MURI

MURI is a Copenhagen beverage house founded by Murray Paterson. The company traces its beginnings to 2020, when it rented a small walk-in fridge at a mushroom farm outside the city to develop its drinks. The team built two small fermentation rooms and a bottle filler assembled from plumbing parts. MURI developed Passing Clouds after a year of development and hundreds of failed experiments.^[1],[2]

Paterson's work at Empirical Spirits shaped the approach. In a 2023 interview, he described layering different fermentations to build complexity, then considering how the same approach could work in non-alcoholic drinks. In a March 2025 interview, he recalled that MURI was initially conceived as an alcoholic drink, but that the freedom to experiment in the low- and no-alcohol category drew him in that direction.^{[1],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7]}

The early business grew within Copenhagen's fermentation community. In June 2021, MURI announced that it had moved into a building shared with Nordhavn Eddikebryggeri, which used MURI's spent fruit to make vinegars and gastriques. A later example of reuse belongs specifically to the ESSE × MURI restaurant collaboration: in May 2026, MURI described tying labels onto those bottles at the restaurant so that both bottles and delivery boxes could be collected and reused.^{[8],[9],[10],[11]}

MURI has also used its tasting room for experiments that connect the drink and the dish. Its account of a three-evening dinner series describes cooking on a yakitori grill outside the room and serving a vermouth with house-made fermented tonic, a sparkling blend fat-washed with wild rose butter, and carbonic raspberry cocktails. One blend made from onions, carrots and peas accompanied a dish made from the same ingredients.^[12]

Murray Paterson — founder. Before founding MURI, Paterson worked in the cider industry and moved to Copenhagen to train as a distiller at Empirical Spirits. In his August 2023 Dry Atlas interview, he described an earlier career in political analysis at J.P. Morgan, followed by cider work ranging from apple picking to importing. MURI credits his interest in music and clubs as an influence on the names of its blends.^{[1],[13],[14]}

Production and operations. MURI describes a kitchen approach to making drinks, drawing on the team's experience as chefs and distillers. Its team page, checked in September 2026, lists Diego Paniagua in operations and Alejandro in research, development and production. Diego is a chef from Costa Rica who trained at the Basque Culinary Center.^{[13],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20]}

Earlier contributors. In an October 2023 interview, Paterson credited Ioakeim Goulidis, who had worked in Noma's fermentation lab, with developing the drinks together with him. Goulidis was a MURI team member and had left the company by July 2026. The same interview described Yuki as a former head brewer at Empirical and Paulina as the forager gathering botanicals around Copenhagen. In May 2024, MURI named Maebh as responsible for production and blending. These accounts describe the team at those earlier dates.^[6],[17]

The drinks are designed for the dinner table. MURI describes its approach as balancing acidity with sweetness and tannin with texture so the blends pair with food, and it bottles in standard 0.75-litre wine bottles to signal the wine occasion intuitively and to encourage drinking them as an aperitif and especially with food. Acidity is built through ingredients and fermentation rather than added acid powders; MURI holds that how acidity is developed matters as much as how much of it there is.^{[5],[10],[21],[22],[23],[24]}

Copenhagen's gastronomic community and its fermentation expertise are repeatedly cited as MURI's frame of reference, alongside Nordic gastronomy. Production runs like a kitchen rather than a brewery, and the company applies gastronomic and culinary techniques learned from leading restaurants and distilleries. Everything is made in-house, which MURI says is unusual for its category and which allows unusual techniques, consistent flavour quality, and the freedom to pick and dry herbs in the oven, smoke ingredients and test many recipe ideas.^[25],[26]

MURI's stated internal benchmark in R&D is a 'what the fuck moment' — a sense of surprise, moreishness and dynamic layered flavour. Music is a further reference point: the company names many of its drinks after records from the club scene.^[14],[27]

Two techniques are notable by their absence. MURI does not make kombucha, because acetic acid can taste rough and the team dislikes volatile acidity in natural wines. It pickles with vinegar for staff lunch but has historically avoided using vinegar in its beverages.^[28]

