EXPAT Brewer's blog

Lervig's 10th Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 17:20:00 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LdCyh9VFsc

See the video for a cool time lapse of the concert thrown by Skagen fonden where over 10.000 persons attended last Thursday. It was an excellent way to celebrate our collective anniversaries (skagen fonden -20 and Lervig 10) What a great way to also announce that so far this year Lervig is kicking some ass, our sales are up over 30% hey we may actually make some money this year we are in plus for the first time in 10 years.

A bunch of cool shit happening:

Sorry to say Kaisers Orchestra is quitting, but hey they asked Lervig to make them a special beer for their last concerts here in Stavanger... This beer is a 5,6% version of Lucky Jack but dry hopped with Cascade and Centennial hops. one of if not the best combo's of hops ever known to hop heads! (yeah Im old school). We brewed 5000L of this beer and its in the keg and ready to drink in 2 weeks for the concert... any left over kegs will certainly be made available to those who ask first. check out the logo and if you a fan come check out the concert and the beer http://www.billettservice.no/event/kaizers-orchestra-siste-dans-billetter/383649

Heading over to Oslo to hang out at my new friend's beer festival (Grünerløkka Bryghus') After helping them complete their brewery with a capacity of about 100.000L per year, we are going to participate in the festival this weekend, if you in oslo come over say hello and have some Rye IPA or Galaxy IPA!
heres the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/602778429753915/?ref=br_tf

All IN from Sweden! we have brewed yet another killer collab beer this time with a hop fetish. over 2 kg per 100L of dry hops should be ready to sell in a week or two. Just busy and waiting to find time to keg it all up. most of course will ship to Sweden where the boys at All IN will divi it out to the best bars in Sweden.
the beer is called of course Schysst IPA, There's a good explanation to the name but I guess you should ask Pelle from ALL IN
And All In are having a little festival should be one great and chill festival just the way I like it in Nov 1-3
here is the poster: buy tickets now as they are keeping the attendance low and casual no crazy crowded lines or pushy drunken people with backpacks on here...no sir

SO I'm twitting on the twitter, I have to learn about how to do it but I realized suddenly Lervig isn't very good at the social marketing game... thought I may try to step it up: so find me @lervigbeer

and sorry it took me so long to make an update.

Update 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:19:00 +0000

Things have really changed a lot around here...
Still we are the same old group trying to deal with the increased production amount of new beers, new countries of export... our sales grew to just a hair under a 1,000,000Liters last year. This years growth looks like it did last year were up 30% than last year this time so it looks real good that we may become that Norden Speicalty beer king... I dont plan to stop pushing forward til we reach full capacity and even then I may have to increase it... right now we can produce probably 3 million liters a year. however the more types we make the harder it is to hit the capacity with tanks that hold 60.000L each. Anyway the news is GOOD.
I have a meeting next week with the brewery board to discuss buying tanks, and increasing our productivity. We have a deficit thats true, but we aren't playing with a toy, this brewery has the potential to become an institution amoung the greatest breweries around. May never become a Carlsberg but I would love to see it become a Sam Adams or Serria N type of success story.

something about local stores:

Rema 1000, a few years ago i was crictical about their desion to kick our beers out of the local stores and I got lots of good feedback about it. Now I have removed that blog but Im sure its floating around elsewhere.
Turns out they have switched gears and we are sellign quite a few liters from their stores, thanks for giving us a second chance to make it happen.

Norway gets it's first craft beer in a can... Lucky Jack

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sat, 26 May 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Cans can be a good thing, a can doesn't allow light to ruin the beer. A can is light and easy to carry around in your backpack or shopping bag. A can is 100% recyclable. A bag full of empty cans take up a lot less space than an equal amount of bottles. Cans dont break into little sharp bits and cut your feet. Cans can be used to make various things such as a cool hat or pipe you can find in most street markets in asia....
Well you get the point. I think it's about time that people have a choice... why should we only drink Pilsner from a can? I think a can is a great way to package a great beer. Craft brewers in the USA have been doing it for almost 10 years now... I did it in Danmark... I'm doing it here and I will do it again.

Now you have the choice and you will see that it is good both ways... cans or bottles... take your pick.
Now back to the important debate, Gold or silver lids? ;-)

Good Times

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:46:00 +0000

Lots of great things happening these days, for me personally and for Lervig...

