Sudden Death Brewing: Precision brewing

It isn’t easy to be a modern, American craft brewery in a beer landscape dominated by German tradition, but for Lübeck’s own Sudden Death, it’s worth it.

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Robyn Gilmour

Photos:
Sudden Death Brewing

Monday 21 September 2026

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This article is from

Culinary Germany

issue 135

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That beer is expected to be as affordable as bread in Germany is both a blessing and a curse. For breweries that have existed for several centuries, or even multiple decades, size and scale make hitting a democratic price point more achievable than it is for newcomers. Compounding the cost of securing a site and equipment, modern American craft breweries are contending with the price of ingredients that are expensive before import costs. Such a narrow margin for error comes with pressure but, in the case of Sudden Death, so too has it resulted in inimitable precision and efficiency. Nothing goes in a barrel until the recipe has been perfected, newly released hops are given president over experimental varieties. Every part of a Sudden Death beer has a job to do, ensuring the brewery’s oeuvre is one of reliable, high performers, with a reputation to boot.

An esteemed producer of hazy IPAs, Sudden Death took up the mantle of modern American craft in 2017, opening a brewery in Lübeck, 90 minutes drive north-east of Hamburg. Traditional, German breweries are fewer in the north of the country, which perhaps gives other brewing practices some breathing room, and speaking to head brewer Nate Hartill, the relative rarity of dark beer in Germany has proven an opportunity to connect with mainstream drinkers.

“It’s not that dark beer doesn’t exist here, it’s more that when you see a schwartzbier on a menu, you order it, because it’s not as common as other styles,” says Nate, continuing to note that because of this, German drinkers don’t bring so many expectations to dark beer. “I think most people in Germany think of black beer as Irish or English, because of the influence of Guinness and Irish pubs... So, I think generally speaking, people just kind of have this expectation that with dark beer the influence is going to come from an English-speaking country.”

Nate and I are discussing dark beer because, at the time of our conversation, Sudden Death is on the cusp of launching its barrel programme, a long awaited development at the brewery. “We have been working on imperial stouts now for the past like two years, just trying to find a recipe that works, and we finally got one,” says Nate. “We've basically landed on a base beer, and then we just adjust the finishing gravity, depending on what we want to do. So if we're making something more like an imperial pastry style, we’re going for a higher finishing gravity. If we're going for more of a barrel type stout, then we're probably going to be going for a slightly lower finishing gravity. Of the breweries who produce imperial stouts, we definitely go on the extreme end of it, for Germany at least. You know, we’re pushing 40-something plato as the starting gravity, and then finishing pretty high.”

Cracking open consumer expectations of beer is a key step to introducing ingredients from other countries. Germany produces grain and hops in abundance, making them economical to source and use domestically, but Nate notes the barley that Germany grows, and the process for malting it, is different than that used in, say, the UK. “We primarily use German malt because we're in Germany – it would be absolutely stupid if we didn't,” Nate begins. “The malt is super high quality here, so we're really really happy that we get to use some good stuff. We also use some British malt as well too, because we're primarily IPA focused. Yeah, you know, I think when it comes to extra pale ale type malt and oat malt, the British stuff is the best.”

Because the operation is so small, we're really staying focused on what we're doing now and trying not to take too many detours along the way

It’s a tonic to hear a craft brewery reference the malt it imports, before the hops it uses – perhaps that’s the true sign we’re talking about Germany – though we do get there eventually. Nate says that Sudden Death is intentionally trying to diversify the hops it sources these days, partially due to the political climate, and partially because, as a hazy IPA brewery, variety makes for a better drinking experience. “We’re an IPA focused brewery, so the hops we use are primarily North American, but we’ve definitely started taking on more New Zealand,” says Nate.

“They offer such different profiles; I find New Zealand hops are often a lot more fruity, whereas with North American hops, even if they're fruity and they have different fruit flavours, they still always kind of have that pine, citrus character because of the terroir. Sometimes you do get that with New Zealand hops, but you get it a lot less, I would say. So, when we talk about diversifying, I think it's also important for the kind of hazy that we do, that we're working with a mix of the two.”

I ask Nate if Sudden Death are ever invited to test out experimental hop varieties, but he says he actually avoids this where he can. “Right now, we’re really focused on dialling in,” he begins. “We want everything to be working together, and making sense, from production to events, to sales and all the rest. It's not that I’m not interested in the experimental stuff, but right now, because the operation is so small, we’re really staying focused on what we’re doing now and trying not to take too many detours along the way.”

Well, it’s working.

Explore Hamburg city guide only an hour away from the brewery.

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