Quality Ingredients

It has been a core principle from the beginning to only use the best ingredients available and use local resources whenever it is possible. This is why our beers are brewed using barley sprouted on the fields surrounding the brewery in Kolding. It is harvested from these fields and malted by the brewery and malt house Fuglsang in Haderslev, 30 km from the brewery. 

At ÅBEN we are proud to never compromise on quality, which is why we only use ingredients from the best suppliers worldwide. Therefore, we cooperate with suppliers around the world, specialised in working with local farmers. This is the case for the fruit we use in the Stolen series, which originates from local farmers in France, as this is where we can get fruit puree that matches our requirements, while supporting local farmers.

A vital ingredient in brewing is hops. And due to popular demand, there is high competition to acquire the best. As some of the world’s best hops comes from Yakima Chief Hops, producing American hops from the Pacific Northwest, this is where ÅBEN get the majority of our hops. Yakima Chief Hops has an ambitious sustainability profile and has since 2017 reduced its extract emissions by 65% and invested in a CO2 recovery system enabling them to reuse 100% of its CO2 in its production. Read more about Yakima Chief Hops’ sustainability goals here.

Finally, the production of ÅBEN merchandise is produced in cooperation with various suppliers. It is of high priority for us to work together with brands and suppliers with an ambitious sustainability policy. Therefore, all clothing is produced by suppliers who source the best raw materials, grown or produced in ways that do not harm people, animals or the environment, with a focus on GOTS certified organic cotton and recycled materials.

Reuse & Recycle

Applying a circular mindset is fundamental for the way the ÅBEN brewery operates. Brewing beers comes with a certain amount of waste, and it is an ambition to reuse or minimise this waste as much as possible. One way is to perform yeast harvesting.

The beers you drink from ÅBEN, are made on wet yeast from the Danish White Labs just outside of Copenhagen. Yeast is a vital ingredient in brewing - and you need quite a lot. However, after brewing a batch of beer, it is possible to harvest the yeast in order to reuse it for another batch. One thing is that we can reuse what would otherwise become residues, a second thing is that through harvesting yeast from previous batches, we end up with a unique yeast that adds to the flavour profile of coming beers. We take very good care of our yeast, and can reuse it in up to 10 generations.  

Bi-products such as mask which derives after extracting what is needed from the malt, is something we donate to either local farmers to feed their cattle or to local biogas plants which use it to produce eco-friendly and renewable energy. ÅBEN believe in a future where biogas is a central part of the world’s energy supply. Therefore, we thrive to be able to support this direction of replacing coal and oil with renewable energy sources. A direction we can support even more when we open the new brewery in Copenhagen, as this will be connected to Hofor, which operates with a vision to deliver CO2 neutral city gas supply by 2025.

Packaging

Packaging is a key area for our conscious production, and we continuously spend time exploring and identifying new suppliers with ambitious sustainability goals.

This is one of the fundamental reasons for our shift in production, where the majority of our production of glass bottles will be replaced with cans throughout 2021. It will enable ÅBEN to become more environmentally friendly and strengthen our conscious production. As cans are smaller and made of aluminium, they take up less space and are light-weighted which means that larger quantities can be shipped while reducing the environmental impact. For several reasons, aluminimum is also a better reusable material than glass and therefore much better suited within ÅBENs circular ambitions. 

All labels on your ÅBEN bottles and cans are printed with the use of vegetable based ink on FSC certified paper. All boxes, six packs and post cards are equally FSC certified. FSC stands for 'Forest Stewardship Council’, which is your guarantee for responsible forestry that meet the highest environmental and social standards. 

Finally, all ÅBEN kegs are recyclable and key parts of these are also being produced from 100% recycled plastic. As the design makes them more compact, these kegs have 25-30% higher loading capacity compared to steel kegs, and fewer shipments are therefore required.