Expat beer tour

Friday the 8th Lervig will host the Stavanger Expat's on a brewery tour and should be a fun night to show off some of the new beers we are producing at Lervig.

http://www.stavangerexpats.com/lervig-brewery-tour

First Update in Norway

So I have been here 3 months now and I have been busy learning the new brewery and getting a handle on the situation at hand. As we all know good things take time to plan and longer to implement. But there is progress. I have been busy finishing the rest of my brewhouse I began to build with JTMbrew 4 years ago. This included refitting new pumps, the missing hard piping, building the false bottom, a vapor condenser and the steam pipe , etc. All I need to finish is the steam pipes and build the control panel. After that I have to build a new floor drain and its ready to be brewed upon. I look forward to inviting many friends in the Brewing world I have made and will meet to brew some interesting collaboration brews as well as my own idea's which have been lurking in my thoughts over the last few years or longer. I plan on inviting home brewer in the area to brew with me. I think the potential is unlimited what I can do with the little brewhouse! Above is a photo of how it sits today in the brewery. I plan on inviting my brewing friends from Denmark to help me inaugurate the first batch, which will hopefully be sold both here and in DK. More to follow on that.

I have brewed Lervig's first Pale ale a 4,7% alc, light copper colored ale with a plentiful amount of Chinook, Amerillo and Citra hops. Its still bubbling in the fermenter awaiting final gravity for its next load of dry hops...I'm sure this beer will establish a new beginning for the direction of Lervig and represent me as a brewer. I want to show both beer lovers and mainstream beer drinkers that I have both of them in mind when I brew. Should be ready in mid July.

Moving ON.... take 2...

Well its been about 5 years minus 23 days since I first showed up in Roskilde to make beer for the beer crazed danes... I have enjoyed building a brand together with my colleges and seeing the success of the brewery, I have learned a lot in my time here in Denmark, selvom jeg ikke har lært at tale dansk så godt...

In 2008 I had left to Italy to brew with my good friend Leonardo DiVincenzo from Birra del Borgo only to return to Denmark 2 months later, I felt my time in DK was not yet finished. Now again I am planning to leave the residency of Denmark, but I am hopeful to return one day as a future inhabitant. I do feel that my time at Gourmet Byggeriet is finished, and sadly as in every turning point in life I feel I must move forward in my career and try new adventures and start a new chapter. It has been a difficult decision for me to leave DK. My plan is to move to Stavanger Norway. Where I will become the brewmaster for a middle sized brewery named Lervig Aktiebryggeri. Lervig is a young brewery started as a response to Carlsberg's buyout of the towns local brewery, which was subsequently removed to Carlsberg’s Ringes brewery in Oslo. Among other reasons I am also excited and looking forward to the change as the artist in me craves the Norway nature too... Peaked mountains and beautiful fjords...I hope to take Lervig forward in it's new direction to embrace specialty beers and create unique, great products. I believe this opportunity will challenge and excite me and I hope to stay involved in the future beer market of Denmark.

As a final gesture at GB, I have brewed a special brew a 7,5% IPA with loads of US hops which represents the sort of beers I truly have affection for. this Beer is hopefully available in the places I frequent, I wont be pushing the sales so please contact Anders Kleiny at ak@gourmetbryggeriet.dk to get a hold of it. I can assure it this will be the hoppiest beer to ever be brewed at Gourmet Byrggeriet! It will be available only on draft. Just ask for Mike's Hoppy-Trails IPA...It will not be a disappointment...until you run out of it...

Skål!

the 240 hl brewhouse of Lervig....

I am still alive, just nothing new to talk about...

Mike

Sold Down the River

You may have noticed that my work is evolving into an industrial brewing job, Although we are still brewing here in Roskilde, for how long is a mystery. I don’t get any more information than you do about the takeover, instead I am left clinging to my job after 4 years of hard work to get this brewery where it is today. Unfortunately l didn't have any say in the matter. I seriously hope that Harboe is interested to continue brewing GB / ØF beer, and will be open to new ideas and not too concerned over the higher costs needed to create such beers. It would be a shame to dumb it down any more than it already is. I believe the beers we are making now at GB & Ølfabrikken are good "Gateway" beers which only encourage new beer drinkers to explore their options about beer quality and form their own opinion’s about drinking the best beers for their tastes. I hope it will not result in the reduction of our beer to an industrial attempt to make the beer bland, tasteless and cost effective. I certainly don’t wish the brands to simply fade away. I believe our beers have given new choices to the market and with out that there are fewer options for the consumer.

Nor do I see this as another sign that craft beer is dying in DK, in fact this is quite healthy for the segment of the beer market, this is merely a correction in the market and it has been seen before in every craft beer boom. Perhaps the market isn’t as big as once thought by many craft brewers who have expanded to rapidly, borrowed too much or in our case got in the fight against the big breweries and would be hard pressed to survive. Instead craft brewing is built on slow sustained growth. Craft brewers by nature are hard working, honest people, they make their beer not for wealth but for passion, they don’t take advantage of others who are trying to make an honest living and they support businesses who share this mindset. Denmark is a small country, but there are plenty of honest hard working persons who love beer and will support their local brewery. So there will also be brewers who realize that life isn't always about volume and sales, nor is it about dumbing down the product or consumer. The consumers will continue grow and so will the sales % of the craft beer segment. In the end there are people who do care about who makes the products as much as what goes into the product. I once heard the comparison “People who only drink industrial beers probably only eat at McDonalds too…”, perhaps these people exist, but that’s another issue.

I have on the other hand been working on a few things and although I don’t have my own resources to get my own brewery started (I have most of the equipment however to start one) I have made an agreement to begin brewing a small amount of Craft beer for sale at the best beer places around KBH. Hopefully there will be enough of you guys to support my quest to make the perfect IPA!

Beer Drinkers For Obama

On the 19th of October at a new beer bar in KPH I will with a few other brewers (including Shaun Hill of Nørrebro) offer 1 keg of beer to support a fun event known as, "BEER DRINKERS FOR OBAMA" , I will bring a cask of a dry hopped American Pale Ale. I hope to see alot of friends there to support Obama and perhaps have a beer with me as you may have heard I am out of here at the end of the month...

I cant think of a better way to promote US politics and beer at the same time!

here is the link to the event: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gshs8y

Location: See www.blackswan.dk

Moving back to Italy...

Finally I am able to announce that I will be moving to Italy the 1st of November. I will be joining my friend and fellow brewer Leonardo DiVincezio of Birra Del Borgo- http://www.birradelborgo.it/ I will be taking over as brewing Director and will be responsible for the day to day productions and the brewery expansion, as well as a new product line. I have been eagerly awaiting my return to Italy and at the same time look forward to a continued involvement at Gourmet Bryggeriet in Denmark as a project consultant.

Hopefully I will be frequently seen in and around Copenhagen in the future and I always have a few more irons in the fire. As I said when I left Italy "I will be back"... I hope the same is true for Denmark.

I will miss seeing my coworkers at Gourmet Bryggeriet, I will miss seeing my Danish friends. I welcome any one traveling to Italy to get in contact with me for a beer!

(hopefully this will turn into a Rome - winter / Spring, Denmark Summer / Fall....;-)