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BRUS: Where dreams come true

What does Copenhagen desperately need? A decent bar and tolerable restaurant. Sike! Or as Sheldon would say: Bazinga!

There’s a certain amount of jealousy in that joke, because if anything, Copenhagen has both great bars and restaurants by the truckloads. So, if you’re thinking about opening another either of the two, you better go big or go home. You do like To Øl are doing with BRUS – the Danish name BRUS refers to the sparkling quality liquid obtains when carbonated: “BRUS is a 750 m2 raw building with activities ranging from producing, brewing, kegging, cooking, dining and drinking”, explains Tobias Emil Jensen, half of To Øl with the other being Tore Gynther. And then there is shopping on top of it. Because not only will BRUS host a brewery, a barrel program, a bar and a kitchen, there will also be a store. Thus a night at BRUS will most likely go down like this: “All the great beer will be running from the taps and bottles, but our guests will also be able to get their pre-dinner cocktail, after-hours soda, snack selection at the bar or a proper beautiful meal at the restaurant. They’ll be seated in aesthetic surroundings, offered tasty creations, they might take a quick dance on the tables and when they’re ready to go home, they can slip by the shop for a bold bottle collection to bring home”, says Tobias.

Now, the blog-reader with an elephant like memory remembers that Tobias previously said he didn’t dream of owning a brewery. Which begs the question, why he now opens a brewery: “With the establishment of BRUS, we will get our first very own brewery, where new dreams and brews can come true”, he says. Moreover, as a former gypsy brewer, he will open the doors to host other gypsies as well as continue the experimental approach to beer To Øl is known for. Including new critters: “We’ll be brewing with a whole new range of yeast strains, which aren’t used in any other places – these providing us with other qualities and new characteristics for our beers.”

And while beer is nutritious enough to survive on it solely for a while (but please, don’t try), eventually you do want to eat something. And BRUS just scored young, Austrian born and Michelin starred headchef, Christian Gadient, who will be in charge of the cooking in the in-house restaurant Spontan. And the To Øl-typical experiments will also happen in the kitchen: “Of course we work from some guidelines, but I won’t put myself into a box and say we are a plain Nordic restaurant, strictly do French cuisine or whatever. I want to keep an open mind and explore the culinary world wherever this may lead”, says the chef and he emphasizes that the only fixed concept is that everything is changeable.

The very beer-y concept of collaboration will also happen in the kitchen: Christian will invite chefs from other places to do pop-ups and collabs and through that keep offering new food experiences to the guests. Which they can drink with beer – and pairing beer and food will get some special attention from Christian – but also with wine, cocktails and organic sodas. Tobias explains the latter: “We have long had a wish to brew sodas with the same approach, as the one we have to beers: small batches, testing new taste variations etc.. We haven’t been able to realize this project in any other place. But with our very own place, we can now dig into it and expand the limits of craft brewed special drinks.”

Looks like with BRUS a lot of dreams come true: for the people behind it, but considering how darn exciting BRUS’ mission is (“The mission of BRUS is to create a playful venue for beer-lovers, microbrewers, tonic treasurers and food fans”), also potentially for the people that get to visit it. The concept is promising and with all things planned, stirs up great expectations. How they will be met, we’ll find out when the doors open. That will be during this year’s Copenhagen Beer Celebration in May, where a big opening party is planned to “spark the frizzy fun” at BRUS.

Read the full questions and answers here.

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