Scan Magazine | Brewery of the Month | Denmark
Brewery of the Month, Denmark
Denmark’s history in a bottle If anyone thinks of beer as a relatively new drink, or a man’s drink, Bryggeriet Skands is here to prove them wrong. In collaboration with the National Museum of Denmark, the Danish brewery has created a range of beers based on ancient recipes and inspired by strong Nordic women. By Signe Hansen | Photos: Bryggeriet Skands
In 2011, the National Museum of Denmark contacted master brewer Birthe Skands, the founder of Skands, to ask if she could help recreate the 3,500-year-old brew found in a Bronze Age grave. She did, and the result was Egtved Girl’s Brew, a modern beer based on Denmark’s, and perhaps the world’s, oldest beer recipe. Ernst Kristensen, one of the company’s two current co-owners, explains: “Through the analysis the National Museum had done on the dried 90 | Issue 120 | January 2019
precipitate found in the grave, they had identified the different components of a 3,500-year-old beer, and they wanted us to try to recreate that. We did so, creating a beer with the same ingredients, but using modern brewing methods.” The beer is one of four historic beers brewed by Skands, and one of 20 specialty beers. In total, Skands brews approximately 400,000 litres of beer a year at its brewery in Brøndby; most of this is sold in the capital region.
Continuing the journey When Birthe Skands, a brew master with 25 years of experience, founded Skands in 2003, her ambition was to bring back the old craft of brewing. Taking over in 2017, Kristensen and his co-owner, Søren Truelsen, have striven to carry
‘It’s slow brewing. Our beer is beer that gets the time it takes for it to mature,’ says co-owner of Skands, Ersnt Kristensen (centre).