Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.12.2017, Page 69

Issue 04 Winter 2017 Your free copy
THE ART OF BEER
If you’re into craft beer and visiting Iceland in February, forget about sightseeing; there is too
much beer waiting to be tasted. Between February
22nd to February 24th there will be an annual beer
week at Hverfisgata 12 and Mikkeller & Friends,
which climaxes with a Beer Festival at Kex Hostel
over the weekend. Popularity of craft beer has been
booming in Iceland over the last years.
Beer was actually prohibited in Iceland for 74
years, until March 1st 1989. There are now lots of
small craft breweries all over the country and the
variety of foreign craft beer has multiplied in a
short amount of time. There are a few bars that
specialize in craft beers – one of them being our
very own Mikkeller & Friends, named after a Dan-
ish brewery favored in Iceland, Mikkeller.
Over the beer festival week there will be a tap
takeover at Mikkeller & Friends, where you can
come by and taste brew you won’t find anywhere
else in Iceland. There are also other beer related
events, like beer yoga. The main event is of course
The Annual Icelandic Beer Festival at Kex Hostel,
a much-anticipated event for any local beer lover,
and very popular with both men and women. At the
festival the Icelandic Beer Trade meets and greets
with their international colleagues in an intimate
setting. The festival is a perfect platform for tasting
the up-to-the-minute flavors of the craft beer scene
along with diverse food pairings and live music.
There are 47 different breweries attending the
festival, including Other Half, Mikkeller, Lord Hobo,
Surly, Bokkereyder, Cycle Brewing, Borg Brugghús
and Lady Brewery.
Follow www.kexbeerfestival.is for tickets and the
full schedule, as well as the live music performances
Hinrik Carl Ellertsson is a beer maker at Kex Brewing, a con-
cept that spawned from Kex Hostel in
Reykjavik, a venue that’s a local favou-
rite for meeting people, hanging out,
enjoying food and drink and live mu-
sic and events. Hinrik is himself a chef
at The No Name Pizza Place, Kex Hos-
tel’s sister restaurant on Hverfisgata
12. “There are a few of us at Kex Brew-
ing but we don’t have a very long back-
ground in the beer brewing industry,”
says Hinrik. “We’ve been home brew-
ing beer for 5 to 6 years now but basi-
cally we’re just a good mixture of guys
who love brewing. I’m a chef myself
which I suppose helps a hell of a lot as
far as knowing how yeast works but
I would not call myself a brew master.”
As to the concept behind Kex Brew-
ing, why on earth is a hostel brewing a
beer? “Kex Brewing is an independent
continuation of the Kex philosophy,”
Hinrik explains. “And that philoso-
phy is to make life a little better. One
beer at a time,” he laughs. “We’re not
directly connected to the restaurant
and I think it’s basically just a great
addition to the wonderful variety of
things coming out of Kex Hostel and
their other restaurants.”
When asked about his own per-
sonal favourite styles of beer he re-
plies that he has a penchant for beer
that is low in alcohol but full of fla-
vour. “Either a Sour Indian Pale Ale
or a light, sour fruit beer. But for
special occasions
I love a Double In-
dian Pale Ale or
an Imperial Stout.
I suppose it all de-
pends on my mood.”
With regards to the
character of Kex beer, Hinrik says the
underlying theme is trying to make
a craft beer in their own fashion.
“Whether it’s a seasonal beer or just
a light SIPA we want our craft to be
quite noticeable in each of our beers
and we put a lot of emphasis on taste
and presentation without becoming
pretentious.”
Hinrik feels that Icelandic beer cul-
ture has developed immensely in the
last decade. “You can see that ten years
ago, the first ales came on the market,
and before that time you could only
“This year we are expect-
ing over 40 breweries,
which is our largest festi-
val so far.”
purchase lager. I think the Borg brew-
ery really paved the way and of course
when breweries started appearing in
Scandinavia it became more common
for people to start thinking about
what kind of beer they were drink-
ing and selecting craft beer instead
of other beer.” The names of the Kex
beer are fun and
the packaging is
even more fun, co-
lourful and funky.
“It’s pretty random
but we try to find
names that are fun
or somehow connected to what we’re
doing each time,” explains Hinrik.
“It’s good to keep things open and let
them flow in a creative process – not
to get stuck in one kind of format thatt
would just tie us down. First and fore-
most the whole thing should be a lot
of fun.” Kex Brewing are cooperating
with Ægir Brugghús brewery out at
Grandi. “We’ve been brewing here and
there both here in Iceland and abroad
and we were constantly searching for
a place to brew, preferably in Reykja-
vik while we’re waiting for our own
brewery to be ready. We knew of this
great brewery at Grandi where we
could possibly be able to brew and
produce some of our beer. We’ve just
made a contract with them for a year
and it’s been going really well so far.”
Hinrik believes that the Annual Beer
Festival at Kex is a cornerstone of the
beer community in Iceland. “It’s a festi-
val where all the major brewing com-
panies in Iceland get together as well
as lots of brewing companies from
abroad. They all meet up to have fun
together and to exchange ideas and
make new contacts. This year we are
expecting over 40 breweries, which
is our largest festival so far. But the
main aim of the festival is to improve
beer culture in Iceland.”
For those interested in a sip of the
divine Kex beer, they’re obviously avail-
able on tap at Kex Hostel, Hverfisgata
12 and Mikkeller and Friends located
on the top floor of Hverfisgata 12. Hin-
rik concludes, “But we’re also selling
at the Skál restaurant at Hlemmur, at
Sandholt, Skúli Craft Bar and Micro
Bar. We also sent a batch to Sweden
which was distributed in Stockholm.”
Photo: Íris Dögg Einarsdóttir
one beer at a time