Swiss Review 2/2018

7 Rubrik Swiss Review / March 2018 / No.2 900 small-scale breweries have con- quered the Swiss beer market within a few years. Some make their products in tiny kitchens, such as Christophe Haeni from the Barbiere- brewery in Berne. Photo: Keystone balisation is bringing consumer goods from all over the world to our supermarkets, we are suddenly taking an in- terest in local products.” However, this is not just resulting in more “beer from here” but also more vegetables grown in the region, more bread from the local bakery and more cheese from the area. As far as beer is concerned, he points out: “There would probably still have been a boom even if the beer cartel had not broken up.” A very colourful scene has emerged. This ranges from unpretentious do-it-yourself recreational brewing and beer-swilling humour to an appreciation of a tradition of craftsmanship. An extremely high number of small-scale setups and microbreweries are clearly experimental arti- san enterprises. They produce beverageswhich are very dif- ferent to standardised industrial beers. Tiny universe inside the bottle What is inspiring the new Swiss brewers? “Swiss Review” singled out the Brauerei Nr. 523 brewery which operates under the rather cryptic name of 523. The initial response to our enquiry was a refusal in itself: We are “rather intro- verted and therefore not ideal for the press”. That maywell be true. The Köniz brewery, based in an old file factory, avoids all ostentation. Malt and hops are more important to it than marketing and merchandising. Even its beer la- bels are extremely understated. And although the local me- dia all over Switzerland celebrate every new local brewery with great excitement, silence reigns as far as 523 is con- cerned. The small team – Sebastian Imhof, Nadja Otz, To- bias Häberli and Andreas Otz – do not shout about what they do from the rooftops. What follows is an eye-opening insight into life inside a microbrewery. 523 beers are also produced for a very well-defined market. Simply being “local” is not enough, says Andreas Otz. 523 obviously samples hops produced in the region. “But theworldwould become too narrowly con- fined if we only used what grows on our doorstep.” Otz un- derstands the concept of beer as a homeland-promoting “anti-globalisation beverage”. But when the teammake beer, they experience “the positive aspects of globalisation”, he says. If they hear about a local farmer in Seattle experiment- ing with new hop varieties, they can contact him directly, buy fromhimand brewand launch a beer that uses the new variety. In this way, globalisation also enhances local prod- ucts. The 523 brewers use a range of flavours, aromas and sensory stimulation from all over the world and pursue “their vision uncompromisingly”, Otz says. How can, say, the taste of “currants caramelised in port” be magically turned into beer in this “tiny universe inside the bottle”? Such questions show that this brewery does not primar- ily belong to the food industry but instead sees itself as a trailblazer in the realm of flavours. Otz: “We aim to pro-