British Airways - Speedbird 100

Several airlines have in the past experimented with beer. In March 2017, we featuredCathay Pacific for its special ‘Betsy’ beer, the world’s first beer to be specificallybrewed to be drunk in-flight.

Meanwhile Dutch brewing giant Heineken worked with KLM in developing a way to serve draught (as opposed to bottled or canned) beer on board its aircraft.

The latest airline to look at beer is British Airways, which worked with Scottish craft brewery Brewdog, as part of the airline’s centenary celebrations (see our Feb cover story).

While Cathay Pacific claimed to have produced the first beer specially designed to be consumed in-flight, British Airways has gone one step further with Brewdog’s founders actually claiming to have part-brewed a completely new beer - Speedbird 100 - on a Boeing 787 above Scotland.

Of course, it would be difficult to fully brew a beer in an aircraft (unless of course you somehow manage to bring a home brew kit on board).

As a result, this part of the Speedbird 100 campaign seems to have been done more for PR purposes, the airline saying that the founders “mixed water, hops and barley in the onboard beverage makers to start the mashing part of the brewing process.”

Cans of the bespoke IPA, named Speedbird 100 after the airline’s call sign, will be exclusively available to British Airways customers on board all long-haul and shorthaul flights and in selected lounges from May 1.

In another first, BrewDog, will open their first bar in New York in British Airways’ new Club lounge at JFK’s Terminal 7.

Passengers will additionally be able to watch the ‘making of Speedbird 100’ on the airline’s inflight entertainment system from July.

British Airways says the Brewdog collaboration is only one of a series of ‘centenary editions’ in partnership with British brands during its milestone year.

The airline partnered with luxury British watchmakers Bremont on the launch of a new limited-edition timepiece, featuring metal from one of the most famous and iconic planes in history – Concorde.

Despite the fact that the beer wasn’t really 100% brewed in-flight, this, and the larger project to involve British brands, is a great initiative by BA.

Anniversary brand items like this very quickly become collectors’ pieces, and the campaign associates BA with the best of British, from younger newer names such as Brewdog, to more iconic brands like Bremont.

This isn’t Brewdog’s first airline themed project. In February, the brewery chartered aplane and called it “Brewdog Airlines.” The aircraft in question, a 767, then flew 200+beer enthusiasts and investors to the company’s US operation in Columbus, Ohio.

Lonely Planet reports that some people had come as far away as from Australia totake part in the beer themed flight.