Totally Stockholm 1
When did you feel for the first time that you wer
e a real company? That was probably when we got the keys to our first office, that moment was something special. Also when we hired our first employee, Magnus Björnstjerna, whose first task was to find that office. To go to work, sit there with a laptop that the company had paid for, not me personally. That was a milestone. If we are talking more milestones, what other moments would you say, retrospectively, have been extra important during this journey? Omnipollos Hatt was one, our first physical manifestation. It’s funny you mention the physical location, considering that up until now you haven’t had your own brewery. Yeah, that’s correct. When we were talking about what to call this church Kalle mentioned exactly that, that Omnipollo’s isn’t a place, and I agree with him. The name is instead Omnipollo’s Hypnagoga. You built a church to honour Omnipollo. Exactly. It has also always been more important to spread our idea than to sell as much beer as possible. It feels more forward-looking and motivating. Is there a ceiling for your development? That is a very interesting question. I have been studying market economy and there is a sort of set belief within that field, that either you have to grow, or otherwise you shrink. Someone should mythbust that idea, I don’t believe it’s correct. There was outcry in the beer world when Beavertown took in Heineken as part-owner. Do you see any danger in growing too big? In a way I feel that we are pretty big already, I mean we have just bought a church. I think the most important thing is the culture within the company, that we don’t waver from our principles and values. The most important thing when letting an external financier in, is that they are involved in the correct areas, like financing for example, certainly not the developing of beer products. If Omnipollo became like a band hiring a new lead singer I would have difficulties continuing in that band. Have you ever thought about throwing in the towel? I have been completely obsessed with this from day one, so that hasn’t happened yet. Of course it has been tough from time to time, but to me, this is the dream job. Apart from buying a church in Sundbyberg Omnipollo has gone into the final phases of the opening of a bar in Tokyo’s financial district. 14 Yeah, I could take the opportunity to advertise that. It’s here this spring which is why I’m sharing my time between three continents at the moment. The bar is located in an old eel-restaurant in an older part of Tokyo, just around the corner from the hotel K5, who have also become our partner on-location. The door knob is still in the shape of an eel. A lot has been said about your design, not least in the last interview we did with you. How important would you say the design is in your success? It’s extremely important of course. I come from a beer nerd background, and the constant problem we struggle with is always how to take craft beer from being a niche product into something bigger. The symbol for success I had in my mind initially was that the beer should be served at Riche on Stureplan, that was also a milestone of course, it only took a couple of months. But that transformation was completely design-driven. Incredibly good milestone, to get into Riche! Yes! But that was also something very concrete. I still remember the time I came into Riche and saw our beers in people’s hands. It was the first time I felt that ‘this is really happening’. What other factors do you see in your success, what key things make you unique? We have always been extremely careful about the quality of everything that we do. Everything we release has to be of the highest quality. That has gotten us onto the top beer lists of the beer nerd community, which is very important. The quality of the beer has to live up to the design, the day it doesn’t, you’re smoked. Ten years of Omnipollo 2011 – Henok Fentie and Karl Grandin found the beer brand Omnipollo. The first beer is Leon, brewed at the Belgian brewery De Proefbrouwerij. 2012 – The company is registered in Sweden and during the same year Omnipollo’s Nebuchadnezzar beer wins “Beer Of The Year” at Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival. 2013 – Leon is now sold at Systembolaget. Omnipollo also releases the book Brygg öl [Brew Beer] through the publisher Natur & Kultur. 2014 – Omnipollo participates in Nöjesguiden’s first beer festival. 2015 – The first bar, Omnipollo’s Hatt, sees the light of day at Södermalm in Stockholm. 2016 – Henok and his brother Sam Fentie open up the ice cream parlour King Scoopa in Hornstull. 2017 – The politically-charged beer Yellow Belly, an Imperial Stout with cookies and peanut butter flavour, dressed in a Ku Klux Klan hood, is launched. The beer is a collaboration between Omnipollo and Buxton Brewery. 2018 – Omnipollo is ranked as one of the world’s ten best beer producers by respected website Ratebeer site. 2019 – Germany gets their first Omnipollo bar in Hamburg. At home in Sweden, Omnipollo’s Flora opens up in Humlegården. 2020 – Omnipollo open their first brewery, in what was already Sundbyberg’s beer church. Henok Fentie 39 years of age After his graduation from the London School of Economics, Henok, among other things, worked with establishing Bishop Arms in Sweden. His home brewing first gathered pace when he moved to Belgium. Karl on Henok: “In Henok, sharp-sightedness, artisanship and burning enthusiasm is mixed and held together by a true love for people. He is never afraid to try something new – whatever someone else has already tried already exists, and Henok would rather throw himself into the unknown.” Karl Grandin 43 years of age The artist Karl Grandin was one of the founders of Cheap Monday and the Pizzahatt restaurant in Vasastan. To this day Karl still designs all the labels for Omnipollo’s products. Henok on Karl: “Karl Grandin is the Andy Warhol of our time. Collect whatever he makes because one day it will be worth a lot of money.”