MIKKELLER X LOKALE RØDDER

Mikkeller has joined forces with the potato chips company Lokale Rødder (Local Roots) and created two types of beer chips with organic potatoes from Kiselgården and ingredients from the world of beer. Magnus Sonne from Lokale Rødder explains the inventive process.

Lokale Rødder is a small batch potato chips company founded in 2015 by the two childhood friends Christian Hansen and Magnus Sonne – an inventive historian and a talented chef – when the first one challenged the other to make the world’s best potato chips. LR work with local potatoes from small passionate farmers. For both of the Mikkeller Beer Chip varieties, Swedish hot-pressed rapeseed oil is used for roasting and organic potatoes of the sort Tivoli are used grown by the organic and biodynamic farm Kiselgården. LR kettle cook their potatoes and strive to develop distinctive and no nonsense potato chips.

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Chips Couture

The cooperation between Lokale Rødder and Mikkeller is in so many ways a meaningful project. Our mission was to create a potato chip with a clear reference to the universe of beer and a distinctive character. In the initial talk about the cooperation, we agreed to work with ingredients from the beer world. A dogma, which in the process made us wiser and moved the limit of what potato chips are and have been. From comfort food to chips couture!

The genesis

Yeast & Smoke: The first draft of the beer chip went smoothly and despite the satisfaction of Mikkel and Vibeke, I choose to go back to the kitchen and make a bid where smoke became the supporting element with cocoa and yeast. DONE! A distinctly tasteful chip with a clear note of smoke, pepper and cocoa. 

F.....g lovely hops

Malt, Yeast & Hops: The other variant would turn out to be a little harder to deal with. The task was clear - we wanted to make a chip using the classic elements of beer brewing: malt, yeast and hops. The first challenge was to find the right raw materials. I had previously attempted to tame the uncompromising hops in my kitchen, but without any success.

 Obviously, the main challenge was the violent bitterness, which was extremely difficult to control. After several attempts with extraction, grinding times and drying temperatures, I finally ended up wrapping the bitter devil of a herb in my dehydrator - in my own kitchen - to the great regret of my family. At the expense of the delicate noses of my children and the constant smell of (in my childrens’ opinion) sour toes in the house - the code for a balanced hop flavour was broken.

Like in all Mikkeller’s beers the ingredients were carefully and specifically chosen, so it was no coincidence that the simcoe hops we ended up using were sourced from De Proef Brouwerij in Belgium were the majority of Mikkeller beers are brewed.

The malt was also a challenge. I quickly turned to the sweet part of the malt universe, which naturally ended with spraymalt due to the texture - but what the hell is spraymalt!? I did not know, so I tested everything I could find. After several tests with lots of oil, it worked well and the decision was taken: Dark Spraymalt.

Organic yeast flakes with a deep umami and almost cheesy flavor was the final piece of the puzzle. Together with the strong, floral, organic black pepper and vinegar powder the yeast worked perfectly as a counter to the sweet malt.

 23 mixtures later and the second beer chip Malt, Yeast & Hops became a reality.

If you close your eyes for a moment when you eat the first 7-8 chips, you get the feeling of drinking a beer.

Perhaps the most complex chips that have ever been produced in the world. Malt, Yeast & Hops require a serious audience who like bitterness and relate to the product as a co-player for the very right glass of beer. Mikkeller has that audience and therefore the collaboration is so meaningful and exciting.

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The Mikkeller x Lokale Rødder Beer Chips are available in all bars in Copenhagen and Aarhus from January 13th 2018.

Get them at the Mikkeller Webshop NOW:     {{cta('236c7603-3dec-4e61-8341-a2ed0f8775d7')}}

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