Icelandic Fish Beer Conquers Global Audience

A new beer made with Icelandic capelin roe, or masago, has been a sensation at the recent Seafood Expo Global conference that just wrapped in Barcelona, Spain, reports mbl.is. The beer is produced by Icelandic Asia and brewed by combining masago with the Japanese herb shiso.

The fishy beer was first introduced at the conference last year, featuring masago and arctic thyme. The 2023 iteration saw the arctic thyme was replaced by shiso.

“It was a hit last year and we decided to make a new version of it for this expo and it’s been a hit, too,” said Icelandic Asia Sales Director Agnes Guðmundsdóttir. The illustration on the beer was designed by AI.

by Gunnlaugur Snær Ólafsson/mbl.is

Curious cicerones will are out of luck, however, as the unique brew was made specially for the conference and won’t be hitting the commercial market. However, unusual beer flavours aren’t a new thing for Iceland. There have been attempts to add vegetables, Skyr, sheep’s head or even dung-smoked fin-whale testicles to beers. Skál!