The first steps
The journey of Ofrälse began in Lund, a historic city in the south of Sweden famous for its medieval city centre and for housing the largest and oldest university in the country. After meeting in the communal student kitchen where they lived, the three founders Adam Östbring, Simon Leppänen and Hampus Tarras-Wahlberg realised they had a common passion for drinking beer. From there, it didn’t take long until they started brewing their own. Equipped with 3 plastic fermentation buckets and a small stainless steel pot, the three friends started supplying the world’s first bottles of Ofrälse beer to a lucky few of Lunds 48 000 students.
Connecting to our roots
Having outgrown the student kitchen and with a wish to form a closer connection to the terroir of Skåne – the region of Southern Sweden where Ofrälse is based – the brewery was relocated to an empty old stable at the Tarras-Wahlberg family farm. Located on Hallandsåsen, a wild place of natural beauty one hour north of Lund, it was an ideal place to connect with local brewing traditions. After months of hard work, the stable had become quite the test brewing facility. Here, Ofrälses first commercially succesful recipe was perfected – a farmhouse pale ale infused with apples from the orchards in Kivik.
Eight tons of stone was gathered from a local quarry by hand, forming the new floor of the brewery. A couple of weeks well spent! Wouldn’t it look nice if the right wall was full of windows, though? We thought so too.
Luckily, a farm in a neighbouring county had decided it was time to replace all their windows. With more time than money at Ofrälse’s disposal, the windows were picked up, renovated, and installed.
In 2019, the old stable could officially be inagurated as the new HQ of Ofrälse. However, with the stable being too small to supply demand and sustain brewing on a commercial scale, Ofrälse used a co-brewing approach at Uncharted Brewing Company outside Lund to ship out the first pallets of beer to customers in southern Sweden.
TIME TO SCALE UP
After The Big Cone – Ofrälses classic New England IPA – was selected for nationwide distribution by the Swedish state monopoly Systembolaget, it was time to scale up. In just under two months, 48 000 cans Big Cone were sold, and Ofrälse had established itself firmly on the Swedish craft beer scene.
AIMING HIGHER
With Ofrälse consistently winning nationwide distribution deals, larger production facilities were desperately needed. As luck would have it, three other students from Lund had embarked on the same journey a few years earlier, and opened a large scale brewery in Landskrona called Brygghuset Finn. After discussions over some beers, it was decided that Ofrälse would move its co-brewing operations to Finn.
COMING FULL CIRLCE
Today Ofrälse has established itself as a major player on the Swedish craft beer scene, being in the top 5% of breweries selected for nationwide distribution deals. With test brewing facilities on Hallandsåsen and in Malmö, and large scale production in Landskrona, Ofrälse produces beer rooted in tradition but with a modern edge. If you are curious to find out more about our approach to brewing, click the link below. Cheers to the everyday beer drinker, and cheers to all the Ofrälse people out there!
