The Egtved Girl’s Brew

Form and content must harmonise – if they don’t, you can clearly feel that something is wrong. Any artist knows that.

Claus Søgaard had a similar thought when he came up with and developed the idea about Egtved Girl’s Brew. What’s the point of making exclusive beer if you just put it in an ordinary bottle with a standard label?

Søgaard’s thoughts often fly skywards and with the Egtved Girl’s Brew, he began way up there – and stayed there. The first thought was, of course, the bottle – which bottle should I pour the beer into? Immediately the obvious and very brave choice fell on Holmegaard, Denmark's oldest glassworks which was established in 1825 near Holmegaard Marsh in south Jutland in order to use, among other things, the marsh’s peat as fuel. Today, the majority of people, including the Royal family, know Holmegaard and its exclusive products. At Holmegaard, Søgaard ordered a hand-made bottle – and you can see that: no two are alike! Afterwards, the mould was crushed.

A box was lined with velvet. A designer was appointed to make a logo and 1,000 copies of these were embossed on ox leather. Each label is numbered and Søgaard guarantees that only 1,000 units of Egtved Girl’s Brew is bottled and packed. On the bottle there is a small medallion and instead of a bottle top, a champagne cork is used. The bottle is opened with a cork-screw, but if you want more fun then try opening it with a port wine opener.

When the beer is bottled in the distinguished bottle, the bottle is sealed with red lacquer. A little book – the one you are holding – tells the story about Egtved Girl’s Brew and puts it in a historic context with the Egtved girl, with beer brewing of the past and present and it also tells about the creator of it all – the mad brewer Søgaard from Aalborg.