Kinn Bryggeri

Home-brewing has been my passion since my teenage years. The quality of the beer from these early days was variable, to say the least. But the joy of making something was my motivation. From using juniper extract in the mash, gradually my knowledge grew and the quality of the ingredients improved. As the new millennium dawned the quality was so good that I started to enter competitions hosted by Norbygg - the Norwegian Association of Home-brewers - and winning prizes. I became Home Brewer of the Year two years in a row. Among those involved I met craft beer pioneers Kjetil Jikiun and Jens Maudal, and not long after these two enterprising souls were launching their own brewery.

Some years later, in February 2007, as I lay on the sofa with a leg in plaster, I reached a decision: To leave my job as a science teacher and start Kinn Brewery. My dear wife, Ann-Magritt, lent her support, but was probably not prepared for the hectic and financially rather meagre years to come. Thanks to a seed loan from Innovation Norway, renovation loans for our house and support from the family, Kinn Bryggeri AS was incorporated in April 2009.

In the meantime I had been chatting with many early brewers: Nøgne Ø, Haandbryggeriet, Ægir, Baatbryggeriet, Lillehammer Bryggeri and Små Vesen. Gradually equipment was assembled: malt mill from Haandbryggeriet, boiling vats, vortex unit and much else from Små Vesen, mash vats, hot water tank, storage tanks and open fermentation vats from Tine Dairy. Bit by bit, the brewery was completed. The only pieces of gear bought new were the heat exchanger and hoses. I couldn’t risk using second-hand here - a bacterial infection would have been a very inauspicious start. During this collecting phase, there was nowhere to store the equipment except my garden. Luckily, my ever-patient neighbours accepted the growing pile of cast-offs. A great deal needed to be reworked to suit my needs. Some rather clever local welders helped out, expanding the capacity of the boiler and cooling jacket for the fermentation vats.