Bridge Road Brewers are continuing to lead the pack when it comes to pushing the boundaries of Australia craft beer. After a successful collaboration with Norwegian craft brewer NogneO in August last year, Bridge Road has teed up another Scandinavian brew date, this time with Danish Gypsy Brewer, Mikkel Bjergso of Mikkeller.
Mikkel is visiting Australia for the Melbourne Food and Wine festival, and will make a whirlwind trip to Beechworth on Friday afternoon to brew with the team at Bridge Road Brewers. Mikkel is a self-proclaimed ‘Gypsy Brewer’, travelling the world to brew with other craft brewers, using their equipment and facilities. He is prolific in his inventiveness when it comes to beer, releasing 76 different beers in 2010. Mikkeller beers are famous the world over for their unique take on more established brewing styles.
Bridge Road and Mikkeller will be using freshly picked hops from the nearby Rostrevor Hop Garden, located in the Ovens valley, in this Fridays brew. Ben Kraus, of Bridge Road Brewers has been working closely with Rostrevor Hop Garden over the past four years, using experimental hop varieties yet to be released commercially during harvest each year.
The theme for this brew has been inspired by the timing of Mikkels visit, coinciding with the hop harvest at Rostrevor Hop Garden in March. And as Mikkels visit will be after midday the brew will be pushed well into the evening, which inspired the dark theme. The Dark Harvest will be an imperial dark ale/porter brewed with freshly picked ‘wet’ hops, used in copious amounts, weighing in at around 7.5% alcohol.
Ben Kraus, of Bridge Road Brewers, will also be heading to Melbourne with Mikkel early on Saturday to participate together at two Melbourne Food and Wine Festival master classes at the liquid lounge this weekend.
Bridge Road Brewers fans will also be happy to know that the much anticipated seasonal beer “The Harvest” will also be brewed later in the month.