British Airways has launched its own bespoke inflight ale in partnership with Scottish craft brewery Brewdog.
The Speedbird 100 IPA will be available on all flights and in selected lounges from May 1, and has been “specifically brewed to work perfectly in the air and adapt to the reduction in taste and smell sensitivity at high altitudes”.
The new partnership will also see Brewdog launch a bar within BA’s Club Lounge at New York JFK’s Terminal 7, which opens this spring.
And from May 1 Executive Club members can get 10 per cent off all food and drink at Brewdog bars in the UK when they show their membership card, as well as 10 per cent off merchandise at brewdog.com.
To celebrate the partnership, Brewdog founders Martin Dickie and James Watt used a beverage maker onboard one of BA’s B787 aircraft to start the mashing part of the brewing process, while flying over Scotland.
From July passengers will be able to watch a video showing “the making of Speedbird 100” on the carrier’s IFE system.
Commenting on the news 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.”
Airlines have increasingly embraced the popularity of craft beers with inflight initiatives. In 2016 KLM launched the world’s first inflight draft beer, and in 2017 Cathay Pacific offered a limited-edition ‘Betsy’-branded beer to premium passengers on flights between Hong Kong and the UK.