MURI organises its products into a signature range and a Test Kitchen range. The singles lineup has been listed as seven products — Passing Clouds, Fade To Black, MURI x The Four Horsemen, Yamilé, Sherbet Daydream, Uzume and Koji Rice Series 1 — and elsewhere as Passing Clouds, Koji Rice Series 1, Koji Rice Series 2, Fade to Black, Sherbet Daydream, Yamilé, Four Horsemen and Uzume. A March 2025 podcast put the current range at six drinks, and a July 2024 feature described a portfolio of six. An Experimental Set gathers Koji Rice Series 1, Uzume and Koji Rice Series 2.^{[3],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33]}

The range grew from a small base. As of March 2022 MURI had launched three non-alcoholic cuvées with a fourth planned for April 2022, and by mid-2022 three blends were in market: Passing Clouds, Nuala and Yamilé. In the three years following the launch of Passing Clouds, MURI created a total of eight blends. Its focus has been described as tea- and berry-based sparkling non-alcoholic beverages.^[2],[4]

Test Kitchen. Test Kitchen is a limited-edition line developed in MURI's Test Kitchen facility, allowing the team to make things that are not possible at larger production volumes. Releases are strictly limited and each label is hand-written by the team. The first Test Kitchen blend sold out in an afternoon before it could be made public. New Forms, a bitter red aperitivo made from fermented Danish cherries, was released as part of the series.^[34],[35]

Koji Rice Series. The Koji Rice Series is a limited-edition series showcasing the complexity of koji fermentation, conceived as three expressions that are completely different in style from one another and from anything else MURI has made. Amazake — 'sweet sake' — was the main inspiration for its development, and the series takes inspiration from sake in its production process. Koji fermentation has been used in Koji Rice Series 1 and Koji Rice Series 2, with Koji Rice Series 3 planned for the following year.^[36],[37]

Low- and non-alcoholic fermentation. MURI ferments without producing more than trace amounts of alcohol by using yeast cultures that do not create alcohol, combined with carefully limited sugar levels, fermentation time and temperature. A June 2021 account describes a trio of layered techniques — the low-alcohol yeast Pichia kluyveri for tropical notes, water kefir grains for sweetness and balance, kvass for mouthfeel and depth, and a kombucha SCOBY for acidity — with ABV held below 0.5% by managing sugar and fermentation times and by using a wine yeast that does not survive above 3% ABV. Teas and fruit juices also act as dilution agents to bring the final ABV under 0.5%. MURI uses a wine yeast that produces sauvignon blanc-style flavours without producing alcohol, and deploys its ferments for specific purposes: a wine yeast fermentation for high acidity, kvass for mid-level acidity, and kefir or kombucha for body and sweetness. An October 2023 account describes the two main components as a highly acidic element made by inoculating a sour fruit such as gooseberry with a wine yeast, and a water kefir component providing body and sweetness. Cultivated yeasts, kefir grains and sourdough starter form the working repertoire.^[38],[39]

Kvass. MURI's kvass is a bread beer-style ferment made by steeping grain in hot water without boiling and inoculating it with a sourdough starter, which produces minimal alcohol; accounts specify roasted malt or caramel malt, brewed almost like a beer but not boiled, to achieve bready notes. Sea salt is added to the kvass to enhance flavour. Passing Clouds carries a geranium kvass developed in pursuit of the brioche flavour common in champagne, and Fade to Black uses a malt kvass — described elsewhere as a pine kvass — that gives the blend a warm earthiness.^[6],[40]

Koji and amazake. MURI grows koji mould (Aspergillus oryzae) on cooked rice to produce sake-like components that are then blended, using a humidity tent for the koji nursery. Its amazake is made by steam-cooking rice, mixing it with koji spores, blending with plain cooked rice and water, then fermenting with wine yeast for four days; the koji stage runs three days, converting starches to sugars and releasing umami compounds. MURI values koji for its sweet, umami complexity and aromatics. The same amazake base underpins the Koji Rice Series: Koji Rice Series 1 grows koji on steamed rice before fermenting the liquid with a cultivated yeast, and Koji Rice Series 2 inoculates steamed jasmine rice with koji spores and ferments it for three days. Koji amazake also appears in MURI × ESSE: The Middle.^[3],[37]

