2007-09-30

QUICK TAKE: Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA

Tasted at the Stockholm Beer 2007 in a cask version. What can you say?, simply this is my cup of tea. Sampled this amazing DIPA already in May over at Spuyten Duyvil in Brooklyn, New York during our short New York beer trip.

Based on the fact that we already thought that this was the best beer during that trip it was really exciting to actually drink the beer again on cask in your own backyard.

I know this is a extreme beer, but the name says it all!, here is a beer that is a hop monster extreme and with no apologies to be anything else. Simply this is something that I can enjoy and will continue to drink.

The beer has a very cloudy orange body topped by a thick, off-white head that lasts a long time. Flavor is really one-dimensional with a extreme piney hop bitterness, but you can actually feel the maltiness so in that sense it is at least a bit balanced and together with the orange touch it makes a great mixture. Probably not drinkable for most people, but for me it is a hit and a very drinkable beer, yes I know I am bit destroyed on these kind of beers.

For being a no apologies DIPA it is a sure winner, not the most balanced one but I guess that it is not the idea here, and with 10% ABV it is best served in small gobles and is a great last beer of the night.

It will make a appereance on my personal top list because now I have tasted the beers at least 3 times, :-D, and it is time for some changes after the festival.

The beer served at this years Stockholm Beer

Regarding Blue Point this is a local brewery in Patchogue (long island), New York state. Started by 2 beer geeks (Pete & Mark) on Long Island. They also produce the great IPA in the form of; Hoptical Illusion.

Finally a very large thank you to Jugge, for actually getting this beer all the way over to Stockholm. It is always fun to sample the beer you bring home, how would the Stockholm beer scene look without your help?

Stockholm Beer 2007: And the winner is?

The festival has ended and some of the breweries returned home with a bunch of prizes. Some of the most interesting beer that won according to me, looks lkte below; (here is the full list link)

Category: Best Bottled Ale 4.8-5.9 ABV
Harpoon IPA (Harpoon Brewing Co)

Category: Stong Beer 6% ABV & above
Shakespeare Stout (Rogue Ales)

Categroy: Stong Beer 8% ABV & above
90 Minute IPA (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)

Category: Swedish Bottle Beer
Oppigårds Slåtteröl (Oppigårds Brygger AB)

Category: Draught Ale 4.8-5.9 ABV
Avenyn Ale (Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri)

Category: Draught Beer 6% ABV & above
Imperial Stout (Nils Oscar Company AB)

Category: Draught Beer 8% ABV & above
Slottskällans Imperial Stout (Gamla Slottskällans Bryggeri AB)

Category: Swedish Draught Beer
Avenyn Ale (Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri)

I guess it is good choices, but for my own taste the list is a "bit" different. My personal favorite during the weekens would look like below;

Best beer all categories:
1. Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA (cask)
2. Left Hand Imperial Stout (cask)
3. Dieu du Ciel Brasserie Solstice d'Hiver (cask)

Best Swedish Beer:
1. Dugges 1/2 Idjit!

Best newcomer that can be something:
1. Dugges Idjit!

Best unexpected beer:
1. Spinnakers Iceberg Pale Ale

Stockholm Beer 2007: Beer tasting list day II


Last night was the second day for us at the Stockholm Beer Festival and it turned out to be a great evening and festival as always. I had expectations to broaden my perspective a bit and try more of the other beers available at the festival. And as I reported a few entries ago I had a list of potential beers to taste. And I tried, I promise you I really tried this time, but the result was not actually as planned and we got stuck over at Oliver Twist most of the time, again :-).

From the potential list of 13-14 beers I only succeeded in sampling 4!. 1. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley Wine (cask), 6. Dugges Idjit! 1st Limited Edition (Imperial Stout) 16,5 vol%, 9. Bluepoint No Apologies Double IPA 10%, 12. Oppigårds Smithy Ale, 4,6% - new receipe. And it was through help of some friends, so it was not all my own samples. What can you do?, currently I am into these type of beers and it is not everyday you can sample them, so what the heck.

