In collaboration with the Roskilde Festival, Jacobsen Brewhouse this year decided to involve the festival’s Facebook followers to vote for which Jacobsen beer should be served at the Festival Food Court. The Food Court serves as the Roskilde Festival food lab serving great food for the festival guests.

Back in February, the festival participants were invited to vote for one of four Jacobsen variants at Roskilde Festival’s Facebook page. The Belgian amber ale won the vote with more than 1,450 likes. The organic beer will be called Jacobsen Food Court Ale.

“We developed four beers at a conceptual level. This means that they were not actually brewed but had a clear description of how they would taste, and they could then then vote for their favorite. A common theme to the four variants was that what they like most beers from Jacobsen, is that they go really well with food. Whilst the four variants were all organic, they were nevertheless very different - in line with the Roskilde spirit,” says diploma brewer Michael Rahbek, production manager at Jacobsen.

“Food Court Ale is an exclusive organic amber ale of the Belgium type for Roskilde Festival 2016 and only 11,000 liters have been brewed. I would call it a fresh thirst quencher with good balance, which offers many possible combinations in both the informal and higher gastronomic universe, but it is especially good with spicy food. It is brewed with five different organic malts, and the taste is sweet with a subtle bitterness, and therefore I think many will like it. In addition, festival participants who usually do not drink beer at dinner will really appreciate it.” says Michael Rahbek. He will serve the first glass Food Court Ale on Wednesday, June 29 at 5 pm at the Jacobsen’s Roskilde bar.

Commercial Manager Lars Orla Mundt at the Roskilde Festival has noticed that the vote was popular among festival participants.

“Generally, beer, as it is with music, generates pointed discussions about what you think is best. Therefore, we saw strong commitment from our audience. Besides a lot of votes, unsolicited, enshrined poems to the different types of beer were posted. So the enthusiasm was outstanding. This type of vote is generally in line with the Roskilde spirit where we give precedence to co-creation and participation. We want our participants to help shape the content of the festival. This also applies to beer,” says Lars Orla Mundt.

User involvement is not new to the Jacobsen Brewhouse and Roskilde Festival. In 2014, Jacobsen developed a Roskilde Festival beer in close cooperation with three seasoned festival fans. 330 festival participants each submitted a motivated application and three customers ended up brewing a beer with Jacobsen’s brew masters. The beer was so popular that it was also sold at last year’s festival.

Voting results from this year, show that two of the four Jacobsen variants won the most votes, and that Jacobsen Food Court Ale had fierce competition from the golden IPA.

Organic Amber Ale: 1,452 votes
Organic Golden Ale: 1,256 votes
Organic Brown Ale: 529 votes
Organic Vienna Stock: 525 votes

About the Jacobsen Brewery

Jacobsen Brewhouse is Carlsberg’s craft brewery and is located in one of Carlsberg’s buildings from 1878. The name, Jacobsen, refers to Carlsberg’s founder J.C. Jacobsen and his son Carl Jacobsen. The brewery is led by brewmaster Morten Ibsen, but Food Court Ale is brewed by Ibsen’s right hand, diploma brewer Michael Rahbek. The brewery’s capacity is 25,000 Hl beer per year, which is now divided into eight permanent varieties, seven seasonal variations and a selection of so-called limited editions. Jacobsen Brewery is located in one of the wing buildings that J.C. Jacobsen built in the period 1847 to 1891. All the buildings are preserved and together make up one of Denmark’s most important industrial monuments.