I have finally had a baby girl, Nina, she was born on the 4th of October... I guess I am lucky to have found a nice woman who would actually want to have my baby... But we are all happy and I feel really lucky to have found such a great partner and am very happy to have my own family now.

I have been nominated for a local prize here in Stavanger called Firsprangprisen which is given every year to a local person who has done something remarkable to build local patriotism.... I was chosen for the fact that locals are very proud of their local beer and the fact that we are getting more and more national attention for it. Which I am very honored and I am very grateful for being recognized... Even though I doubt I will win as the paper published a 2 page story on it and placed a very large photo of me drinking a beer. How can you give a guy a reward for being able to do what most guys only wish they can do....right?

The national newspaper Dagbladet has judged our jul øl to be the best in the butik øl class (4,7%) and we have underestimated the surge of sales,,, now one week after sales started for this years Christmas beers we are already sold out, and there is nothing I can do about it, unless they want a full batch to sell the week before Christmas. Here is the link to the test.

The Local paper, Rogalands Avis, has their own test written by their wine and foody critic Tøre Bruland, here he has given both of our Christmas beers and our Winter ale six out of six on the Norwegian dice scale... Which is also great for us and me personally as I was concerned how the class F (over 4,7%alc) beer would do in the public's eye as I wanted to make a different beer this year for Christmas, not just another caramel flavored stronger beer, which is the norm here for any other Christmas beer... I think I may do something different again next year... but happily most of that beer too is also been moved out of our warehouse to Vin-polet.

I am hopeful for the results of the Norges beste Øl, So far after the first round our best chance in the race is our Lucky Jack, I think this beer has a great shot because its is already available in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and beyond and the sales are going up every month. This beer is a great beer for all beer drinking levels as it is a a gateway beer for people who only drink pilsners and havent ventured into craft beer yet, this beer will surely get them on their way... It is my goal to get this beer widely available nationally and beyond to be competitive

with the pilsner market in price, but unmatched in it's flavor and quality. I am currently

brewing larger and larger volumes of this beer but never sacrificing on the quality...

Lervig is currently working on exporting Lucky Jack to Italy and Spain, perhaps Finland. Already in the last months we have begun to export to Sweden and lately we finally got a shipment off to Denmark to be hitting the shelves in Irma stores, This is the first time Irma has imported beer directly from a brewery, so I am very very hopeful for a great result there and I would be extremely proud to see my beers back on the shelves in Denmark. I want to eventually have one of the more accessible pale ales on the market in northern Europe, oh what the hell all of Europe... more to come in the near future for Lucky Jack.

Oh yeah...

Rye IPA is available from the Polet, finally, We are shipping a lot of it to Bergen these weeks so get ready up there.... Be sure to order it and tell the polet shops to put it on the shelves! I expect that it wont take too long to see it as a year round shelf lurker in the polet...

New batches are being brewed and are ready, the 3rd brew of Konrad stout is ready to go, and I must say it is the best one so far!

I think now I will as I stated last post, focus on solidifying the long term success of lervig and focusing on the production, getting it to be able to handle the growth it has seen already as well as the growth that I am anticipating. Remember that for every new beer we add that only makes it more difficult to keep up with demand on all the other products... and if you look back 1,5 years to the recent past of Lervig there where 4 beers, all of which were pilsner... we have come a long way, we are looking forward to the future...

Vote for Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:14:00 +0000

I am happy and honored to be nominated as this years ølhund... I am not sure what this will do to my social status but I don't think it can hurt it....

Eating out in Stavanger.... Come on we can do better!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:27:00 +0000

You know I like good beer, but that doesn't stop there, I am a bit of a foody, I love good food, good drink and good style. So After what I ate last night and having gone through this before... I have a question for Norway...

Why do you let so many horrible restaurants stay open by returning to them when the quality is so bad and the price is so ridiculously high?

Therefore I want to start my own honest review on eating establishments I visit. I will give you my honest opinion from my view.

I haven't gone out too much in Stavanger but I have gone out to most places and some are better than the others but mostly the level of food quality in town is low. But then there are a few that stand out and my head is spinning wondering why this place is still in operation...

Last night me and a few friends wanted to eat at Rena one of Stavangers more solid food establishments however we didn't have a table so we found a place nearby Amici... (Linked)

OMG!

We were greeted by an overly friendly plump middle eastern fellow, I think either turkish or Moroccan... He did try to play it off with his use of 'Grazie' now and then but it wasn't working for me of course. We were in seven persons and he made an effort to squeeze us into a table meant for 4. So far I appreciated his effort to please his customers.

