As creators of inflight menus will know, food and drink rarely taste the same in the air. At cruising altitude, cabin pressure and low humidity mutes some flavours while amplifying others. Beer also tastes different at 35,000ft – a curiosity noted by Danish home brewer Mikkel Bjergsø while flying with SAS in the late Noughties. “I remember thinking how cool it would be to have one of our beers on board,” says founder and CEO of Mikkeller, Mikkel Bjergsø.
Fast forward to 2026, and 14 years into a unique collaboration, SAS and Mikkeller have staged the world’s highest beer tasting, produced the exclusive Wing Pin Series of barrel-aged beers, set five world records and created 24 bespoke brews for travellers, from the crisp Scandinavian ‘Sky-High Witbier’ and citrussy ‘Plane Ale,’ to a succession of IPAs.
A maths and physics teacher with a taste for craft ale, Bjergsø and his friend Kristian Keller had begun experimenting with hops, yeast and malt in 2003, in Bjergsø’s Copenhagen kitchen. When Bjergsø sold his first home-brewed beers in 2006, the craft beer revolution was still in its infancy in Europe. “Denmark was involved from the very beginning so Copenhagen was the right place to be,” he says.
Following national successes, including a healthy medal haul in the home-brewing category at the Danish Beer Festival, Bjergsø knew he was onto something. In 2009, and by then brewing solo, Bjergsø decided to swap teaching for full-time brewing.
What started as a hobby has grown into an internationally renowned craft brewery empire, with bars and restaurants stretching from Kyoto and Beijing to Beirut and London – where drinkers can order a ‘Declan Rice And Lime Lager,’ or ‘Whatever the Weater,’ at the Mikkeller Brewpub in Exmouth Market – and a ground-breaking partnership with the Danish flag carrier that resulted in the first craft beer created for an airline.
Getting onboard
Bjergsø had no connection with SAS, but Mikkeller had unwittingly created a CV. In 2014, as the airline’s head chef and meal-planning manager refreshed its food and beverage offer as part of a wider Nordic push to showcase home-grown producers, he approached Bjergsø. A fan of Mikkeller, he asked whether the brewery could create something for its passengers. A lifelong passenger on SAS (“We’re very proud of it in Denmark”) the answer from Bjergso was “yes,” but first he had a problem to solve.
He was familiar with the airline’s lager, but the taste profile was all wrong, and Bjergsø needed to understand why. The brewery’s approach was unconventional. During a flight to the United States Bjergsø carried out an in-flight tasting of around 30 different beers. “There we were taking all these beers on board despite liquid restrictions. Passengers had no idea what was going on!”
During the tasting some flavours stood out and others faded. “I’d always wondered why tomato juice is so popular on flights,” he says. “In the air every second person seems to order it.”
While hops are central to many craft beers, flavour also comes from other ingredients including malt and yeast, all of which act differently in the low-humidity environment on board. Pioneering uniquely crafted beers for high altitude wasn’t going to be a quick fix.
“We didn’t nail it the first time,” says Bjergsø. “A pale ale is generally defined by its hoppiness and bitterness, but I had to dial the bitterness down because it became overpowering in the cabin environment. We had to get the balance right.”
Recipes were adapted until the flavours worked at altitude, a process Bjergsø describes as challenging, but fun. “Whatever style of beer you want you can make it work.”
Designer touches
The cans are designed by American illustrator Keith Shore and the result of another serendipitous partnership. The artist’s playful style caught Bjergsø’s eye and Shore’s distinctive characters have become synonymous with Mikkeller.
Labels used in the SAS collaboration are bespoke. “The designer takes our input on board and then designs it,” says Ronald Erling, F&B manager at SAS, adding: “The whole graphic profile makes you happy.”
Pre-Covid, for business-class passengers travelling on a new flight from Copenhagen to Hong Kong, Mikkeller created a one-off sour beer spontaneously fermented (no yeast or bacteria is added) with lychee. “It worked really well,” says Bjergsø.
The collaboration’s mission: to elevate the passenger experience through world-class craft beer, has been a huge success, yet neither party is standing still. More recent releases in the Mikkeller/SAS beer line-up include the organic ‘Scandinavian Clouds IPA’ and, in line with the demand for no and low-alcohol beer, ‘Drink’in the Sun,’ a non-alcoholic pale ale (0.3% AVB) with tropical fruit and pine hop notes created for the partnership’s tenth anniversary.
Non-alcoholic and low-ABV beers has been a focus for Mikkeller since 2012. “As long as people enjoy them, I don’t care if the beer contains alcohol or not,” says Bjergsø. For SAS, the priority is finding no-alcohol selections that complement the food offering. “We always consider drinks as part of the broader dining experience,” says Erling.
Erling is excited about the possibility of more exclusive offerings on board, made possible by developments in sleeve design. “Labels no longer have to printed directly onto the can,” he says. “Moving forward we hope to be able to offer our customers more choice in terms of smaller volumes and unique batches of beer.”
What should passengers order on board, with their Mikkeller IPA? “Our open-faced sandwiches are a good example of something that works well with a Mikkeller beer,” says Erling. “But I also enjoy it with a Smashburger or the Scandinavian meatballs served with mash and gravy.”
There is great strength in the SAS/Mikkeller connection, according to Erling, who says Mikkeller is not only one of its oldest partnerships, but one of the most loved. “Our current strategy is moving us in the direction of becoming a premium airline, and Mikkeller is a good example of how we can deliver on that ambition.”
The feeling, it seems, is mutual. Next time you’re in Copenhagen, pop into Mikkeller HQ on Skelbækgade and you might spot an exhibition shelf dedicated to the SAS/Mikkeller beer partnership.
