Mati Sild, a brewer at Lehe Brewery, in Keila, Estonia, talks about being at the start of Estonia’s craft beer boom and maintaining quality. Sild joined Lehe in 2016 after brewing during his university days during summer stints at microbreweries.
Lehe was founded in 2013 by Tarmo and Gristel Tali, two IT specialists. Lehe expanded fermentation capacity from 30 hl to 90 hl, then to 150 hl as Estonia’s thirst for craft grew, and then to 210 hl.
In 2019 they realised that their hobby had grown too big for them to devote enough time to Lehe and sold it to Tanel Nurmeots. Nuremots, who in 2014 established craft beer store Uba and Humal, began gypsy brewing in 2017 as UJH Brewery before buying Lehe.
Photos: Swafff! 2022 was held at LaVallée in Brussels 11-12 June. The photos and video were taken on 11 June.