Then we got the menu.

WTF? It read like this: (I can do it from memory because this is the time the fear set in, and if it were not for the shear amount of hunger we felt we would have left then and there)

All had their english translation below...

Antipasti -480 kr

Insalata caprasi 280 kr

Pasta del giorno 280 kr

Carne del giorno 280 kr

Pesce del giorno ?kr

I asked the waiter ( a polish lady) what the pesce del giorno is, she said ' it the fish of the day'... I think she figured I simply didn't understand what pesce del giorno meant, not that I wanted to know what the fish was that day... chuckle

We then had the attention of the plump middle eastern man again he came and made many of us move to different spots around the table so we can fit better to the environment around us (so the waiters can squeeze around our chairs )

The wine was brought and it was a fairly decent Nero di Avola from Sicily didn't catch the name it was too dark to read it. But it's hard to find a bad Italian wine...

The food, the man suggested that we all eat family style to make it easier on the kitchen. We all agreed that this was a good idea.

After a while came some cheeses and a few rolled up cuts of Salami piccante and some prosciutto. All pretty good. A little bit of insalata not so great too much cheap vinegar in it in my opinion...

Let the feast begin! And you know it's a top quality restaurant when they use plates from Ikea... The waiter brought out 4 plates with about one serving each per plate, a measly looking chicken thigh and leg with a few broiled potatoes, a plate of over cooked pasta (Penne with some pepperonata and what seems to be tomato sauce made from tomato paste and water... A plate of meatballs which were clearly bought in and horrible, covered in the same tomato paste and water sauce. And surprisingly edible plate of the pesce del giorno which my pregnant girlfriend kept for herself..

In the end we were thankful that they gave us such a small amount of food, we actually left most of it. the bill was under 3000 kr...

SUMMARY:

Overpriced and horrible food, overly friendly front man.... This place would not last a month in New York or London. I am sorry Stavanger people you need to stop going back to these places so unsuspecting foreigners like myself wont be so disappointed. Or simply so the advancement of good taste can evolve here in town. Take your pick.

Even though this place is one of the worst places I have ever ate at here in Stavanger, it is not on the top of my worst list... the worst of the worst here in stavanger is easily Emilios tapas house Absolute disappointment here, the worst thing is that the owner appeared to actually be Spanish, he should hang his head in shame for the trash he is passing off as tapas... and he should be arrested for robbing his customers... thats all I need to say about that place... don't go and I hope to see its early demise so that something good can arise in its place.

One of my favorite eats in town is India Tandori restaurant They are doing it right! Only thing I would change is the beer selection... They need some Lucky Jack to go with that great spicy food they serve up!

New stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:28:00 +0000

A quick update on whats going on at Lervig these days:

new beers:

Lervig Jul a 6,5% Christmas beer, this years attempt at doing something new and different for a christmas beer, we have made a belgian style ale, it is medium bodied with lots of fruity esters from the Belgian Ale yeast, it also has been spiced with Star Anise and ginger. The beer is going to be packaged unfiltered and unpasteurized like all the Brewers reserve beers.

This years version of Lervig Winter Ale is in the bottle and ready for the winter. It is very simullar to last years version, but I have worked out a few things for the better and this years brew is smoother and the alcohol is well hidden.

Some of you may have tasted the new Rye IPA, it's not moving into the Vinmonoplet as fast as we had hoped but we are working on it and now it is pretty much in the hands of the vinmonoplet to get them in the stores. Feel free to ask your local polet for some! (Give them some pressure) Meanwhile you can find it around town here in Stavanger and perhaps soon it will be in Oslo and Bergen too. If you like flavor and hops this beer is for you. Check out what Tore Bruland has to say about the new Rye IPA ( Norsk).

I have brewed more Barely wine and soon I hope to get them into some barrels for aging. This time I will double the volume as I had last year to get them in the pollet.

In my life I am expecting to become a dad for the first time in about a week so I expect to be busy the next few months.

My plans for the future brews for Lervig are going to be to build on what we have and get the production dialed in and consistant, as well as improved qualtiy control.

I hope that the growth we have seen over the past few months will continue to climb. I am very excited to see where we can take this brewery too!

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:43:00 +0000

Hello, I have been extremely busy this summer so I haven't been good at updating my blog.

