Patrik Hellström and Albin Stenberg co-founders of Bryggverket brewery in Umeå, Sweden are innovators. In an interview at the Leuven Innovation Beer Festival in Belgium, Hellström explains what innovation means to the brewery, which started in 2014. They have made beers with Snus, a moist powder tobacco, a variant of dry snuff, traditional lagers, and with some controversy, Ren In Blood, a beer brewed with reindeer blood for an annual metal festival.
But Ren In Blood is not the only game in town for Bryggverket. At Leuven the brewer brought a selection of six beers (no blood involved): Lengrädded, a New England IPA loaded with citra and mosaic hops; Kaakao Kaakao, an imperial chocolate stout with lactose brewed in collaboration with Gustaf Mabrouk, a chocolate chef; Dubbelpipa, a double IPA brewed in classic West Coast style; Get Lucky, the brewery’s first commercial beer, and brewed with crystal malts and single hopped with Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand; Janne Shuffle, an India Pale Lager with two yeast strains and dry hoped as an American pale ale – brewed in collaboration with guitar player Janne Schaffer and artist, director, actor Lasse Åberg; and The Bru-Team, a brut IPA brewed with enzymes added to the mash and/or fermenter to make it bone dry.
Ren in Blood: audio interview (Full 18 min)
Ren In Blood is a dark lager inspired by the trash metal band Slayer’s song Raining blood. When the news first came out in Swedish media about Ren In Blood, Stenberg received a call from an official from Umeå’s environmental health and protection department, who begged him to let him know that it was brewed according to hygienic standards.
Stenberg’s wife is a nurse and knows something about hygiene and handling blood. Stenberg described the process on the telephone and the mayor was convinced.
Links
- Article in the Swedish news
- Patrik Hellström’s first band – Bloodline
- Patrik Hellström’s second band – Eudaimony
- Ministry of Truth: Patrik’s solo post rock project.
- House of Metal – one of the best metal festivals in Sweden
See the other fantastic Beer Idiots interviews at Leuven Innovation Beer Festival 2019
- André Janssens of Brouwerij Hof ten Dormaal, Belgium
- Pekka Kääriäinen of Bryggeri Helsinki and Lammin Saht, Finland
- Philippe Minne of Brasserie Minne, Belgium.
- Patrik Hellström of Bryggverket brewery, Sweden.
- Casper Vorting and Gitte Holmboe own Bøgedal Brew in Vejle, Denmark.
- Julien Bretheau of À Tue-Tête, Switzerland.
- Iacopo Lenci, brewmaster and owner of Birrificio Brùton, Italy
- Pim Zomerdijk of Brouwerij De Moersleutel, the Netherlands.
- Paul Herbert of UK-based Kent Brewery.
- David Cohen of Dancing Camel Brewery, Israel.
- Robin Barden of Edge Brewing, Barcelona, Spain.
- Breandán Kearney of Siphon Brewing, Damme, Belgium.
- Stephen McGirr of Wicked Weed Brewing, Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
- Vasyl Mikulin of Varvar Brew, Kyiv, Ukraine has been mixing his experimental beers.
- Botond Prischetzky, brand manager at Monyo Brewing, Budapest, Hungary
- Pia Morgenroth, founder of G’Bräu, Berlin, Germany.
