Seasonal Beer Flavoured With Dung-Smoked Fin Whale Testes

The brewery Steðji by Borgarfjörður uses dung-smoked fin-whale testes to add flavour to its seasonal beer Hvalur 2—Whale 2. This was reported by Vísir.

The occasion for the delicatessen variety is the mid-Winter old Icelandic month Þorri, which starts late January. Since the 1960s, Þorri has become the time of year when locals celebrate pre-20th century cuisine by consuming foods preserved through pre-industrial methods, i.e. sour food, salted and smoked.

Interviewed by Dagbjartur Arilíusson, one of the brewery’s owners said: “We want to create a veritable Þorri-mood and thereby decided to use dung-smoked fin-whale testicles to enrich the beer.”

Dagbjartur says that the testes are processed according to local tradition, salted lightly and then dung-smoked. Each brew contains one testis, he said, adding that the brewery “put in a lot of effort and the process was extensive”.

For last year’s Þorri, the brewery marketed a beer variety made partly from whale meal. The beer sold out in a week. Since then a health surveillance’ ruling has been validated, prohibiting beer production from whale meal. Dagbjartur says that the brewery has, in contrast, gathered all necessary licenses for the upcoming testes-flavored variety.