Villbrygg

Villbrygg crafts sparkling botanical brews using Nordic wild plants and herbs sourced from organic and biodynamic agriculture.^[2] Villbrygg begins planning ingredient sourcing in the depths of winter, sometimes up to a year and a half before production.^[4] Villbrygg harvests, cleans, dries, and stores plants in a dark cool place, then reviews gathered materials each autumn to determine production quantities and available flavor combinations.^[4] Each new Villbrygg recipe is preceded by hundreds of experiments to find the right balance of flavors and combination of herbs and ingredients.^[4] Villbrygg drinks are made by steeping herbs, berries, and wild plants at different durations and temperatures to achieve the desired taste.^[4] In Villbrygg's production process, high heat brings out more bitterness while lower temperatures yield more delicate floral notes.^[4] After steeping, Villbrygg adds raw organic sugar and lactic acid bacteria to initiate fermentation, which transforms sugar into organic acids and complex flavors that also act as a natural preservative.^[4] After fermentation, Villbrygg pasteurizes the drink, adds carbonation, and bottles it in glass bottles.^[4] Villbrygg previously ran its own urban cultivation project called Samlepunkt.^[5] Villbrygg develops drink recipes based on the availability of raw materials, with product recipes evolving as the quantity and variety of obtainable ingredients change.^[5] When Villbrygg runs out of certain ingredients, production of the drink requiring them must pause until the next harvest season.^[5] Villbrygg has a portfolio of six different flavors that change throughout the year, along with limited editions based on available raw materials.^[5] Villbrygg uses the winter season for product development and mapping out ingredients.^[6] Villbrygg imports herbs for its canned drinks because the growing season in Norway is too short to produce year-round from local sources.^[7] Villbrygg uses fermentation and infusion techniques to extract flavors from wild plants and herbs sourced from local farmers, gatherers, and urban gardens in Norway.^[8] Villbrygg's Sparkling Botanicals range is made from organic herbs, berries, and fruit with no added sugar and no artificial additives.^[8] Villbrygg uses only real ingredients, either organic or foraged, with no artificial additives or preservatives.^[2] Villbrygg uses Nordic wild botanicals with exotic-seeming flavours — such as pineapple weed (tunbalderbrå), meadowsweet (mjødurt), and spruce shoots — as ingredients in their botanical beverages.^[3] Villbrygg plans crops with farmers, organizes foraging groups, and collaborates with urban gardens to increase access to organic and wild herbs.^[4] Villbrygg sources all Norwegian ingredients by collecting them wild from Norwegian forests or harvesting them from farmer fields during a short window from May to September each year.^[6] Many of the ingredients Villbrygg uses are considered weeds and grow in abundance, minimising negative impact on the food system.^[7]