If you’ve followed Brooklyn Brewery’s meteoric ascent, you surely know their local beers can now be found in obscure corners all over the world. But you may not know that the Williamsburg-based brewer has a full-on sister operation in Sweden: Nya Carnegiebryggeriet, aka New Carnegie Brewery.
New Carnegie is a co-venture of Brooklyn Brewery and Carlsberg, who distributes their beer in much of Western Europe. Started in March 2013, the brewery now has a full line of beers developed under the watchful eye of brewmaster Garrett Oliver and his Swedish counterpart, Anders Wendler. “All the [Swedish] beers follow Garrett’s general philosophy on structure and balance in the service of elegance,” says Ben Hudson, Brooklyn Brewery’s marketing director.
The Swedish brewery was created in an old lightbulb factory within a largely residential neighborhood. The building was historically protected, built in the functional modernist style of the 1920s and ’30s. Because of its designation, many of the original features were maintained; Hudson calls the structure “highly unique.”
From the beginning, New Carnegie Brewery has been a highly collaborative venture. All its employees came to Brooklyn Brewery’s Williamsburg location in 2013 for training; Hudson and many of his colleagues make regular trips to Sweden. The equipment in the two facilities is identical, and monitors allow two-way visual access across the ocean. And of course, Oliver and Wendler work in very close collaboration.
Nya Carnegiebryggeriet doesn’t produce nearly the volume of Brooklyn Brewery — think 10,000 barrels a year versus almost 300,000. That said, Hudson has watched New Carnegie’s beers surge in popularity since it opened. He says there is no danger of the breweries competing against each other, though. The Swedish beer market has more than enough space for twin breweries, even if both aspire to make beer “that’s equally delicious for your first bottle or your fourth.”
Photos courtesy of Nya Carnegiebryggeriet