Smoking. MURI operates its own smokery within the blendery, cold smoking fruits and botanicals over beechwood to add depth and texture — a technique the company describes as making ingredients into more interesting and mysterious versions of themselves. Applications include beechwood-smoked vanilla in Uzume, smoked lavender for the kefir in Koji Rice Series 1, salted and lacto-fermented rhubarb cold smoked over beechwood in Yamilé, and smoked malts among the blond, spelt and chocolate malts in Bæleys.^[41],[42]

Fat-washing and enfleurage. MURI's fat-washing involves adding fat to the blend in liquid form, then chilling it so it solidifies and can be strained off, leaving an aromatic liquid; it is a technique the company says it can only use on a tiny scale. MURI has stated it previously used fat-washing for a blend created approximately two years before 2025 in collaboration with Restaurant Kadeau, and that a special edition containing wild rose butter took roughly three days to clean the brewery afterwards. Paradis extends the method with enfleurage: wild rose and blackened bergamot are pressed into softened butter over several days before the butter is used to fat-wash the blend. MURI × ESSE: The Beginning is fat-washed with wild rose petal butter, and MURI × ESSE: The Middle with a browned butter and kombu fat wash.^[43]

Ice clarification and cryo techniques. Ice clarification and cryo-filtration are among MURI's borrowed culinary techniques. MURI x The Four Horsemen uses ice-clarified tomato water — described in a January 2025 podcast as cryo-filtered tomato water — and Uzume contains an ice-clarified tomato wine that adds savoury complexity. MURI also lists cryo concentration among the techniques it uses to develop flavour.^{[22],[27],[41],[44],[45]}

Blanching and blackening. MURI blanches spice to strip harshness, in the manner used for garlic purée: the pink peppercorns in one of its sparkling rosés are blanched from cold seven times, as are the green peppercorns infused through MURI x The Four Horsemen. Separately, MURI applies a blackening process to fruit to increase umami complexity — Paradis blackens bergamot through enzymatic browning, a process similar to how black garlic is made, MURI × ESSE: The Finale blackens some plums and stones at low temperature over weeks, and Bæleys is sweetened with a lacto-fermented blackened honey.^[27],[46]

Tea, infusion and extraction. MURI works with several teas, valued both for flavour and for complex molecules such as polyphenols and theaflavins that add structure and length. Cold brewing is a standing technique — cold-brewed jasmine tea is a recurring blending component, and MURI builds non-alcoholic aperitifs by combining fermented fruits, juices and kefir with cold-brewed tea. Green shiso infusion is another named component. The team also extracts from pear skins, beetroot skins and fennel stems to create tannin-like texture, earthiness and brightness, and makes simple syrups from pine tree buds. An August 2021 report noted oak barrels in production.^[47],[48]

Berry & fruit bases. MURI works with Nordic white, red and black currants alongside gooseberries as its local berry ingredients, valuing their balance of citric and malic acids for mouthwatering brightness. Ingredients are either foraged by the team or sourced from local farmers, and they change through the year, requiring the blend to be tweaked each time.^[5],[49]

• Berries — from a family farm in Jutland run by a farmer named Niels
• Quince — from a farm on the island of Møn, roughly an hour south of Copenhagen, run by a small-scale farmer named Eva; MURI has also named Kysø Øko farm south of Copenhagen, run by Susanna and her husband, as a quince source. MURI crushes its own quince
• Muscat and heritage pumpkins — heritage pumpkins from Brinkholm farm south of Copenhagen, grown by Niko the Gardener
• Apricots — caramelised in-house
• Danish cherries — fermented for New Forms

Rhubarb. MURI sources rhubarb from an organic Danish farm run by grower Michael Balle, who has worked with rhubarb for nearly three decades and harvests only once a year, allowing the crop to mature so the flavour concentrates; a second harvest was found to weaken the plants the following year. The variety is Svendborg Vinrabarber, an old Danish variety originating from Funen, which thrives in cooler northern European conditions and develops bright acidity without becoming overly sharp. Rhubarb contributes malic acid, giving a green, juicy tartness similar to apples or wine grapes, and oxalic acid, contributing brightness and a zesty edge. The farm is organic, returning chicken manure to the fields and composting rhubarb leaves back into the soil; new plants are set in the field by hand one by one, a process repeated 27,000 times in one field alone, and after planting the rhubarb is left untouched for almost three years before first harvest, with mature plants producing for around nine good years. After harvest the rhubarb is cold-pressed without heating, freezing or enzymes to preserve the ingredient as directly as possible. MURI both ferments and smokes this rhubarb.^[50]

