Montana has landed in Norway. The historic E.C. Dahls Bryggeri in Trondheim, Norway has launched its latest seasonal–Montana Cold IPA. Not only is it dry-hopped with 100% Montana-sourced hops, but that hop is none other than Ahhhroma™, a new proprietary variety from Glacier Hops Ranch in Whitefish that was launched just last year.
The E.C. Dahls brewery was founded in 1856, and has maintained its status as the largest brewery in the region ever since. Now, as part of the Carlsberg Group, E.C. Dahls enjoys the expertise and experience of brewmaster Wolfgang Lindell, who was brought up from Carlsberg’s R&D center in Copenhagen to head up the Trondheim brewing operation.
Ironically, in 2015, when Lindell was still in Copenhagen, he tracked down GHR CEO Tom Britz at the BrauBeviale trade show in Nürnberg. Wolf was keen on meeting Tom as he had been following GHR’s early hop growing efforts on Facebook. Turns out that Wolf had attended high school in Montana, not from Glacier Hops Ranch, and was tracking anything Craft beer and hops-related back in his hometown.
Fast-forward to the Drinktec event in Munich last September; Wolf re-connected with Tom and learned of the new Montana-grown Ahhhroma hops. Impressed with the aromatic intensity, Wolf and his marketing team built plans for a Montana Cold IPA to be launched in their “Rotating Tap” series. The intent was to exclusively use Montana hops, riding the coattails (and global interest in Montana) due to the Yellowstone TV series.
Hang on to your saddle horn, this is gonna be fun.
GHR’s Ahhhroma hops (exclusively grown in Montana) impressed Wolf as having the best sensory profile of all available options.
Early reaction from the E.C. Dahls marketing team after the launch is, “People totally love it!!! That for sure includes us. The Ahhhroma is really something special.”
