British Airways and Scottish craft brewery, BrewDog, have created a transatlantic IPA to celebrate the airline’s centenary, and in a world first brewed beer at 40,000ft.
With the help of British Airways cabin crew, BrewDog founders Martin Dickie and James Watt, started the brewing process on board one of the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners, while cruising 500mph over the north of Scotland.
The expert brewers mixed water, hops and barley in the onboard beverage makers to start the mashing part of the brewing process. Watch how they did it here.
Cans of the bespoke IPA, named Speedbird 100 after the airline’s call sign, will be exclusively available to British Airways customers on board all long-haul and short-haul flights and in selected lounges from 1 May.
The recipe has been specifically brewed to work perfectly in the air and adapt to the reduction in taste and smell sensitivity at high altitudes.
Martin Dickie MBE, BrewDog’s co-founder, said: “The key thing is that the bitterness and fruit flavours aren’t really affected by the altitude, so we wanted to play on those two things and ramp up the sweetness. We really hope British Airways customers love Speedbird 100 as much as we do.”
Passengers will be able to watch the ‘making of Speedbird 100’ on the airline’s in-flight entertainment system from July.