Below is the full list of beers that I sampled myself and paid for, no additional tasting as last week so this time it was all up to my own planning and taste.

SECOND DAY RESULTS:

1. Nils Oscar Kalasöl (new receipe)
A classic Vienna styled beer brewed by Nils Oscar. This year it had a updated receipe, so that was why it was on the list. Sorry, I did not notice any differences, a good beer, but a bit boring for my taste.

2. Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque
Second draught beer from the Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel brewpub in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. A American styled Stout with Dark chocolate & Cocoa! It was like drinking a chocolate crème brulée and with 80% cacao or similar. Interesting but it was simply to much for me. Instead I still recommend last weeks draught beer from this brewery; Solstice D'hiver. Other geeks I spoke with had other thoughts about this beer and were very exited about it. So it seems that at least the brewery is doing a very good job with the beers.

3. Spinnakers Iceberg Pale Ale
An India Pale Ale (IPA) brewed by Spinnakers Brewpub Victoria, Canada. One of my favorite "normal" beers for the evening. A very clean and balanced American style IPA, drinkable and something that you can drink a lot of. A very nice bitter finish and something to recommend. One of the best "normal" Canadian beers during the festival, will be on my top 3 from my Canadian beer experience so far.

4. Stone IPA (Cask)
What can you say, a classic American IPA from one of the best breweries in the world. On my top list and it will still be there. Avaiable on draught over at the Oliver Twist booth and it was in the same league as the Dogfish head 60 min IPA last weekend. A clean balanced IPA, a classic.

5. Närke Örebro Bitter
If you talk about classic beers and from my top list this is the Swedish counterpart. One of the best beers from Sweden and from one of the best breweries in the world. Not always available at the Stockholm pubs so it has been a while since I sampled it, and now when the Bishop Arms branch had their own booth at the festival I thought to sample it. This was one of the first beers from a Swedish micro that I really liked and made it a classic for me as soon as it came out. Örebro Bitter is an English style ale, hopped with East Kent Golding and Cascade and as I said a classic and something to really recommend.

6. Dugges Idjit!
A Swedish Imperial Stout first presented at the festival, see my earlier entry about this new beer, that might be a new classic Swedish stout. Stockholm Beer 2007: A new Swedish beer classic? .

7. Dugges 1/2 Idjit!
Porter from Dugges and part of the Idjit range of beers. 1/2 Idjit is simply half a Idjit!, so it is a very potent porter and one of my favorites. It has a dark ruby color. Hint of coffee beans and a very roasted taste. Long roasted aftertaste with some alcohol buzz. As Dugges says this is half a Idjit but it is really making its own place and among the best porters available.

8. Steamworks Conductor Imperial India Pale Ale
An American style IPA from Steamworks brewery over in Colorado. This is a very potent beer and on the list because it was a imperial IPA which I always have to taste if available. Amber in color with a little white head. A very strong smell of hops, I believe it includes Simcoe. Simply a very drinkable DIPA, not on the top list but as a hop head this was quite a good beer. A new brewery at the festival and Sweden and it seems that they can do beer here also. Brewery is from Durango, Colorado.

9. Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA
Oh what can you say? Well the name says it all. This is a amazing DIPA and something I have to write more about in a separate entry. QUICK TAKE: Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA.

10. Hantverksbryggeriet Blåbärs Lambic Special (blueberry lambic)
Strange brew from the Hantverksbryggeriet over at Västerås. Sampled it last year at the festival and it is still no success. Like a alco-pop with some sourness, calling it a lambic is simply a shame. Something to jump over.

11. Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner
A very good hop bomb pilsner!, this was surely a winner and something that was on my top list for the night. See my earlier entry about this pilsner from Samuel Adams; QUICK TAKE: Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner. Will be available at Systembolaget in the beginning of December.

Beer of the evening:
Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA

2007-09-29

QUICK TAKE: Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner

Sampled at Stockholm Beer 2007 last night.

A new beer for me from Samuel Adams that will also be sold at Systembolaget starting from December. I read about the beer due to soon being sold in Sweden and something that I was planning to buy in December, but now it was available at the festival.

