Tempel Brygghus

If you want to make it in the diverse world of craft beer these days, you have to have a pretty good idea or an extremely skilled hand when it comes to handling hops. For about a decade, craft breweries have been popping up all over the world like mushrooms and the competition is greater than ever. Talented young brewers are flooding the beer market with hand-crafted masterpieces and offering thirsty customers an unparalleled selection of the finest beers. Tempel Brygghus from Uppsala, Sweden, owes its fame and popularity to its special fermentation process.rn

From a one-man operation to a dynamic Duorn

But first things first. The Tempel brewery was founded in 2014 and has made the production of specialty beers its hobbyhorse. The team consisted of a single person until 2017, and was able to achieve initial success in these first three years. In Sweden, alcohol is subject to strict regulations and alcoholic beverages with more than 3.5% can only be sold by state-run beverage stores called Systembolaget and private stores with a state license. The brews from Tempel all have a higher alcohol content and have been included in the range of the local Systembolaget in Uppsala since 2015. After this milestone, the brewery was able to expand in 2017 and moved to premises that offered more space. rn

Magical creatures that stick to malt grains

With the move, the brewing options also expanded and the range was expanded. What remains is the special technology used to ferment the beer at Tempel. Instead of using cultivated yeast, the brewery relies largely on wild yeasts and microbial cultures. These are found on the malt grains, but are a lot more complicated than conventional yeast: wild yeasts and bacterial cultures are less controllable and it is not so easy to estimate in advance to what extent they are present. Over the last decade, Tempel's team has learned to deal with this challenge and to coax out and refine the unique flavor nuances that arise from this type of fermentation. Beers fermented with wild yeasts often have a fine acidity that goes wonderfully with the aromas of hops and malt. Tempel Brygghus now also brews beers that are fermented with normal yeast and has also expanded the range to include collaborations with other craft breweries. For example, we have a juicy India Pale Ale called Plague Mask , which was created in collaboration with Totenhopfen Brauhaus from Luxembourg. rn