The Award-Winning Beer Brand, ‘Schwarz Mönch,’ – Has Arrived In The UK (From The Swiss Alps).

‘Schwarz Mönch‘ is a special type of beer: a Schwarzbier, – straight from the Swiss Alps, which is now being brewed in the Surrey hills, – and is available in the UK.

Schwarz Mönch (an award-winning beer company), was created in the Pension Gimmelwald cellars of an old mountain Inn (reachable only by cable car) high in the Swiss alps, – by an Englishman who wanted to recreate the brew of the monks that owned the village hundreds of years ago.

This was the oldest of beers, – a Schwarzbier (a black lager style, heavily-hopped, thirst-quenching beer, served chilled) that the monks drank after work.

Schwarz Mönch’s Founder, David Waterhouse, – wanted to create a refreshing beer that Alpine sports enthusiasts could drink after extreme exercise. Using a secret ingredient (to provide extra taste and smoothness), – the brew quickly became the highest rated Schwarzbier in the world in 2018 on Untappd. It then went on to win Silver at the London beer competition in 2019 against entries from 35 countries in all categories of beer.

The Schwarz Mönch provides both the name of the beer, and the Monk logo: it’s now come down from the Alps at Gimmelwald above the Lauterbrunnen valley (this is the valley of waterfalls that inspired Tolkien after a visit there, – to create Rivendell in Lord of the Rings) to a craft brewery on a farm in the Surrey hills, UK.

Although Schwarz Mönch was first developed in the Pension Gimmelwald cellars in 2014, the recipe was perfected to its present form in 2017, and Schwarzbier is an undiscovered style of beer in the UK, whilst In Switzerland, – it’s regarded as a chilled thirst quencher.

“In the summer of 2017, we quickly sold out of our first 1000 litre brew in our Biergarten. We had to increase the capacity again. By the autumn, we had decided to brew enough for the winter months to sell through other outlets. By the end of the winter, we were selling Schwarz Mönch in Mürren, Wengen, Interlaken, Spiez, Thun, and in Gstaadt. The Mönch had arrived,” said David.

David had an extraordinary journey to get to this point: he started off as sailor on tall ships, before becoming a lone farmer on Dartmoor, followed by racing driving, to organising a big music festival, to almost becoming a millionaire, before going bust, Now, he runs an old Mountain Inn in Switzerland with his wife and 2 kids (which is only accessible by cable car at the top of the Lauterbrunnen valley).

“It all started with a name. Back in 2008 when I bought the Pension, it struck me that the mountain opposite us, the Schwarzmönch, – had the perfect name for a dark beer, especially if you separated the names to feature the Mönch who is so connected with brewing,” recalled David.

Find out more here: https://www.schwarzmonch.com