Evil Twin vs. Mikeller

Here at Friendly Package we’re doing our best to get the best beer we can, and beer that you want. Wherever you are in the world come here to FriendlyPackage.com, click on contact us and we’ll do our best to have the beer you’re looking for when you come home. Even if you’re down the block, get ahold of us, or come in and talk to one of our clerks and we’ll do our best to get the beer you’re looking for.

There’s a bunch of great stories out there in the beer world, and in the upcoming months, we’re going to delve into them a bit. Now, there are many great stories out there about brewers being nice guys and helping their community, but we know what sells… DRAMA. So, we’re going to look at rivalries in the beer world. This is the first installment of Friendly Package’s Rivalry Series. There are only a few known rivalries within the beer industry that are worth talking about, and we’re going to look at them in the upcoming months.

Here’s how things will work for this series: First we’ll get you acquainted with each brewer, a little tale of the tape if you will. Next we’ll explain the beef they have with each other, and finally it will be up to you to decide. Instead of just picking who you like more, you will let your palate decide. If you any of our social media, you will know we do craft beer tastings every Thursday, and this is where you come in. Each week we will do a blind tasting, letting you decide which beer you like better. That coupled with what you, the consumer, buy more will be tallied at the end of everything and we’ll see whose side Muncie is on.

We’re starting it big, with the first installment of the series:

This is our first installment of the Friendly Package Rivalry Series, in the next few weeks we will do a blind tasting Mikkeller vs. Evil Twin and you will choose who you like more. We will also take into account sales throughout this time, and we will figure out the winner before Christmas break. Every Thursday, when we do our Craft Beer tasting, all Mikkeller & Evil Twin products will be 20% off.

Now that you know the rules, let’s get into the backstory of this rivalry.

This is quite possibly the biggest and most interesting rivalry in the beer industry currently; the biggest reason is because it’s family. If you pay attention to details, you’ll notice the heads of Mikkeller & Evil Twin, Mikkel and Jeppe respectively, are identical twins. The stem of the rivalry is that Mikkel and Jeppe are very similar- competitive, determined, ambitious, stubborn. In a NewYork Times article, Jeppe mentions that Mikkel was the first out of the womb, but only because he was lying the wrong way and was removed via C-section. Throughout their childhood they competed against each other in long distance running, and after they both came to the states from Denmark, they found beer. Craft beer starts hitting it big in the states, but also overseas. When Mikkel comes back to Denmark, he joins a beer club started by Jeppe. This beer club turns into a job for Jeppe when he starts his own beer store in Denmark called Olbutikken. Mikkel decides to start brewing with a friend Kristian Keller and soon Mikkeller (get it?) is Olbutikken’s house beer.

A few years later, Mikkeller is selling very well at Jeppe’s Olbutikken and Mikkel decides to open his own bar down the way. This decision may not be the reason their bond fractured, but it is a situation that weakened the structure of their relationship. After this fallout, a few other business decisions continued to deteriorate their link. The brothers went to therapy together to work out their many differences, but soon, Jeppe decided it’d be best to move to the states.

Enter Beer.

At this point, beer had been in Jeppe's life for a while, but when he moved to the states, he decided it was going to be a major part of his life. Jeppe had this radical idea, where he'd brew beer but without equipment. Simply, he'd make contacts within the industry, go and brew his beer on their equipment- this is known as "Gypsy Brewing." Jeppe didn't invent Gypsy Brewing, but he took the idea from Mikkel.

Jeppe and Mikkel respect each other’s craft, although they don’t necessarily agree on some beers. Jeppe finds some of Mikkel’s beers undrinkable, unbalanced and too complex. From an outsider’s perspective, this seems to be hypocritical as Jeppe uses some wild ingredients.

Regardless of the twin’s feelings about each other’s beer it’s about what the public thinks. So let’s go to the tale of the tape:

As you see, Mikkeller has won more awards than Evil Twin based on the two big beer websites, BeerAdvocate and RateBeer. Mikkeller has a little bit of an edge, as he’s against a smaller number of brewers in Denmark for regional awards, and he’s been in the game for quite a bit longer. On the other side of things, Jeppe at Evil Twin helped develop the first beer bar with a Michelin Star, Luksus. He’s also made beers specifically for Michelin Star winning restaurants, like Luksus, Nomo, Fat Duck.

If these two brothers would combine efforts, they might be able to make some of the best beer ever, but it may be better that they’re just two separate guys, both making great beer. The big question is, who will Muncie pick?

Come in for our Thursday Beer Tasting and you will be the one to decide!

The winner, by split decision, Mikkeller!