Omnipollo Konx

Omnipollo is a Swedish brewery founded in 2010 by Karl Grandin, an artist, and Henok Fentie, a brewer. As you’d expect from a brewery set up by creatives, they are world renowned for their innovative and experimental beers, but also for their extravagant psychedelic can artwork. The design for Konx is certainly striking, with the beer’s name in a blocky font angled similarly to the introduction of a Star Wars film. Totally unreadable to my eyesight, I had to look on the back of the can to work out what the beer was called.

Omnipollo is what is known as a ‘gypsy brewer’. They develop their beer recipes at their own premises, but don’t actually have a brewery of their own for production purposes. Instead, they reach out to other established breweries to collaborate with them or use their brewing facilities. This enables them to dabble in many different beer styles from all over the world, without having the headaches involved in maintaining your own brewing equipment. Konx is brewed at a Belgium-based brewery that may be known to AF beer fans and readers of this blog, De Proefbrouwerij. Many brewers choose this Belgian brewery to work their magic on their recipes and produce their AF beers, including luminaries such as Mikkeller, Coast Beer Co, and Beavertown. De Proefbrouwerij’s output do tend to have similar flavour profiles, with grapefruit and passion fruit all pretty evident on the palate when sampling the non-alcoholic beers they brew.

The recipe for Omnipollo Konx apparently took over a year to get right, and it was first made available at the start of 2019. I’ve seen the AF craft beer crowd gush over this on Instagram, so let’s see what all the fuss is about.

The beer pours a pale straw colour with a fair amount of haze, and some slight visible carbonation. The frothy white head initially looks like it might stick around but soon departs. Inhaling, we get a variety of fruits, tropical mango, passion fruit, some lemon citrus, and a touch of pine. There is also a hint of sourness to the aroma.

When we taste the beer the tropical fruits are overtaken by citrus, with grapefruit and lemon being dominant and somewhat tart, tropical passion fruit adding to that. We do get a touch of sweetness in the mix in the form of mango and pineapple, but the flavours certainly swerve into sourness. The body is slightly thin and the carbonation is quite soft, giving a smooth mouthfeel. The finish is short and slightly sour.

This may go to show my slowness to catch up with the craft beer scene, but I don’t see Omnipollo Konx as a beer to get worked up about. This ‘mini pale ale’ (according to the can) offers the flavours and aromas that I’ve come to associate with anything alcohol-free brewed by De Proefbrouwerij, without adding anything else to the mix. It’s certainly a crisp refreshing beer with a huge citrus kick, but I would have to follow it up with something a lot lighter.

Buy Omnipollo Konx

I think you would find it difficult to source Omnipollo Konx in a pub, it’s mainly available from specialist off-licences, or one of the following drinks shops:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	0.3%
Energy	33 kcal
Fat	<0.5g
Carbohydrates	7.7g
Sugar	<0.5g
Protein	<0.5g
Ingredients
Water, Barley Malt, Wheat Malt, Oat Malt, Hops, Yeast
Additional Information
Country of Production	Sweden
Brewer	Omnipollo – https://omnipollo.com/
Gluten Free?	No
Vegan Friendly?	No