Zeunerts
Zeunerts
The history of Zeunerts Bryggeri begins in 1857 in Sollefteå in the northern Swedish region of Ångermanland, when the Sollefteå Bryggeri – initially operating under the name Bayerska ölbryggeriet – opened its doors and thereby laid the foundation for the oldest brewery in Norrland. Two years after the founding, the Bavarian brewmaster Christoffer August Zeunert, born in Bavaria in 1824, was recruited, bringing his southern German artisanal expertise and brewing tradition to the wild north of Sweden while being deeply inspired by the unique natural landscape of Sollefteå. The copper brewing vessels and open fermentation vats that Zeunert introduced, which would define the brewery bearing his name until 2019, became the heart of a production philosophy that united artisanal care and Bavarian precision with Nordic nature-connectedness in an unmistakable way.
After several decades under changing ownership – including Wårby Bryggerier and from 1989 the Spendrups Group, which shut down production in Sollefteå – it was the commitment of a group of local enthusiasts who missed «their» beer and bought back the brewery from Spendrups that led to the re-founding under the traditional name Zeunerts in 1993. The rebirth of the brewery was accompanied by impressive international success: the Zeunerts Original won the gold medal at the prestigious World Beer Cup in 2004 in the lager category, proving that the brewing craft of Norrland can hold its own against the best in the world. Despite this recognition, financial difficulties in the early 2000s led to Kopparbergs Bryggeri AB – a family company owned by brothers Peter and Dan-Anders Bronsman – taking over the brewery and continuing to operate it to this day under the name Zeunerts i Norrland AB.
Today Zeunerts products are produced in Kopparberg, after production in Sollefteå was finally discontinued in 2019 – yet the spirit of Bavarian brewmaster Christoffer August Zeunert, the name and the unmistakably Nordic identity of the brand live on in every beer. The most characterful product in the range, Zeunerts Högakusten, is a classic Swedish lager that with its pleasantly full-bodied, spicy-bitter and lightly malty sweet character captures the unmistakable spirit of Norrland in the bottle and stands as one of the best-known and most beloved regional beers of northern Sweden.