Skeppsgossens remarkable beer in fantastic design!

Skeppsgossen AB started in the restaurant industry in 2009 by opening up a restaurant located in the Naval Museum in Karlskrona. When the decision also included making their own ice cream, they bought ice cream machines and started on a small scale in the restaurant kitchen. It quickly took off and Skeppsgossens Karlskronaglass won gold and bronze in the Swedish Ice Cream Championships 2016 for its lemon sorbet and hazelnut ice cream respectively. When the company expanded, they bought a new property in Karlskrona that was converted into a food production facility.

In addition to ice cream machines, they have their own roastery where they make roasted nuts, chocolate, coffee and their own candy – which they have also become very popular. Thoughts of their own brewery came up, but when Ola Rosengren and his staff lacked experience from the industry, it felt like a good idea to bring in external help. Around Christmas 2014 Skeppsgossen was helped to build the brewery, install and train staff and in May 2015 the brewery was in place, installed and ready for production. For a month, a brewmaster was on site who taught Ola and his staff how to brew beer. After that they have managed themselves and today have 11 beers at Systembolaget locally.

Where to find Skeppsgossen’s beer?

“We have 11 different kinds of beer and they can be found at Systembolagen around Karlskrona. Today, however, we are also represented in Kristianstad, Växjö, Ronneby, Karlshamn, Sölvesborg and now in June we are in Torsås and Olofström. It is of course possible to order our beer from any Systembolag in Sweden”

Says Ola Rosengren

Something that is clearly noticeable with Skeppsgossen’s beer is their incredible illustrations that adorn their labels. The designers create their designer, brewer and taster Ola Holmberg and the illustrations tell a story about Örlogsstaden – Karlskrona. The labels also include internal jokes and anecdotes special to Skeppsgossen, but they remain internal. The business idea was that they would create a brewery with local connections and for one who does not live in Karlskrona, it is difficult to understand the fun elements that can be seen on the labels, but karlskrona residents understand exactly.

The designs are inspired by events that have taken place in the area. On their popular beer Pilimausan there is a cool design of shipyard workers, which used to be called Pilimausan. Pilimausan characterizes the shipyard workers who wanted to create a statue in Karlskrona with an old man standing with a wooden plank on his shoulder, but the yard did not want to. The statue is therefore on the label to symbolize the, not always so willing, shipyard workers.

Klaura is a statue of a fishing lady. Illustrated next to the fish lady is a seagull that also appears on several other labels. The seagull is for real and usually hangs out outside their restaurant at the Naval Museum.

Karl’s Kronabeer label represents King Charles XI who founded Karlskrona. In the illustration he sits on his throne and looks out over the city, hoping that it would become sweden’s capital.

Since Skeppsgossen previously hand-bottled the bottles, they owned an inkjet printer with a cartridge system, but were not entirely satisfied with that solution. When they invested in a new bottling machine, they instead had to try Logimarks Linx 10, which turned out to be a good addition to their production. The machine is a small and flexible inkjet printer designed for production lines running single shifts. Tag settings make staff easy, which facilitates possible changes between the different beers.

In the production, the label is applied first to the bottle, then the bottle is washed and filled with beer, then the dating will be dated and eventually washed outside the bottle again to remove any spillage. Once the bottle has dried, it is packed and ready for delivery. Skeppsgossen’s new Linx 10 inkjet printer has a unique and integrated line speed sensor, which means that production personnel no longer need additional equipment such as encoders to measure speed. Until today’s date, Skeppsgossen has had dating on the cap but they will move the marking to the bottleneck instead, for a more readable result.

Visit Skeppsgossen’s website!