Omnipollo

There have been no boundaries to the endeavour undertaken by Omnipollo; that is to say, they have created, collaborated, and contracted in all corners of the world, to make beer that’s local, globally. “We're in constant transition,” says co-founder Karl Grandin, “but I think when we started out in 2010, we were most enticed by the knowledge that there were pockets of like-minded people around the globe. Our first motivation was to connect with, and serve those people, and so for us to be in 50 countries at once, right from the outset, our vehicle to getting there had to be contract brewing. Not only would working this way get us closest to the end consumer, but we could scale up, scale down, and take risks in a way that was totally free.”

Omnipollo has changed our industry single-handedly, though Karl and co-founder Henok Fentie would no doubt argue that it took many hands to build a brand that transcends nationality, and erases the border between beer and graphic design. Though I had a vague sense of it before speaking with Karl and Henok, I leave our conversation with the powerful impression that Omnipollo is a shimmering, amorphous entity that, above all else, champions the playfulness, creativity, and complexity that’s common to all people. 

Bizarrely, Henok came to craft beer by accident, when he was hired by a brewpub chain in Sweden straight out of university. He’d studied in the UK, and so while he’d enjoyed traditional ales there, his perception of beer expanded once he was surrounded by styles from the UK, US, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, and beyond. “That was when I realised the challenge for brewers everywhere is the same,” says Henok, “and that’s how to get people to appreciate better beer.” 

He started homebrewing, then later progressed to work at a brewery in Belgium, all the while wondering “what if we released something into the world that changed how people think about beer? It would have to be more than good beer, there was already good beer out there. To make beer that did things differently, there would need to be an element of storytelling involved, and for packaging to be more approachable. At the beginning, I wasn’t thinking about the physical package, or the artwork – we hadn’t figured that out yet – I was more like, ‘Okay, how do we move this craft beer phenomenon from specialised beer bars into other areas of nightlife, like nightclubs, and bars and restaurants where a quality experience is important, but craft beer doesn’t feature?’”