A Rocky Week of Brewing

Tuesday, August 27, 2019Olof

Last week was a full week of brewing test batches. We’re experimenting with our mother culture to see how it interacts in certain environments as well as brewing some new recipes. We thought we would end the week with something fun, rock out a bit and brew a Steinbier (stone beer). The idea behind a Steinbeir is to introduce hot stones into the wort to sear the sugars and add caramelized notes to the beer. The day started off by heating up a charcoal grill and letting our stones begin to heat. We figured about an hour/hour and a half would be a decent amount of time for the stones to get to a hot enough temperature. While the stones were cooking, we crushed our malt and got the mash going. We decided to keep things simple on this batch, allowing us to better understand what flavor effects the stones would have. Our grain bill consisted of Pilsner, Vienna and Oat malts. The Pilsner and Oat malts will give it a nice full body and the Vienna malt will add to the color. After much waiting and anticipation, our mash-in was done and it was time to boil and add the stones. We loaded up our metal basket with piping hot stones and lowered them in. Instant searing and sizzling could be heard … ah, what a beautiful sound. The sudden addition of such a large amount of heat sent the boil into a frenzy with a plume of steam rising up and an insane rock-solid boil occurring. Not to quarry we were able to raise and lower the stones with ease to help control the vigorous boil and prevent a boil-over.
 





We added some Hallertau MF and Eldorado hops to round out this bad bad boy, chilled with stone-cold water before finishing it off with some Belle Saison yeast.
Overall it was a successful day of brewing. We learned some interesting things and are already brainstorming our next recipe. We’re gonna go boulder! Hotter stones. Higher ABV! We’re gonna kick it up to 11!

 Coming to a festival near you soon! Name to be announced, we welcome any witty or clever names, feel free to comment below.

 No brew day is complete without the right music to rock to, here are some of our top picks.

 A$AP Rocky
Stone Temple Pilots
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stoned Jesus
The Rolling Stones

A long overdue update

Wednesday, April 17, 2019Olof
This blog feed isn't as active and frequent as it should be. Running a small brewery requires a lot of work so something has to give. We are however more active on Instagram so make sure to follow us there for real-time updates.

We have brewed almost 1400 litres of beer and put all that in used wine barrels.


Recently we attended a local beer festival called Wapnö Öl- & Whiskymässa. We had a ton of fun and met so many fun and engaging customers. We got great feedback on our barrel aged beer. People also seemed to enjoy our 100% Brett fermented beer Edge of Time. For the festival, we brewed a Kveik, which is an old Norwegian type of beer (Kveik is actually the yeast but the style share the same name). We might brew that on a bigger scale as that was really popular. At only 4.9% ABV it's an easy drinker.

This was our first festival so we had to build a bar. We wanted something else than what everyone else has. We went to a scrapyard and picked up a bunch of metal cases which we managed to build a bar out of. It turned out really nice. We made a sign from a piece of old wood found in a nearby river. It gave our bar a really cool look! We like the idea of reusing old stuff and bringing it new life. Looks good, it's unique and it's good for the environment.


Right now we are waiting for our Brett fermented rye Saison, Pray for Rust to carbonate. Once that is complete we will bottle it and start selling it at the local liquor stores. We might order more barrels for more barrel ageing projects. As of now, all barrels are used for sour beer but we want to try ageing some non-sours too.

We're finally brewing!

Monday, November 19, 2018Olof
What a journey! Starting a brewery from scratch has taken way longer than expected but we are very happy to announce that we are brewing on our main gear now. Starting and running a small brewery requires a lot of time, money and sweat. Instead of brewing, we spent time on researching different types of pipe threadings, cooling setups, sorting out pump issues, loads of government paperwork and so on. The to-do list is still growing, you tick off 10 items and add 15 more. Then you stop for a moment and reflect, realizing that a brewery or any company for that matter is built one step at the time. And that's exactly how this was accomplished.

So, what are we up to right now?


First of we need ingredients. We bought base malt locally from Viking Malt just 35 km away from the brewery. We're looking to buy local wheat and oats grown on the fields around us. Hopefully, those bags will arrive soon.


Brewing! We finally fired up the main brewhouse and brewed roughly 900 litres of beer that's happily fermenting right now. 450 litres of that will be barrel aged.


We bought a couple of barrels that we cleaned and prepared for ageing beer in. The beer will age at least six months before we consider it for bottling. The plan is to buy a lot more barrels, not all of them will be used for long-term ageing. One or two will be used for "quick" barrel aged Saisons. Small-scale, experimental brews to have fun with.

If you wish to keep up to date with our adventure in fermentation we highly recommend Instagram which is our main social media channel.

Fun with friends

Monday, July 9, 2018Olof
When we first set out to start this brewery every brewery owner we spoke to said that it would cost twice as much and take five times as long as we thought. Nae, we planned this thoroughly. That's not gonna happen. Well, they were right and we were wrong. The good news though is that we are almost completely set up now. We are only missing a bigger pump than the one we have today. This sounds like a minor thing but it's the pump that we will use to clean our fermenters so it's a crucial part of the operation.

We are however brewing on our pilot system. Last weekend we poured one of those beers and our barrel aged sour beer with our friends at the beach bar Chill Out. We had a good time and got some good feedback from people who came up and tried our beers.



In the next blog post we hope to share some news about our new pump and hopefully some barrel aged fun!


Spring update

Thursday, May 24, 2018Olof
Since our last post, a lot has happened. First off, we are now legally allowed to brew and sell beer. This is awesome news.

Our first beer, September is available at glasbanken.se. This can now be ordered from anywhere in Sweden. Check it out!

We lack some essential parts on one of our pumps that keeps us from brewing on our big system. Parts are on the way from Italy.

In the meantime, we are brewing on our pilot system.


We are also receiving a lot of equipment at the brewery. Below is a photo of 80 one-way kegs that will be filled once we get going.

Next week we have some really cool shiny things arriving so stay tuned!

A big puzzle

Monday, January 8, 2018Olof
2018 started in a great way. The biggest news is that we picked up the keys to our new brewery. We are super excited and can't wait to share more details about this in a later post.
We also bought a van. This will come in handy when we buy equipment, make deliveries etc. Another piece of the puzzle of building a brewery.

A post shared by Vilda Bryggeri (@vildabryggeri) on
We've been on Facebook for a couple of months. Last week we created an Instagram account. We hope to be very active on Instagram so please follow us there for the most up to date information about our brewery.

The last update we want to share is that we have started to place equipment orders. Once the equipment starts to arrive we will share this on our social media accounts.

Signed the lease

Monday, October 30, 2017Olof
Big news! Last week we signed the lease for this beautiful building (or rather part of this building).


We have to wait two months before we get access though. Lots of stuff needs to happen before this. We will try to keep you all updated on the process.

Vilda Bryggeri AB

Vilda Bryggeri AB med säte i Halmstad. Organisationsnummer 559018-1441


Ängelholmsvägen 263, 269 42 Båstad, Sweden

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