Nordic Food Lab And Carlsberg Team Up For 3 Brews

Perhaps this is the ultimate sign of beer going highbrow; the Wall Street Journal reports that Carlsberg is teaming up with the Nordic Food Lab (affiliated with world's second best restaurant Noma) to develop three new beers for the company's upscale brand Jacobsen.

The partnership, which begins June 1, will focus on creating beers meant to accompany a meal, like fine wine. According to Jacobsen master brewer Morten Ibse, beers might involve woodruff, seaweed, cucumber, or bee larvae, some of the food products that the Nordic Food Lab has been toying with.

It also makes sense that beers are getting the time of day in high-concept restaurants as diners might shy away from the increasingly alcoholic wines and cocktails. For Carlsberg, beers that are considered premium or "super-premium," WSJ reports, account for 18.4 percent of the global beer market while taking 32.2 percent of the value. 

Does this mean we can expect a Noma-branded beer in the future? Potentially, but we can definitely expect to see more extensive beer lists at restaurants around the world. "We are hoping not only to develop one new specialty beer a year together, but also getting to understand better which beer fits well with what meal and why," Khalil Younes, Carlsberg's sales, marketing, and innovation chief, said.