This is a so called Imperial Pilsner in the tradition of American brewers playing with old beer style and not follow any rules regarding creating balanced beers. So "Imperial" simply means, when we talk about American beers; more of everything, often double or tripple of everything.

The beer has a very golden color and a white steady head. When it comes to aroma it is very similar to a strong IPA, meaning extra malt and massive amounts of hops. The flavor is hoppy and bitter and actually very balanced with the malt sweetness.

It has a great after-taste and it made its place together with the rest of IPAs that was sampled during the evening.

It is a lager beer but in the same moment due to the similarities to a American IPA the beer is a bit difficult to classify. At least it was interesting to taste my first Imperial Pilsner and it is always fun to see new kind of experiments, especially when it actually was at least a bit balanced if you recon that the beer has 110 in the IBU scale.

So based on my very limited experience in American Imperial Lagers, this is my favorite and something that I can recommend.

Stockholm Beer 2007: A new Swedish beer classic?

Last night at the Stockholm Beer a new beer was presented (so far as I know) over at Dugges in the form of a idiot! A limited release has been available before, but this was the first real stuff.

Idjit is Imperial Stout which will be a new beer from Dugges and a test brew was released in bottles during the festival (just for fun, according to Dugge).

At 18.00 sharp we got the opportunity to test this new beer that had only been stored for 2 months and was very young compared to the final product. But it was big news anyway and the line was long for actually getting a full Idjit!, as you can see below;

Dugge the brewer serving the new Idjit! beer

How about the beer?, well it is still not ready and the plan is to actually store it for a additional year, and in that sense you actually do not know how it it will evolve. It has a dark brown colour, the flavour is very woody with a strong alcohol buzz (ABV 16%),coffee, and you can feel some raisins and a touch of porter and sherry.

What can you say?, it feels like a hit and it will be very exiting to actually taste this beer when it is ready, with the knowledge of Dugges I am sure that last night a new beer legend was born. It can not be compared to my favorite Imperial Stout/Porter (Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter), at least not with the current appearance, but at least something similar and a good beer continuing the dark beer tradition in Sweden in form of porters and stouts.

Seems that the Idjits is slowly being built up as a series of beers. Because currently we already have the amazing 1/2 Idjit which is a very potent porter and in the future Dugges will also provide a "Perfect Idjit" which will be a oaked stored Idjit for 2-3 additional months.

It also seems that Dugges (best brewery in Stockholm according to me) also got recognized as a brewery through winning several prizes at the festival. Here is the result for Dugges;

Category: Best Swedish Draught Strong beer over 6% ABV
Bollox! - Bronze!

Category: Best Draught Ale 4,8-5,9% ABV:
Avenyn Ale - Gold!

Category: Best Swedish Draught Beer:
Avenyn Ale - Gold!

Thats a very good result for Dugges, a brewery that has only been brewing a couple of years. Thanks Dugge for creating such great brevs like "High Five", "Bollox" and "Avenyn Pale Ale (APA)".

A new bishop has been born...

Just got the information that a new pub in the Bishops Arms chain has recently (27/9) opened up its doors in central Stockholm, (Vasagatan 7).

Feels that this can be a good addition to the pub environment in central Stockholm that is mainly lager places if you do no count in the different belgian places that are available. But a good traditional pub has not been available so this is good news for people having a quality beer in the neighborhods.

Bishop Arms is a pub chain in Sweden (24 pubs across the country) and is often connected to the Elite Hotel branches. With a traditional English interior it is often the only place you can get a decent beer outside central Stockholm and Gothenburg, so it is great to have such chain that can save your night if you have to spend a night in places like Norrköping, Västerås or Linköping.

Recently Bishop Armas has also started to provide good Swedish micros across the country and is getting better and better in connection with good beers and breweries.

Have not been to the new place yet but hope to visit it in the future and check out what you can expect regarding Swedish and English draft beers. The pub is located where "Tre Remmare" was located before and is just minutes from the central station.

