Each Villbrygg is a carefully composed work of art
Process and Planning Throughout the Year
A delightful drink starts with carefully selected, high-quality ingredients. To increase our access to organic and wild herbs, we plan crops with farmers, organize foraging groups, and collaborate with urban gardens. During the summer season, we strive to source as many Norwegian raw materials as possible.
Planning for this begins in the depths of winter—sometimes even up to a year and a half before production! The plants are harvested, cleaned, dried and stored in a dark cool place, and come autumn, we review everything we've gathered. This assessment defines how much we can produce until the next year's harvests are ready and which plants we have available to invent new flavor combinations during the winter. This, in turn, influences what we aim to source in the next season. And so the cycle repeats itself, year after year.
Read more about how we are creating a network of farmers and foragers in Norway here.
Behind every new Villbrygg are hundreds of experiments to find the right balance of flavors and combination of herbs and ingredients. Once we've settled on a recipe, the production of our brews follow a similar balancing and adjusting process.
Creating Drinks with the Taste of Nature
Our drinks are based on steeping herbs, berries, and wild plants at different durations and temperatures to achieve the desired taste. High heat often brings out more bitterness, while lower temperatures can yield more delicate floral notes. This is how we use temperature to extract different flavor profiles from the plants.
After the steeping stage we add a touch of raw organic sugar and lactic acid bacteria to start the fermentation stage of the recipe. The bacteria transforms the sugar into organic acids and complex flavors that also contribute to a natural form of preservation. After a few days, we pasteurize the drink and add carbonation before bottling it in glass bottles.
The finished product is a drink that evokes a place in nature—the scent of pine trees, the warmth of a flower meadow, the fresh winds of a mountain peak. It's a sensory experience beyond just flavor, one that conveys the feelings and stories of the plants, places, and people behind Villbrygg.