So far this summer since my last update alot of new developments have happened:

We released the Konrad Stout to Vinmonopolet, this is a 10,4% Russian Impy stout. We have brewed about 3000L so we have a good supply for the rest of the year. It is also available on draft.

Another new beer we made a small batch of an IPA made with Rye Malt. This was well recieved and we have now brewed a larger amount for distribution.

Lervig went to the Copenhagen Beer Festival, we represented Stavanger with some of our beers, the Lucky Jack, White Dog, Konrad stout, and Rye IPA.

I traveled to Rome Italy to celebrate Ma Che Siete Venuta a fá's 10th anniversary party with a huge cruise from rome to Barcelona, on that ship were represented over 50 microbreweries from all over the world. Lervig was there with Lucky Jack and Rye IPA.

This year at Gladmat we released a new brand series ( White Dog , Lucky Jack) the Betty Brown, yep its a 4,7% Brown ale, I wanted to keep it low key but make it good, I get tired quicky when I drink beers with alot of caramel malts so I used less than most would when brewing a brown ale, i used more chocolate malt and brown malt to boost the chocolate flavor as well as nutty flavors from the malt, I decieded to go with Pacific Gem hops to help pull out more of the berry / forest flavors that these hops can provide. I am quite happy with the results and hope that our customers will be just as impressed with it as they were with the Lucky Jack.

I have brewed also a new beer for an upcoming homebrewers festival in Nærbø, it is very simular to the Lucky Jack except the Hops were all Nelson Savin and this beer turned out to be awesome! so look out for that soon.

Lervig has had 2 great months in sales it seems like things are starting to move in a positive direction around here! I really appreciate the support, and my soon to be born daughter Nina will be happy for the continued support in the future!

There are still many new things to develop this year!
Enjoy the Norwegian summer while it lasts!

Time for Consumers to Revolt?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:37:00 +0000

Apparently I am not alone with my thoughts on the crap we are stuck to choose from here in Norwegian supermarkets, read the article below!

Grocery business dodges bullets : Views and News from Norway

www.newsinenglish.no

NEWS ANALYSIS: Norwegian grocery stores have the highest prices in Europe and the worst selection of goods, according to consumer advocates, and, reportedly, a government commission charged with finding out why. Food producers, retailers and wholesalers all blame each other, while Norwegian consumer.

more about me

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:02:00 +0000

here is a story about myself...but in Italian...

Thanks Paolo!

Kissmeyer's beer launch

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:25:00 +0000

Last week Anders Kissmeyer opened his new projects to tasting at Mikkellers Bar in Vesterbrø... Hopefully he will find success and produce more great beers in the future, I am very happy to have helped him with a small part of this launch, and so it seems we will have a cooperation for some more cotract brewing in the near future. http://beerticker.dk/kissmeyer-beer-nu-lanceret-31360

Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:28:00 +0000

In a few weeks I will be taking a 10% barley wine out of the barrels it has been sitting in since early November, this beer will be filled into 33cl bottles and sold in april. More to come!

Team Building Brewing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:18:00 +0000

Lervig's first team building experiment was completed yesterday when a group of Geophysicists from a local Oil drilling company bottled their own beer. The project began when the Lead Geophysicist came to the brewery to purchase some beer for himself. A week or so later he was back for more beer and to ask about the possiblity to produce some beer for his team. We had a meeting and a few beers later decided how to go about it.

My co worker and myself met his whole team at the Cardinal Pub in town and had arranged a beer tasting of 12 beers which cover a broad range of what beer is and what beer can be from Pilsner to a Smoked Impierial Stout. We had a fun filled eveing but before it was over the team had a better understanding for what beer is and how it is made. We also decided what sort of beer they desired to produce with our 800Liter system....

Two weeks later the team visited the brewery, with my help they were instructed on milling the malts, and mashing in the malt to start the brew, Many persons toured the rest of the brewery while enjoying our beers and some grilled food thanks to our friend Magne. After about 6 hours their beer was in the fermenter....

They ended up with over 1700 bottles of beer with their own label and fitting name 'Explore Me' as they are normaly an oil field exploring team and now they can add beer exploring to their list of discoveries

Guest Brew with Anders Kissmeyer...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:44:00 +0000

My old Advisary and friend Anders Kissmeyer has been up here in Stavanger the past few days for a fun and interesting brew day. We have made what we think will be an exciting and tasty Smoked Baltic Porter. Since it was the first time for me smoking malt or smoking anything I was concered that the smokey character wasnt going to be noticable in the brew. I am happy to say it is there not over powering but firm and enjoyable in the flavor.

