Since we are still in #Lockdown and no one knows when bars and pubs will reopen in Switzerland, we thought about ways to keep you guys entertained on this blog. Thats why we thought of a new series of blog post which we call #BrewingHeroes. In this section of our blog we will introduce craft breweries we think the worlds needs to know about. Our first Brewing Heroes are: #Brausyndikat from Dietikon, #Zurich.
Brausyndikat and their battle against an underhopped society
Brausyndikat is a very popular brewery among craft beer lovers in Zurich. But even if you still haven't heard of it you surely would recognize the unmistikable logo of a #monkey and wonder about the company behind this image. We had an amazing talk with Oliver from the brewery, at social distance via email of course. We'd love to share it with you below.
Zurich Beer Tour: Who are you and what is your job at Brausyndikat? Oliver: My name is Oliver Zemp, responsible for sales and marketing. But I also like to be part of the brewing process sometimes.
When was your brewery founded and how did you guys get intrested in craft beer? Brausyndikat started out in 2015 as a restaurant-brewery (Hermanseck, Zurich). Because of the rising demand outside of the restaurant, we founded the brewery in Dietikon. Unfortunately, craft beer wasn't as popular back then as it is nowadays. But as fans of BrewDog since their very beginning, we were inspired to try brewing ourselves.
What do you want to achieve with your brewery? There is not really a lot of money to make in this niche, so it's not about that. It's more about getting to see happy faces.
Which is your flagship beer? The single hop citra IPA
How much beer do you produce per year? 5000 hl (Editors note: ≈4200 US barrels)
What does a monkey have to do with a syndicate? The monkey is the boss of the syndicate, you could say the "Padre".
What is the difference between your beer and mass produced beer? I would say the amount of love we put in. And of course the the amount of raw materials we use per beer is higher which results in a lot more flavour. Which is your favourite hop and your favourite yeast? I would say citra for the hop, I just have a lot of history with it. For the yeast it's US-05 and at the moment especially London Fog. What is the most special beer you ever brewed? A chestnut mushroom ale. Is there a beer of your dreams you always wanted to brew? A clone of Magic Rock's Cannonball. What can you tell us about the release of your first beer in cans? What kind of beer can we look forward to? We always wanted to find out, how our customers would react to a can (really positive by the way). For our bar and restaurant customers I think it is still a complicated topic. I just can't imagine a beer can on a white tablecloth at Baur au Lac (Editors note: Baur au Lac is a 5* Hotel in Zurich). But we want to release more cans in the future, especially if there's heavy dry hopping involved.
Are there new beer releases planned, can you reveal something? Of course! Next to one more version of "Just another IPA" (again in cans) there is a sour project waiting to be released. That one is aged in barrique barrels for 9 months now.
Where can we buy your beers?
You can find a good list on our website
Your recommendations good beer bars and restaurants in Zurich?
Hafenkneipe, Eldorado and Korner
What can you tell us about your new Taproom and other activities like brewing courses and brewery tours that you offer there? Of course we would love for the Taproom to have a more central location in Zurich, but it was already very popular in Dietikon before corona. We offer 8 taps so visitors can taste almost all of our beers, which we think is the best and most honest way to do tastings. The other offers like the courses and the tours were available even before the Taproom was opened but now we finally have a solid concept and we put it on our website.
Here we have a little video about their Taproom:
Do you feel like you get more support than normally (for example via social media)?
Yes, we do! I almost have a feeling that Facebook which was declared dead makes its comeback now.
How was the Swiss beer scene affected by the crisis? Are there any major changes going on? Do you keep in touch with other breweries?
We keep communicating with other breweries even though we can't meet face to face now. The small breweries are doing pretty good, we feel a lot of solidarity. But I can imagine that a bigger brewery with higher fixed costs that is specialized on bars and restaurants and does not have their beers for sale in supermarkets is struggling really hard.
Is there anything else you want to share with us? Yes, Brausyndikat wishes you guys from Zurich Beer Tour all the best with your new project.
Thank you so much for your time Oliver, and all the best wishes to you and the whole team at #Brausyndikat
Cheers,
Your Zurich Beer Tour Guides
(The interview was loosely translated from German)