A Day at Amager ft. Cellarmaker
Last Thursday I spent the day at Amager for their now traditional week of collaboration brews that lead up to Copenhagen Beer Celebration. If you haven't read my article from last year's collaboration with Surly, well here is the chance. That was then and this is now. This year I decided to go for the collaboration with Cellarmaker, a small brewery from San Francisco that is nearly unknown in these parts. That interested me.
An early train from Odense was required to reach the promised land. I was just as honored to be asked to come this year, but as I boarded my train East I felt far less nervous than I had the year before. This year I felt a little more comfortable with my place in things and with the familiar faces around me. So much so I almost forgot what we were there for (free beer may have been a factor as well).
Speaking of which. I guess if you have been following the blog recently you will have seen my religious experience with Amager's batch 1000 IPA. Well the fridge was stocked with one week old bottles, which I didn't hesitate to partake in (might have also contributed to my almost forgetting why we were there). I thought the stuff I had before was fresh. This was brewery fresh and so hoppy it almost made me cry (tears of joy of course).
The guys of Cellarmaker had precious little time that day, but thankfully I did get a chance to sit down and talk a bit with Connor Casey, one of the owners of Cellarmaker. He was a nice guy who talked a lot about their philosophy of running a small local brewery with an emphasis placed on fresh beer. These are things that resonate strongly with me so it was cool to hear about. We talked a little about the beer they were brewing that day, a west coast IPA (their specialty) and just about beer in general. Much as you would expect from a guy in a San Francisco brewery it was all very chill.
As the day wore on the guys from Cellarmaker had to mosey on back to the big city. They were however replaced by no less than 30 or so other people. Swedish brewers, Greek and Brazilian importers, and random strangers were all in attendance. I hadn't seen that many people at the brewery since last years Amerikaner Dag 4th of July celebration.
