A Small Part Of Me Just Died

I was just scanning the headlines at Real Simple Beer Syndication, aka RSBS, when a headline jumped off the page and smacked me:

This Is The End of Olfabrikken

You can read Jens' post for more details, but in short, Olfabrikken was purchased by Gourmetbryggeriet, a Danish craft brewery located in Roskilde, Denmark. It's tough to read their site, even with the help of a Danish > English translator, but they seem to have a focus on quality; hiring a former brew master from Carlsberg, serving great looking food in their restaurant, and putting out a handful of their own tasty beers. That gives me a small ray of hope that the Olfabrikken Porter I've come to love will continue to stand up to it's reputation, but I think I'll be stocking up soon, just to be safe.

Maybe Jen and I are freaking out over nothing, but it's always worrisome when an amazing brewery (or any small independant company) gets snatched up by a bigger fish. Especially when the founder of Olfabvrikken sends a letter to their shareholders that ends on a note like this:

"All alternative solutions that would mean that we, the shareholders, would stay as owners, have been rejected by Gourmetbryggeriet and as a result I have dismissed myself."

Cross your fingers...

BTW, Jens' blog is highly entertaining (and written in English), and provdes a different perspective on the European beer scene than what you get from any of the blogs on this side of the pond. Take this commercial for Westmalle. Who knew that the monks needed advertising?