WEEK 13---chit chat with TOBIAS--TO OL--PART 1/2

TO OL 算是比较早期出现在吉隆坡这个撞意啤酒小沙漠的北欧品牌。

本地能喝到的不只是TO OL不同类型瓶子，也不定期会以“鲜啤”姿态通过啤酒泵出现。

撇开被普遍视为MIKKELLER得意弟子的直观，TO OL的啤酒是有趣，好喝的。

最近在新加坡啤酒节喝到他们的春酿BLOSSOM，是低酒精易喝淡啤中有丰富口感的类别，非常可口。

通过酿酒师之一TOBIAS的言谈可以稍稍了解，酿酒，卖酒，出名这些事对TO OL并不会造成什么捆绑或负担。。对他们来说，酿自己喜欢喝的酒还是最主要的事。

KL is a sort of small desert when comes to craft beer choices.

TO OL is one of few European craft brews available locally since the dawn of craft beer movement some 2-3 years ago...

Having tasted some of TO OL's varieties of craft brews, this week we talk to TOBIAS( one half of two young men who helm TO OL)

To many a beer geeks, Tobias & Tore started brewing with Mikkel( of Mikkeller) in the school kitchen and went on to the world stage is a well documented story. (that's not the topic here, but What's interesting from a Asian viewpoint is that brewing beers in SCHOOL is considered something outrageous and would never be condone by any "normal schools" here in Asia...:)

THIS is the chit chat ( part 1 of 2) with TOBIAS:-

Q;-some of your beers were given certain names( fuck art..bigger than yours...)--under what circumstances were the names given?

TOBIAS:-The name can come up as an idea and then we figure out which kind of beer it is. Or we get a really good idea for a beer and then we need to find a name. Some of our names trace back to old friends, some names are just purely invented for the process.

Q:-is brewing beers still a fun thing to you and your team?

TOBIAS:-Yes, brewing is still fun. My education is a master diploma Brewer. So you kind of like chosen a life where everything has something to do with beers. However, I would say that cleaning a mash/spent grains is the kind of work you don't miss all the time. Our "team" is still just me and Tore. We got Kasper Ledet doing labels and Mikkeller helps us out in the warehouse. 

Q:-any moment where adjustments needed mentally since your beers became internationally accepted?

TOBIAS:-I think i still don't understand the size we have grown to. I remember when we had homebrewed 2 cases of beer and tried to sell them. Back then, 2 cases of our beer was a lot. Today, we make a lot more but it still surprise me everyday...

Q:- is there any set time period for you, your team members that a certain new beer has got to come out within that time frame?

TOBIAS:-No, you can't force creativity. And that’s the beauty of gypsy brewing. We don't need to make a volume each month to pay investors or the bank. We are 100% independent and so we can make the beers we like when we want to do it. That's why that some months we make just 1 new beer where other months see a big release of new beers. We don't guarantee people a constant flow of new beer. It's like an artist, he makes a painting when he's ready to do it, not because someone commissioned a new painting.

Q:-if you were to picked any 3 cities for beers and beer alone, which cities would that be and why?

TOBIAS:-Of course, Copenhagen, We really like Copenhagen and the craft beer community. We have a lot of friends here. Besides that, Stockholm, Sweden, is a really vibrant city with a lot of focus on good beer. Lastly, perhaps Malaysia and the other south-eastern Asian countries. I can feel that the craft beer movement has just begun and there is still place for a lot of new beer geeks to start drinking good beer. 

NEXT WEEK---chit chat with TOBIAS--part 2/2