Swedish Brewery visits vocational school Main-Spessart

At the end of the school year 2013/14 those students to become brewers and malters were offered a special highlight: The Nårke Kulturbryggeri from Örebro in Sweden introduced themselves within the framework of the Erasmus+ project “Young European Apprentices’ Special Training”, short “Y.E.A.S.T.”. A 14-days internship is offered to apprentices and a 60-days internship to those who finished their training successfully.

The charismatic brewery-owners Berith Karlsson und Håge Viktorsson both discovered their love for beer early in their lives. The market in Sweden was dominated by a few industrial breweries. Due to their frequent travels across Europe they got acquainted with the diversity of European brewing-culture. Berith had a true epiphany when she tasted her first German wheat-beer – a completely new taste for the Swedish tongue. In her opinion, the five big Swedish breweries could not compete with the European beer style at this time. Because of industrialization each individualism was lost. However, home brewing was very popular and free of tax. So Berith and Håge started their first attempts of brewing in their own kitchen with pots and milk cans.

Turning a hobby into a profession

After a couple of years of gathering experiences, the hobby was supposed to become a profession: In 2004 Nårke Brewery was founded. With a DIY 5 hectoliter brewing equipment, the goal was to brew high quality, handmade beers which distinguish themselves from the other ordinary beers.

It seemed the couple was very successful in their attempts. In their first year of business their Imperial Stout was rated “Best Beer In The World” by ratebeer.com. Enquiries dropped in from all over the world.

Meanwhile a second brewhouse had to be bought, to cope with the increasing demand. The old one is still used, especially for the production of special beer types. The brewery offers 47 different types of beer, some of them are available throughout the year, others only for special events. Among these are ales, bitters, smoked beers with whiskey malt, but also fancy beers brewed with myrica gale (also known as bog-myrtle or sweet gale) instead of hops. This plant was already used in the Middle Ages to brew “gruytbeer” and can be collected in the forest around Örebro.

Within the framework of “YEAST” project there is even the possibility for brewing teachers and trainers to do a one-week internship, either at Nårke brewery in Sweden or at the second partner brewery Brewdog in Scotland. The brewing department of the vocational school Main-Spessart is looking forward to receiving applications from brewing teachers and trainers. The application should be addressed to: .