Mikkeller is a

craft brewery Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...

founded in 2006 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark, that was originally based on the so-called "cuckoo", "phantom" or " gypsy brewer" ethos; that is, the company does not operate an official brewery and, instead pays a brewery in Belgium to produce their beer. The company now operates several brewpubs, such as Warpigs in Copenhagen and Mikkeller Brewpub London. Mikkeller was founded by two home brewers: Mikkel Bjergsø, a high school teacher, and journalist Kristian Klarup Keller. Both sought to introduce their home-brewed beer to the public and to "challenge beer friends with intense new tastes", drawing inspiration from the American breweries that "aren't afraid to play and break all the rules". Beergeekbreakfast glas

History

Inception and development: 2005–2007

Before founding the company, self-taught home brewers Bjergsø and Keller experimented on brewing, first by trying to clone existing beers. After success in

blind tasting In marketing, a blind taste test is often used as a tool for companies to compare their brand to another brand. For example, the Pepsi Challenge is a famous taste test that has been run by Pepsi since 1975. Additionally, taste tests are sometimes ...

s, the two started creating their own recipes and entered many home brewing competitions in Denmark, eventually winning many of them. The brewery's activity was small, with a low level of public visibility, as the brewing was kitchen-based and the beer was only served at a few beer enthusiast meetings and in small local bars. Bjergsø's brother founded a beer shop in 2005 and began to distribute the pair's beer to select destinations in numerous countries. In 2006, encouraged by wider appeal, Bjergsø and Keller founded the Mikkeller brewing company, named after their home brewery operation. In late 2006, an experimental Mikkeller beer called ''Beer Geek Breakfast'' garnered fame for the company when it won in the

stout Stout is a type of dark beer that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout. Stout is a type of ale. The first known use of the word "stout" for beer is in a document dated 1677 in the E ...

category of an international beer voting event. Following this recognition, Mikkeller made its first official appearance at the Copenhagen Beer Festival, where the brewery successfully introduced eight different beers, garnering further acclaim. The attention that occurred in the second half of 2006 resulted in an international distribution deal, and to cope with demand, Mikkeller started to brew in established breweries by paying rent for the machinery and costs of the brewing process. Therefore, the small company could continue production even though it did not have the funds to invest in a facility and professional brewing equipment. Keller parted ways with the company in 2007, as he was not interested in production and crafting a greater number of beers, while Bjergsø was eager to constantly create new recipes and tastes. Keller quit brewing in order to pursue his career as a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, leaving Bjergsø to oversee the company.

Establishment and expansion: 2008 onward

Mikkeller's beers are sold in 50 countries around the world. Mikkeller's style of brewing is considered to be unique, since many of its beers are experimental with novel tastes. During its history, Mikkeller has released around 2000 different beers in a wide variety of styles, including several variations on the same beers (e.g. barrel-aging a beer in oaken barrels from various origins or having contained various spirits). Some of the beers are constantly in production, while most of the products are available for a limited time; or in small batches; or at a certain location; or all of these factors combined. With a high number of different beers and a popular reputation among beer enthusiasts worldwide, the Mikkeller microbrewery struggles to meet the demand for its beer. Consistent with the company's early years, Mikkeller continues to brew solely at a variety of host facilities—mainly at de Proefbrouwerij in Belgium, but also at breweries in Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. All of the various recipes are now engineered with AI; altogether, the company's annual output is 17,000 hectolitres i.e. 1,7 million liters of beer. In April 2016, Mikkeller opened its first US brewery in

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. The facility had previously been owned by AleSmith, which relocated to a larger space. Mikkeller's relationship with AleSmith goes back to an early interaction between Bjergsø and AleSmith's owner Peter Zein, who offered Bergsø some advice on how to improve his coffee stout. In 2017, Mikkeller announced its second US brewery, located at

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New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The place will also have a bar and a restaurant. In 2020, the Citi Field location closed permanently. In 2017, Mikkeller partnered with singer

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, opening two pubs over the following years in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

and

Shoreditch Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Retail

Mikkeller opened its first brick and mortar brewery in San Diego, California. In March 2013, Mikkeller and another Danish microbrewery, To Øl, opened a second Mikkeller bar in Copenhagen called Mikkeller & Friends. At the same time, a Mikkeller Bottle Shop opened, selling bottled beers from Mikkeller and "other praiseworthy microbreweries around the world". Mikkeller also operates an online web store, where consumers can choose from a small, changing assortment of Mikkeller beer, in addition to merchandise, such as shirts and

glassware upTypical drinkware. This list of glassware includes drinking vessels (drinkware), tableware used to set a table for eating a meal and generally glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry. It does not include laboratory ...

