We thought it be fun to get a little more of an insight into all thing’s beer over at Stigbergets, and who better to ask some questions and gain some insight from, then from head brewer: Oli Banks. Enjoy the little interview below...
Q1. Where did your love for beer come from? Growing up in an area were beautiful old pubs with amazing cask ale pretty much. My grandad was a big homebrewer too so that helped!
Q2. How did a Yorkshire native find his way to Sweden? I'd been to Sweden a lot either with work or to visit friends and kind of thought it would be fun to move! I was living in London at the time and started to get a bit tired of the low pay, high hours work then got speaking to the Stigbergets crew, the whole decision was made over about a week actually, ha-ha.
Q3. What's your favourite beer you have brewed to date? That's a tough one! In terms of drinking, the city Pils collab with Collective arts was awesome. I think the Session IPA was a proud moment for making a super tasty NEIPA under 3.5%. Our big bourbon blend every year is always a magical moment also without interesting the final beer turns out to be! It's hard.
Q4. Why Stigbergets? How did you start working with them? I loved their beer and we just kinda started chatting when they were looking for a new brewer!
Q5. Any beer related tattoos? I've got a few ha-ha my favourite is the " øl " I have on my wrist. Which just means beer in most of the Scandinavian languages!
Q6. Do you notice a cultural difference in beer industry with the UK and Sweden? Big time! The swedes drink less than we do but their beers are all stronger, like you can sometime struggle to find a beer under 5%.
Q7. How is your beer connected to the local area? The name comes from "stigbergets Torg" or Stigbergets square where the brewery started! A lot of our artwork (not all though) also comes from classic Gothenburg things, like our West coast IPA! Seagulls are everywhere in Gothenburg and they're bloody huge compared to the ones back home ha-ha.
Q8. What does the future hold for you and Stigbergets? Well, we're hoping to open our brewpub sometime this year! Otherwise keeping our heads above the water after the whole Corona and trying to brew more weirder and wilder stuff! I'd love to bring the hype of classic British beers to Scandinavia, Best Bitters and Milds are my loves in the beer world.
You can also find more about Oli Banks and what he and Stigbergets are all about on this youtube interview below!
