Ballsy brewer crafts whale testicle beer

An Icelandic brewery has tapped into the country’s traditional cuisine to create a new beer made from “sheep shit-smoked whale balls”.

Following last year’s success with its Hvalur beer, which was made from ground up whale bones, the Steðji Brewery has announced plans to release a similarly whale-themed expression called Hvalur 2.

The new recipe combines Icelandic water, malted barley, hops and whale testicles, which are first given extra flavour by being cured, lightly salted and then smoked with dried sheep dung – a traditional technique in a country where wood is scarce. Each batch of beer brewed contains one whale testicle, and will be filtered and pasteurised before bottling.

According to Icelandic news source Visir, the new beer is due to go on sale on 23 January to coincide with the country’s Husband’s Day, when women give the significant men in their lives a gift, and the season of Thorri, which runs from mid-January until mid-February. During this period many Icelanders eat traditional cuisine, including rotten shark, ram’s testicles and soured whale fat.

Although the use of whale as flavouring has proved controversial, with Steðji’s local public health authority initially banning sales of Hvalur last year, this decision was overturned and the 5,000-litre edition subsequently sold out within a week.

Ahead of this latest launch, brewery founder Dagbjartur Arilíusson told Visir: “We have got all necessary licences for manufacturing and selling of the beer.”

Eating whale may be legal in Iceland, but just over two years ago a UK bar fell foul of an EU ban on whale products when it featured whale skin as flavouring in a cocktail called “Moby Dick”.

The brewing industry is no stranger to outlandish ingredients, with testicles – this time from a bull – having previous form as beer flavouring thanks to a producer in Denver.