Scan Magazine | Special Theme | A Taste of Norway
Kinn is brewed with restaurants and foodies in mind.
Growing big, brewing small Kinn Bryggeri’s wide selection of English and Belgian-style beers, most often sold in their iconic 75-centilitre bottles, has become a cherished choice among Norwegian beer lovers – both at parties and at the dinner table. In spite of steady growth at home and abroad, the Florø brewery still makes beer the old-fashioned way and keeps the passion alive by developing new, thrilling tastes in the ‘beer lab’ where it all began. By Eirik Elvevold | Photos: Kinn Bryggeri
Kinn Bryggeri was founded in Florø, the westernmost city in Norway, by biologist and teacher Espen Lothe back in 2009, but the story begins even earlier. The first seed, which has grown into one of Norway’s most successful artisan breweries, was planted when Lothe started making has own beer at home as a teenager. “Back then, the joy of creating something on my own was my main motivation. And it still is. I’ve just spent all day making a new bitter in our small, experimental 76 | Issue 97 | February 2017
brewery in Strandgata in Florø, where we first started out, and I still love the creative brewing process,” says Lothe, who owns Kinn Bryggeri together with his wife Ann-Magritt Banne. Eight years on from Kinn’s humble beginnings, the married couple can proudly say that they make the most popular craft beer in Vinmonopolet, Norway’s government-owned alcoholic beverage retailer. Their iconic 75-centilitre bottles, adorned with Oda Valle’s fun, folksy la-
bels featuring Ivar Aasen, who is famous for having created one of the two written versions of Norwegian from various dialects, can also be found in tax free shops and in countries including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, England, Russia, Germany, Belgium and Spain. Lothe’s proudest moment, however, was buying his own brew for the first time in 2009. “I remember carrying the first barrel of Sjelefred, which means ‘peace of mind’, right across the street to the local pub Hjørnevikbua. After personally serving a long line of thirsty people, I stepped around the bar counter and ordered my own beer for the first time. That was a great moment in my life,” admits Lothe.
Brewing with berries and taming wild yeast The Florø-based brewery now offers as many as 20 different beer types, plus