Labels define craft beer range

Within just 15 years a small brewery on the island of Bornholm has emerged as one of Denmark’s leading suppliers of specialty beers. It is now targeting further expansion driven by exports. Punchy labels that hold fast even on wet surfaces are an essential ingredient of successful marketing.

Craft beers are currently enjoying a surge in popularity. What began as the preserve of beer aficionados worldwide has long since become a significant and fast-growing business segment. More and more enterprises are entering the fray – even the large corporations are seeking to reinvent themselves as craft brewers.

The brewer’s craft and distinctive brews crucially depend on large measures of both patience and passion. Svaneke Bryghus, which now ranks among the most successful and largest speciality breweries in Denmark, possesses both of these virtues in abundance. ‘Slow beer’ is the company’s tagline, reflecting its indulgence in a particularly long maturation process. Its growth, in contrast, has been rapid.

Founded as recently as 2000, Svaneke Bryghus now sells 2.5 million bottles and a total of around two million liters of beer a year. Its range encompasses 30 different beers, from American Pale Ale and a classic Pilsner style to a strong Baltic Porter with an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 7.2 percent. Since 2005 a German brewmaster has been making certain that only the finest quality ingredients find their way into the company’s bottles and barrels.

In its own restaurant on the brewery’s premises, one of Denmark’s first beer sommeliers is on hand to offer guests advice.