Experimental and forward-looking ingredients. MURI has trialled ingredients beyond its established palette. In an August 2023 interview the company described experimenting with insects, including ants for acidity. A blend made with pickled magnolia flowers and Mirabelle flowers was prepared for release in summer 2023, inspired by Asian cuisine, where young magnolia flowers are pickled to season teas and dishes. An August 2021 report noted a rosé in development based on raspberry mead flavoured with sugar kelp, elderflower and roses.^{[1],[51],[52]}

Production standards. All MURI blends are small batch and produced entirely in-house, from fermenting and smoking fruit through to bottling and shipping, with nothing outsourced. All ingredients are organic except herbs and fruits foraged from nature. MURI describes its products as 'clean label' — no sulphites, preservatives, additives, concentrates or sorbates. All bottles are pasteurized, which MURI states makes them safe for pregnant individuals, and all bottles from Summer 2025 onward carry a three-year shelf life when stored in a cool, dry place. All MURI singles are alcohol-free and vegan, with the exception of Uzume and Yamilé, which are not suitable for vegans.^{[30],[49],[52],[53],[54],[55],[56]}

MURI builds acidity and structure through multiple controlled fermentations and carefully selected ingredients, aiming for drinks with the same complexity, acidity and structure as wine but with surprising flavour combinations rather than imitation. Blends are bottled in wine bottles to encourage service as an aperitif and, especially, with food.^[10],[57]

MURI blends are also used as cocktail components. A drink called 'Banana Split' was built from homemade banana spirit, cold brew coffee, MURI Koji Rice Series 1 and MURI Passing Clouds; a 'Strawberry Daydream' combined fresh strawberry juice, simple syrup and Sherbet Daydream. MURI features in two cocktails at POPL, Noma's burger restaurant — one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic.^[58],[59]

The Four Horsemen. MURI x The Four Horsemen was made with The Four Horsemen, a Brooklyn wine bar and restaurant that has won a James Beard Award. It was developed with the restaurant's beverage director Justin Chearno, and Murray Paterson visited the New York restaurant with Chearno during development. The still red features cryo-filtered tomato water and lacto-fermented beetroot, and the result is a limited-edition glou-glou-inspired red wine alternative.^[60],[61]

Anne-Sophie Pic. Uzume was created with chef Anne-Sophie Pic, described by MURI as the world's most decorated female chef, holding 12 Michelin stars across her restaurants, and developed together with her Chief Executive Sommelier, Paz Levinson.^[62],[63]

Restaurant Koan. MURI has developed a Koji Rice Series 2 as a special edition for Koan, a two-Michelin-star Korean-Danish restaurant in Copenhagen; a January 2025 podcast noted release was planned for around Easter.^[27]

Restaurant Odette. Paradis was created as a collaboration with 3-Michelin-star Restaurant Odette in Singapore, developed for the restaurant's month-long pop-up at Tivoli in Copenhagen in September 2025.^[43]

Empirical. MURI collaborated with Empirical on two exclusive cocktails combining MURI's ferments with Empirical's distillates and foraged ingredients.^[64]

Weingut Jaunegg. As of a January 2025 podcast, MURI was planning a collaboration with the Austrian winery Weingut Jaunegg, which has a vineyard called Murray, to create a terroir-driven exploration of a one-kilometre by one-kilometre area featuring peach trees, apricots, flowers and vines.^[27]

Bruno and Arete Cooking. MURI curated the drinks for a one-night collaboration dinner with Arete Cooking at Bruno.^[65]

Muri Nuala 2021 was selected as Viinilehti's best non-alcoholic beverage of 2023, praised for its berry-fresh and aromatic flavour profile. Fade to Black was awarded 'The Best Red Wine Alternative 2024'.