Let's Play a Game

A few weeks ago, a buddy of mine informed me of a rather interesting game played by a few Swiss craft brewers: the Wortspiele (the wort game). The way this works is as follows:

1. Brewers get together to produce wort at a designated host brewery. 
2. Each of the participating players takes their share of wort home to finish off the beer. The  only requirement is each brewer must add yeast to ferment the wort. Other than that it is open to interpretation.
3. Brewers reassemble at the host brewery for a beer fest, dispensing their beers for some comparing and contrasting.

I went to the latest rendition of the Wortspiele, and it was one of the coolest beer fest’s I’ve seen.
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The Event

The host brewery this time around was Volta Bräu, which admittedly was the first time I’ve ever gone. In total, 18 breweries were present, although some were appearing as super-groups (for example, the Berner Supercollab was with five brewers). Plus, a few pouring were home brewers as well. For those curious, the breweries in attendance were:

• ​523, 4655 Brew Co., 7Peaks, Barfuss Brauerei, Berner Supercollabo (with Nine Brothers, BAF, Fjord & Fjell, Güschu 58, Les Garçons), Blackwell, Braukollektiv Freiburg, Degenbier, HeitereBräu, La Nébuleuse, Reinecke Bräu, Birrificio San Martino, Storm & Anchor Brewing Co., Tiboris, Trois Dames, Volta Bräu, WhiteFrontier,and the Wortspiele Organisatoren (Aabachbier, Bierversuche.ch, El Caballero Brewing)

​With one brewery pulling out due to fermentation issues.
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The Beers

There were over 30 beers on tap, with an average alcohol around 6.6%. The range of beers on tap was wild, from white ipas and berliner weisses to raw ales. Apparently, there was also a deconstructed hefeweizen, but sold out by the time I got there. No idea how the brewery (523) pulled it off. But from what I can tell, they freeze-dried banana and cloves, and put that in an (I imagine) plain tasting wort. 

It’s tough to call a favorite, as I was more excited by the breadth of samples from just one wort. The raw ale, titled Dill is the New Citra, was flavored with dill and spirulina, and well, tasted like pickle juice. For the amount I had, it was spot-on refreshing.

Another crowd favorite was a chocolate honey stout, which was a great tasting beer. Oddly enough, it tasted like a chocolate coconut porter but had no coconut within.

If you’re curious as to what other beers were available (as there’s far too many to list here), head on over to the facebook event here -> wortspiele (You'll have to scroll through the discussion a bit, but they're there.).
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​I’ve heard that if you win a particular brew competition, you’re invited to play. I'm gonna have to enter that, as this was one of my favorite beer fests, and now I’m even more excited to learn about the Swiss craft beer scene!