EP-259 Ehren Schmidt of Mikkeller Baghaven

I’m Jonny Garrett, and you’re listening to the Good Beer Hunting podcast.

Listeners in California may remember a brewery called Toolbox Brewing, which for a brief period around 2015 and 2016 was making waves with some delicious, mixed-fermentation beers. Sadly the brewery closed in 2018, about a year after the departure of its head brewer, Ehren Schmidt, who is my guest today.

Schmidt gained plenty of critical acclaim for the beers he was making at Toolbox, but in 2017, he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. That job offer came from Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, founder and owner of Mikkeller, who wanted him to move to Copenhagen to help him start a wild brewery arm of his global cuckoo brewing empire.

We talk a bit about his decision to move halfway around the world, and it’s clear that that risky choice has paid off. Schmidt has complete creative freedom at Mikkeller Baghaven, and has used it to build a brewery that takes a scientific approach to deeply traditional brewing. The medieval lettering and cork-and-cage presentation belie the hands-on way that Schmidt goes about sourcing his yeasts and nurturing the fermentations in barrels and foeders.

We recorded in his office between the Saturday sessions of the first-ever Mikkeller Baghaven Wild Ale Celebration, an exclusively wild- and mixed-fermentation festival where the participating breweries were handpicked by Schmidt. Given his history, the roster featured a predictably heavy U.S. focus, but some exciting European and South American breweries were also represented. Most of our conversation is spent musing on the level of understanding in the wild brewing community about the concept of terroir in beer, and how it isn’t just the ingredients, or even the place, that dictate it. It’s the people—their stories, tastes, and biases.

This is Ehren Schmidt of Mikkeller Baghaven. Listen in.