The Atlungstad Distillery ( no, Atlungstad Brenneri) is a distillery in

Stange is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Hedemarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Stangebyen. Other villages include Bekkelaget, Espa, Bottenfjellet, Ilseng ...

Hedmark Hedmark () was a county in Norway before 1 January 2020, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmark and Oppland counties were merg ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. It was established in 1855 by a group of farmers. Regular distillation was discontinued in 2000, but trial runs were later carried out. In 2012, the distillery was added to the

Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage The Directorate for Cultural Heritage ( no, Riksantikvaren or ''Direktoratet for kulturminneforvaltning'') is a government agency responsible for the management of cultural heritage in Norway. Subordinate to the Norwegian Ministry of the Enviro ...

list of priority technical and industrial cultural heritage, after which NOK 7 million was allocated to restore the distillery to its former condition. An additional NOK 4.7 million was allocated for the distillery in 2017. It has been owned by the company Atlungstad Brenneri AS since 2011. In October 2013, the owners signed a cooperation agreement with the

Arcus Arcus may refer to: Businesses and organizations *ARCUS, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, supporting Arctic policy in the U.S. *Arcus AS, a Norwegian producer of liquor * Arcus Co., a Bulgarian firearm manufacturer *Arcus Fou ...

company that they would restart regular production of

akvavit ''Akvavit'' or ''aquavit'' (; also ''akevitt'' in Norwegian; ''aquavit'' in English) is a distilled spirit that is principally produced in Scandinavia, where it has been produced since the 15th century. ''Akvavit'' is distilled from grain or po ...

at the Atlungstad Distillery. The distillery is open for tours in the summer.

History

The Atlungstad Distillery was established in 1855, when a number of farmers gathered together in a cooperative society, and it replaced several smaller distilleries in the area. Because water was important for many of the distillery processes, it was built at the mouth of Fjetre Creek (''Fjetrebekken''), where it empties into

Mjøsa Mjøsa is Norway's largest lake, as well as one of the deepest lakes in Norway and in Europe. It is the fourth-deepest lake in Norway. It is located in the southern part of Norway, about north of the city of Oslo. Its main tributary is the riv ...

. The buildings were built of red brick, which is typical of the industrial architecture of the late 1800s, and it was also equipped with a smithy and a barn. Characteristic features of the structure are its high

column still A column still, also called a continuous still, patent still or Coffey still is a variety of still consisting of two columns. Column stills can produce rectified spirit (95% ABV). Description The first column (called the analyzer) in a column ...

and the high factory chimney. The buildings contain potato bins, alcohol and distillation equipment, and akvavit storage. The distillery burned in 1864, but it was rebuilt two years later within the same walls. It was expanded in 1911, and in 1954 a new seed-cleaning facility was built. In 1920, the company Atlungstad Finspritfabrik (Atlungstad

Neutral Spirits Rectified spirit, also known as neutral spirits, rectified alcohol or ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, is highly concentrated ethanol that has been purified by means of repeated distillation in a process called rectification. In some countr ...

) was dissolved, and the stocks of distillates were distributed to the shareholders. A new company, Stange Brandenderi (Stange Distilling), was established a few days later. In 1925, the retailer

Vinmonopolet Vinmonopolet ( en, The Wine Monopoly), symbolized by Ⓥ and colloquially shortened to Polet, is a government-owned alcoholic beverage retailer and the only company allowed to sell beverages containing an alcohol content higher than 4.75% in Norw ...

took over distillation of neutral spirits, and a year later the distilling company was given the name Stange Brænderi & Frøforretning (Stange Distilling & Seed Company). A year later it was merged with the distilleries in Tangen and Romedal to form Hedmark Frøforretning og Brenneri (Hedmark Seed Company and Distillery). In 1995 this company was purchased by

HOFF Norske Potetindustrier HOFF SA is a Norwegian agricultural cooperative processing and distributing potato produce. The company is owned by 4,000 farmers and has plants in Inderøy (Sundnes Brenneri), Gjøvik, Brumunddal, and Klepp. The company processes one third of th ...

. Regular distillation at the Atlungstad Distillery was discontinued in 2000, and it was converted into a reserve distillery that operated on an as-needed basis. This activity was also discontinued in 2008. In 2011, the distillery was acquired by Atlungstad Brenneri AS, which started test distillation that fall. In 2013, the company signed an agreement with Arcus to once again produce akvavit on a regular basis.

References

{{reflist

External links

Atlungstad Distillery
website
Atlungstad Distillery
at the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage website
Atlungstad Distillery
at Akevittruten
Atlungstad Distillery
at Norske Akevitts Venner Cultural heritage of Norway Stange Manufacturing companies established in 1855 Distilleries Listed buildings and structures in Norway Norwegian companies established in 1855