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Q+A with Tobias Emil Jensen of To Øl/BRUS and Christian Gadient of Spontan at BRUS

TOBIAS EMIL JENSEN of To Øl/BRUS

TOBIAS EMIL JENSEN of To Øl/BRUS

Tell us about BRUS: We know it’s a restaurant, bar, store, brewery. What more can you tell us?

BRUS is a 750 m2 raw building with activities ranging from producing, brewing, kegging, cooking, dining and drinking. The mission of BRUS is to create a playful venue for beer-lovers, microbrewers, tonic treasurers and food fans; a place with a constantly evolving range of experimental food and beverage. With production on-location, BRUS will be one of Copenhagen’s most ambitious microbrew and soft drinks projects to date.

In our interview you said “my dream is not to have my own brewery”. Now you have a brewery. What changed?

Tore and I have fulfilled many great dreams with our gypsy brewing: We have travelled the world and built strong and developing relationships with other brewers and production facilities. We have met a wide range of approaches, methods and people and mutually exchanged a lot of inspiration and have acquired a taste for what we believe is important in craft brewing. With the establishment of BRUS, we will get our first very own brewery, where new dreams and brews can come true.
At BRUS we will continue our experimental approach to beer – just now we’ll be able to host other gypsy brewers and do even smaller and quirkier experiments. With the brews of BRUS we also have the opportunity to fulfil a long dream of brewing a whole new palette of quality soft drinks, by starting our organic soda project. 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 any other place, but with our very own place, we can now dig into it and expand the limits for craft brewed special drinks.

How will BRUS change your approach to beer? How will it change what kind of beers you are going to make?

Our approach to beer is to keep experimenting, developing and having fun. Beer brewing at BRUS will be a natural extension of this – yet will allow us to experiment on even more levels. We’ll be deeply involved in all processes and thus have the opportunity to vary and adjust more parameters at all times. Moreover, 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.

If you could wish for a first impression of your guests, what do you hope is that first impression going to be of BRUS?

We want to expose our guests to a whole new experience of going to a brewpub, and we’ll strive to offer homely hospitality and relaxed atmosphere. We’ll welcome our guests to experience a house with historical factory-traces of heavy production on to a new and modern brewing production on-location. Our wish is for our guests to feel the vibe of a cosy and lively bar buzz; a place to hang out, have fun, eat well and taste a lot of great crafted beers and drinks. BRUS will not be a brewpub, as you know it from the States, with loud music, BBQ-smoke and skulls. All the great beer will be available from 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 Spontan. 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.

CHRISTIAN GADIENT of SPONTAN AT BRUS

CHRISTIAN GADIENT of SPONTAN AT BRUS

Was it a passion for beer, stress of being a Micheline star chef or what led to you changing?

Definitely a passion for beer and the group I’m working with on the whole project – their energy and engagement was a big part of my change. I’m not gonna kick back and relax after running a Michelin starred restaurant. I’m only 27. A new life is starting for me now, and I wanna do something different, step up and put even more effort and time into this than ever before.

What is the concept of the menu going to be?

The concept will be pretty free flowing. Of course we will 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. The only fixed concept at Spontan is that everything is changeable – leaving room for new crops, flavors and aromas as well as me and my colleagues’ own cravings for favorite dishes and daily detours.

How will the food reflect the offered beers?

For me the To Øl boys are doing very unique, experimental and potent beers. With restaurant Spontan I want to reflect the approach they as gypsy brewers have to craft brewing: They have been travelling as a brewery for many years, collaborating and sharing inspiration across the milieu. And I want to include this milieu of social life and mutual inspiration in the restaurant. Just like To Øl doesn’t have a core range of beers, I will also continuously vary our dishes and menus, invite chefs from other places to do pop-ups and collabs and keep offering new food experiences to the guests.

Wine plays a big part in Michelin-style restaurants. At Spontan, beer will not only be offered, the guest’s focus will also be on it. What are the opportunities, what the challenges?

BRUS is not going to be a Michelin restaurant, but a brewpub with a great restaurant as a part of it. The house is filled with beers, but also a lot of other brewing projects. Guests will most definitely be served all the beers they like, but there will also be wine on the list. Additionally our guests will be able to get cocktails and organic sodas. This is also a way of including all needs and desires of the guests and not only serve specifically chosen beverage menus; we want to keep an open mind, also on the beverage pairing. But of course I will give food and beer pairing some special attention.

Food inspires many brewers. How does brewing inspire your cooking?

Craft brewing is inspiring in both methods, processes and taste, namely in creating big, potent and new flavours. The fermentation part of brewing definitely plays a significant role – the brewing guys have worked with this forever and are real nerds when it comes to yeast, bacteria and microorganisms, so I can’t wait to get started with a lot of fun and inspiring projects at BRUS and Spontan.

What thoughts are prompted by thinking about “beer and food pairing”?

Powerful, elegant, relaxed. Respect, mutual inspiration, progress and experiments

Which – from a culinary perspective – is your favorite beer?

I actually like all styles of beer. I like balance, bitterness, dark sides and sour styles and I can’t wait to explore them all from a culinary perspective.

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