The beer is under fermentation and I think this beer can be ready to ship to Denmark in a few weeks. I of course plan to hold a few hunder liters here in norway and Anders can decide where the rest will go.

I have enjoyed the time I spent with Anders, he is alway willing to share his opinon and I respect his knowledge and professional experience. I look forward to brew with him in the future when possible. I wish Anders a big success with his new projects, he truly is a die hard brewer!

Another New Beer... In the tank

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:01:00 +0000

I finally got around to brewing an Imperial Stout. I had a long day cause I mashed in around 12,30 and I pushed my 800 L system with 300kg of malt... after a long and slow run off in the lauter tank I put 700Liters of 22.0P black wort into the tank.

I brewed it with:

Pilsner malt, Brown malt, Roasted Barley, Chocolate malt, Crystal malt, and Oatmeal with some candy sugar in there too.

I used mainly hop extract for the hopping and some late chinook, for an IBU of about 85, but I dont think it will be noticeable.

And here is a potential label if we bottle it... Name and look are not determined...

Winter ale Launch in Vinmonoplet next week

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:52:00 +0000

Lervig's new beer Winter Ale is a Strong ale which I brewed with about 150kg of raisins in about 4500L of this beer. I think this beer will age very well so I allowed a 5 year sell by date.
It is a dark copper colored beer and it has rich flavors from it's combonation of toasted caramel malts and and raison addition after boiling the wort. It's full flavored mouthfeel will pair perfectly with your hearty witner stews, or heartier food fare at the same time help keep you warm on a cold winter night.
Look for it in bars in Stavanger or in Vinmonoplotet stores!

Anders Kissmeyer in Norway

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:19:00 +0000

Anders (to the right) will be visiting Lervig wensday the 19th of January and we will brew a collaboration beer together. I think for Anders he is becoming quite known for his famous Smoked malted beers and what would be better than a 7,0% abv Smoked Baltic Porter. The beer will be divided and sold into Danmark and here in Norway. The beer should be available late febuary for shipment.

Wendsday evening Anders will be presenting himself and talking about his new brand "Kissmeyer Beer" at the Cardinal Pub in Stavanger.

Anders has had a long carreer starting with 16 years at Carlsberg, and then the last 10 years as a founder and brewmaster of Norrebrø Bryghus in Copenghagen.

Anders has been in my opinon one of the leading voices in Scandinavian craft brewing, and he has done his job at promoting great beer in Danmark and abroad.

Anders has been a present figure in the beer scene durring my years in Copenhagen brewing for Gourmet Bryggeriet, and we became closer due to the involvement of a good friend and brewer Shaun Hill pictured to the left, here they are displaying their Medals from the last World Beer Cup where some Norrebrø's beers won gold on some of the most competive catagories. The beer "Seven" a Russian Imperial stout was a collaboration between Shaun Hill-Norrebrø, Christain Skodval Andersen - Beer Here and more, the guys from Devil brewery, Mikkeller, Peter Sonne, Amager Bryghus, and Myself thus the name "SEVEN" for the seven breweries particapting. So i guess we may name this next guest brew "Two".... then again maybe not:-)

Team Building / Team Brewing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:05:00 +0000

On the 14th of December Lervig Aktiebryggeri will host a team building day with Talisman Energy Norge AS's Geophysicists and geologists. About 20 persons will decend on the brewery and work together under the eyes and hands of the Brew Master for Lervig. The beer's recipe was decided after an intensive beer tasting and beer brewing introduction at the Cardinal where the Brew master from Lervig took the team through 12 beers which cover many beer styles and varieties from Pilsner to 10% Imperial Stout.
The beer which the group have decided to brew will be a light Pale ale with lots of hops and nice malted body. The beer will be produced on Lervigs New 800L test brewhouse.
The beer will be fermented and matured over the next few weeks and the team will come back to the brewery to assist in the packaging of the beer into bottles.
After which they can enjoy the beers release party at Cardinal in late January.

Expat beer tour

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:08:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:00:00 +0000

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...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:13:00 +0000

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....

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:36:00 +0000

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

Mike

Sold Down the River

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:05:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:16:00 +0000

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...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Murphy) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:49:00 +0000

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....;-)