British Airways and BrewDog used on-board coffee pots to brew the world's first beer at 40,000 ft

Alison Millington

April 25, 2019 3:33 PM

British Airways has teamed up with Scottish brewery BrewDog to create the world's first beer brewed on a flying airplane.

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The BrewDog cofounders used tea and coffee pots to mix the water, hops, and barley.
The "Transatlantic IPA" was created in celebration of British Airways' centenary.
Cans of the beer, called the "Speedbird 100," will be available on all British Airways flights and in some lounges from May 1.
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British Airways has teamed up with BrewDog to create the world's first beer brewed at 40,000 feet and they used on-board coffee pots to do it.

Martin Dickie and James Watt, founders of the Scottish craft brewery BrewDog, started the brewing process on board a British Airways' Boeing 787 Dreamliner while cruising at 500mph over the north of Scotland.

"We've brewed beer on a train, on boats, in the back of a Nascar we'd love to make a beer on an airplane whilst it's flying," they said before taking off.

After being told by a member of crew that they definitely weren't allowed to bring a propane system on board, the duo mixed water, hops, and barley using onboard beverage makers or coffee/tea pots to start the mashing part of the brewing process.

"It's like it was designed to make beer," they joked in a video released of the event.

"It even says brew," a flight attendant added.

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Despite a bit of turbulence, things seemed to run smoothly and the beer was served to BA staff with the message: "What you have in your glass is the first ever beer made on an airplane."

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According to the airline, the recipe was made to "work perfectly in the air and adapt to the reduction in taste and smell sensitivity at high altitudes."

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Dickie added: "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."

You can watch the process here:

The "Transatlantic IPA" was created in celebration of British Airways' centenary, and cans of the "Speedbird 100" will be available on all British Airways flights and in some lounges from May 1.

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BrewDog will also open its first bar in New York inside British Airways' new Club lounge at JFK's Terminal 7 set to open this week where Speedbird 100 will, of course, be served.