‘Vaccine’ Ale Coming to Liquor Stores This Week

“It’s a pleasure being the first one to bring the ‘Vaccine’ to market,” Sigurður Bragi Ólafsson tells Morgunblaðið. He is master brewer at Kaldi brewery, Árskógssandur, North Iceland. “We want to bring it to as many Icelanders as possible.”

The ‘Vaccine’ he is referring to comes in 750-ml bottles and has an alcohol content of 9 percent.

Sigurður joined forces with his colleagues at Borg brugghús brewery and brewed a New Year’s Eve beer they call Bóluefni – the Icelandic word for ‘vaccine.’ The beer is expected in Vínbúðin liquor stores between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s an oak aged Belgian tripel-style ale.

This is Kaldi’s first collaboration with another Icelandic brewery, but the company has twice in the past collaborated with US breweries, specializing in sour beer.

“This has been such a lousy year,” Sigurður states, “that it only makes sense to end it by drinking fine beer.”

Sigurður states that business is going well at Kaldi despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Holiday sales are probably the best in five or six years. With plenty of ‘vaccine’ in stock, Sigurður is optimistic about the future.