. In July 2013, the first international Mikkeller bar was opened in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, through a licensing agreement with an American retailer. The San Francisco bar uses the new "on-the-fly"

beer tap A beer tap is a valve, specifically a tap, for controlling the release of beer. While other kinds of tap may be called ''faucet'', ''valve'' or ''spigot'', the use of ''tap'' for beer is almost universal. The word was originally coined for the ...

s that allows the beer to be poured in a very sophisticated and controlled manner. Beer, nitrogen, and

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are blended in a precise manner and the product is served at the correct temperature, with variations applying to different styles of beer. In late 2013, Mikkeller announced the January 2014 launch of its second foreign bar, located in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. The brand partnered with an already established Thai-based beer distribution company and seeks to capitalise on the higher earning capacity of Thai people, as well as tourists. At the opening, one of the owners explained: "... and we thought it was about time to elevate the level of craft beer available in Thailand and, hopefully, expand throughout Southeast Asia." A total of 30 beers are served at the venue, including two microbrews exclusive to Thailand.

Collaborations

In addition to regular brewing, Mikkeller also produces collaborative beers with other breweries, such as

BrewDog BrewDog is a Multinational corporation, multinational brewery, Distillation, distillery and pub chain based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. With production of over 100 million litres, BrewDog is the seventh-largest beer brand in Britain, ...

, To Øl,

Nøgne Ø Nøgne Ø is a Norwegian brewery founded in January 2002 by Gunnar Wiig and Kjetil Jikiun. The name is Norwegian for "Naked Isle" and was selected from the 19th-century Norwegian poem Terje Vigen by Henrik Ibsen. In most years since 2006, the ...

, Lervig Aktiebryggeri, Jester King, Three Floyds, Cigar City, AleSmith and Namgay Artisanal Brewery. Mikkeller has also brewed "house beers" for restaurants (including

Michelin starred The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few restaurants ...

ones) and bars in Denmark and several other countries. One example is the

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restaurants "Ramen to Biiru" in Nørrebro and Vesterbro, Copenhagen. They are currently working with an Arizona Brewery called Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. Some of the breweries Mikkeller has collaborated with are the result of close past relationships. When working as a mathematics and physics teacher in high school, Bjergsø taught two of his students how to brew beer outside of school hours, and in 2010 they started their own microbrewery, To Øl. Additionally,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

-based Evil Twin's founder and operator is Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, Mikkel's twin brother.

Copenhagen Beer Celebration

Since 2012, Mikkeller has organized and hosted a large annual beer festival, the Copenhagen Beer Celebration, which takes place each year in May. The festival mainly features small breweries from around the world, with many of them premiering new beers or small one-off batches of special beer, brewed specifically for the festival. In 2017 the festival was renamed Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen (MBCC).

Awards

Mikkeller won the "Danish Brewery of the Year" award in its inaugural year, in 2006, and again in 2008; in 2009 the award was shared with Hornbeer. Mikkeller has also been judged the fifth best brewery in the world on two occasions. Mikkeller's beers have won multiple awards, too. For example, a

pale lager Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...

called ''The American Dream'' has won a

RateBeer Beer rating is the process of assessment and evaluation of beer by use of a points-based system. The process is similar to that used in beer judging competitions, such as those organised by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) in America, th ...

's golden award in its category since 2012, and an imperial stout called ''Beer Geek Brunch Weasel'' has been in top 20 on RateBeer's "Best Beers in the World" chart for six consecutive years, topping at number six in 2009.''RateBeer's Best Awards''

.com.