Omnipollo: Beer As Art

Being avid beer lovers, we all view the brewing of unique, mind-altering and amazingly tasty beers itself an art. So how to you further the artistic direction and impact of beer? This is a quest that started in 2011 for Henok Fentie and Karl Grandin, which took an avid home-brewer and an amazing brand builder and designer (ever heard of Cheap Monday clothing) and has seen a true visualisation of the artistry that goes into creating Omnipollo’s beers is represented and conveyed in a visible format.

Funnily enough, Both Henok and Karl work independently of each other, which sees Henok working exclusively on the recipes for creating their beers while Karl paints the story for how customers around will see them (and most importantly, remember them). Even with this clear division between their respective roles in the business, there is always contestant communication to make sure the direction of output is unified, focussed and representing both of the creative minds in a harmonious manner.

As with many new age breweries, having a physical production brewery isn’t always at the highest priority, and the endeavour to collaborate, evolve and have unbridled creative output is something that cannot be compromised. This has seen some amazing beers that show diversity and complexity coming out the minds of Henok.

All through DecemBEER, we will be featuring the following beers from Omnipollo at special prices for our lovely fans.

Gose (pron. Goes-uh) is a regional specialty from Goslar in Germany. Known for combining a high wheat content in their mash bill, this style of beer is balanced by the additions of salt (either added from the water sources itself), herbal spice and a sourness from lactobacillus bacteria. This style of beer was lost twice in history since it was first created in the 1300’s, and most recently only resurfaced in 1986 after a 20 year hiatus.

The Bianca is a purely Henok brainchild, mixing in mango puree, rock salt and lactose to the high wheat base, this gose is pitched higher than most with regards to alcohol at 6%. This little spike in booze is integral to balancing out the very fruity characteristics brought through from the Mango and allows for the salty notes of the beer shine. Imagine a drinkable, saltier mango Weis bar making sweet fruit music in your mouth!

Currently you will find this brew being produced out of Buxton in the UK and Overshores Brewing in the US.

Starting a veritable three-pronged attack of ice cream influenced ales made as a collaboration with Buxton Brewing, the Original Ice Cream is a pale ale that reminds you of the most amazing and flavourful vanilla ice cream that you probably have never tasted. Combining a heavy amount of rolled oats, lactose and wheat to add the body and creaminess you want, it is dosed with literally 1000 vanilla beans in the batch (meaning you are getting 1 vanilla bean for every two litres of beer) and is conditioned to mimic as much of the experience to rekindle your childhood summer dreams. The pale is cleaned up nicely with some amazing interesting citrus notes from the hops, which leaves you wondering why you only ordered one scoop!

Marshmallows? Check! Chocolate? Check! Peanuts? Check! This trinity of deliciousness is what makes rocky road one of the best confectionary inventions known to the human race. Simple in flavour when it comes to baking, deliciously difficult to make into a brew that is balanced and correct in reference to what you are trying to recreate. Enter this decadent, ice cream influenced number from the dynamic duo of Omnipollo and Buxton.

At its core, the Rock Road is an Oatmeal Imperial Porter, brewed with peanuts, Marshmallows, Cocoa Nibs and milk sugars, then conditioned on vanilla beans and aromatics to bring a cornucopia of flavours and experiences.

If only Rocky 3 was this good.

Take the above beers base of an Oatmeal Imperial Porter, tweak flavours and end up with an equally as amazing beer.

Pecan, Caramel sauce, milk sugars and even more vanilla invoke an experience built off a pecan pie that has a flavour bigger than Texas.

Feel free to dress up as a traditional diner server and enjoy at any time of the day!

The artwork on this beer helps to visually describe the journey it takes to create a beer which moves towards the Aurora of perfection. The ladder indicates that there are many moments and steps which see hops being added along the way to perfection; along with the stream of green mist that peters out, representing the almost radioactive green colour that is taken from the wort which is hit with hop bursts post boil.

These dry hop additions create an incredibly melange of grapefruit, lemon, peach and grass on the nose which is met by a medium sweetness from the malt and intense piney bitterness on the finish.

Omnipollo remote brew this beer at Crazy Mountain Beer in the USA and at the highly acclaimed De Proefbrouwerij in Belgium.

In this case, move towards the light.

Nebuchadnezzar, or ‘neb’ for short, is one of Henok’s old home brew recipes, that was never meant to made at a commercial level as the methodology to creating the beast is so economically backward and should only ever be done at home.

Taking a great malty backbone to hold out many, many hop additions; flavours of grapefruit, pine, passionfruit and lemon are allowed to shine against a slightly resinous mouth feel finished with a moderate carbonation to make you need more.

Like some would have said in high school, F**k Economics!