the old equipment and it has been resting on 3 Bourgogne barrels ever since. One of the barrels have turned vinegar, but the two others were nice. It’s probably our most expensive beer to date: buying fresh fruit in the middle of the Danish winter cannot be recommended! There’s only 40 litres of each.

The days Of Barley And Roses is also a one-off in this non-barrel-aged version. It will later appear in a port barrel edition.
And even if huge Imperial Stouts are getting out of fashion you really should try Double Black Mash – as it’s all-grain as opposed to so many others in the same style. It’s really motor oil – yet strangely balanced.

But many of the first are simply not ready as we write – so we really have no clue as to how they come out!
Hope to see you all – and really looking forward to it!

Thank you all at Amager for answering our questions and for offering this great list of beers! Changes may occur and except for No Rice and Curry the beers will be poured during different sessions. Pinks will be able to try them all.

Amager Bryghus CBC Beer List:

• No Rice And Curry (India Pale Lager)
• Showdown in Tourpes (US-style Saison)
• The Days Of Barley And Roses (Barley Wine)
• Smoking Scotsman (Scotch Ale)
• Hr. Papsø In Black (Black APA)
• Godverdomme (Flemish Red)
• Double Black Mash (Imperial Stout)
• Fruiticus Lambicus Blackberry
• Fruiticus Lambicus Raspberry
• Fruiticus Lambicus Redcurrant