A beer brewed by an Icelandic brewery is causing outrage among conservationists thanks to one of its main ingredients: smoked whale testicles.
The brewery, Steðji, teamed up with a whaling company to create the beer for the winter celebration called Thorri, which honors the Norse god Thor. In fact, the company markets the beer as something "true Vikings" drink.
It may sound gross, and even unethical, but the brewery plans on selling the beer through February as part of the traditional festival that often includes whale meat and fat.
"We want to create a true Thorri atmosphere, and therefore we decided to use smoked testicles from fin whales for flavouring the beer," says Dagbjartur Ariliusson, one of the brewery's owners. "We put a lot of effort into this and it's a long process."
Conservationists aren't too fond of this idea and have spoken out against the beer.
"Right-minded people would no sooner drink beer brewed with whale testicles than they would order similar drinks made with tiger, elephant or rhino testicles and our hope, of course, is that visitors to Iceland - a truly beautiful country with lively, friendly people - will treat this latest offering with the disdain it deserves," writes the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society on its website.
This is the second year the brewery has sold the beer for the festival, although in 2014, the beer was banned. The ban was later overturned, and after that, the beer sold out quickly.
Commercial fin whaling was previously suspended for several years in Iceland, but the country began the practice again in 2013.
The World Wildlife Fund lists the fin whale on its endangered species list. The whale is also on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to their dwindling numbers.
Ariliusson, however, maintains that he and his brewery aren't doing anything immoral or unethical.
"Actually, we don't consider the fin whale to be an endangered species here in the North Atlantic," says Arilíusson. "We have a fisheries system in Iceland with all the fish kinds that is really self-sustainable and responsible."
The beer is only available locally, so if you're dying to taste whale-testicle beer, you'll have to travel to Iceland within the next month . While there, you can also enjoy other delicacies during the festival, too, such as sheep's heads, blood pudding and putrefied shark, all apparently a feast worthy of a god.
[Photo Credit: D. Faulder/Flickr]
