British Airways Will Serve Beer Brewed at 40,000 Feet
Cheers, lads. In celebration of 100 years of flying, British Airways is now serving a beer that was brewed at 40,000 feet in the air.
The beer was created by Scottish brewery BrewDog founders Martin Dickie and James Watt with help from a BA cabin crew during a cruise aboard one of the airline's 787 Dreamliners. By combining water, hops and barley in a special, onboard brewmaker, the "transatlantic IPA" was born at 500 mph over the north of Scotland. They named it the Speedbird 100 after the airline’s call sign.
And now, British Airways passengers will be able to enjoy it while flying to a multitude of destinations worldwide. According to BrewDog, Speedbird 100 was specially crafted to complement the restrictions that come with tasting food and drinks in the air. “The key thing is that the bitterness and fruit flavors aren’t really affected by the altitude, so we wanted to play on those two things and ramp up the sweetness," said Martin Dickie, BrewDog’s co-founder in a press release. "We really hope British Airways customers love Speedbird 100 as much as we do.”
Speedbird will be available on all BA flights and in select lounges starting May 1. Passengers aboard BA flights can also watch the "making of Speedbird 100" film on the airline’s inflight entertainment system starting in July.
And, if you happen to be flying out of New York — BrewDog will be opening its first bar (and yes, Speedbird is on the menu) at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK). It will be located in British Airways’ new Club lounge in Terminal 7, opening this spring.