Stockholm Beer 2007: Pictures from the second day

Our beer experience in photo mode during the second day of the festival.


The festival is over, but its getting close to the GABF event over at Colorado so we are already looking forward for that event. Seems this year has been a big festival year for us; meaning Copenhagen, Stockholm, London (GBBF) and finally Denver (GABF) during the same year.

Denver here we come...

Not yet, but it is really getting close now for the Denver beer experience. I and the rest of the beer crew are getting close for our beer trip of the year at GABF.

Hope to see you all over in Denver.

Cheers.

2007-09-26

Nøgne Ø back to Sweden...

The great Norwegian brewery of Nøgne Ø will be back at the Systembolaget starting from October 1, unfortunately you have to buy 12 bottles for each beer.

But I guess it is ok for many because this is such a good brewery that you need many bottles of and you can always find a friend to share with.

Seems that almost all available types will be sold and is the first time I see the full list in a Swedish shop. Personally I look forward for the #100 brew which is a double IPA and that can always be interesting by this US-inspired Norwegian brewery.

89397 Nøgne Ø Imperial Brown Ale
89399 Nøgne Ø India Pale Ale
89401 Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout
89403 Nøgne Ø # 100
83888 Nøgne Ø Bitter
83834 Nøgne Ø Pale Ale
83841 Nøgne Ø Porter
83825 Nøgne Ø Saison
83882 Nøgne Ø Wit

Thanks to the blog of ofiltrerat for finding this great news at the Systembolaget site.

2007-09-25

A unique American beer in Sweden (Hint, its a Dogfish)

If you would have a competition for unique beers this would be my personal choice. Also a unique experiment between a Swedish pub and a American brewer working together with a unique ingredient in beer.

So what is it all about that I like to share with you?

It is the only remaining keg served in the world in the form of Dogfish Head Arctic Cloudberry Imperial Wheat from Dogfish Head Brewery, Delaware, USA made with cloudberries provided by Oliver Twist, Stockholm, Sweden.

The story about this beer is very interesting and unique in the same sense as the beer that Dogfish created. It started out with a other pub very close to the location of Oliver Twist in the form of Akkurat (a belgian beer mecha) when Jugge at OT brought some of Akkurats own Cantillon Soleil de Minuit (a other unique story) to the US and let some brewers taste it as a example of a cloudberry fruit beer.

The Dogfish brewery then simply decided they wanted to make something similar. And with the help of OT, 250 lbs of Swedish cloudberries were brought over to the awaiting brewer.

This was back in 2005 when the limited release beer was brewed at the Rehoboth Beach brewpub and later served at some festivals during the spring and summer of 2005 in the US. As a thank you back to Sweden the last ever keg was kept and then a very proud pub owner could serve the beer later during the traditional "Sour & Bitter"-festival held in Stockholm. When the beer was served at OT this was really a unique and limited beer when the last drops were served.

The slogan on the pictures says in english; "250 lbs of cloudberries from Sweden!, Dogfish made the rest, 8.5% ABV".

So the list of unique beers made by foreign brewers and connected to Sweden is slowly increasing, the short list I can remember so far includes;

1. This beer

2. Cantillon Soleil de Minuit

(A cantillon with Swedish cloudberries)

3. Harviestoun Black to Front

(Brewed for Akkurat and Oliver Twist, Stockholm, Sweden and occasionally for beer festivals)

4. Harviestoun Over & Out S.P.A.

(A Swedish Pale Ale!, especially brewed to celebrate 1500 beers at Akkurat and Oliver Twist. And the last beer from the brewmaster.)

Something more about Canadian beers?

As a newcomer with Canadian beers since the big sampling at Stockholm Beer I have tried to get some more information about the sampled beers and the breweries. During that search a stumpled on a great Canadian beer blog that I thought I could share with others. So if you ever get to Canada or want to learn whats hot in Canada, here is the url.

Great Canadian Pubs and Beer

One of the beers we sampled was the Propeller IPA, and I found a short article about that brewpub that was interesting to read, see below.

Propeller Micro Brewery

Seems that we have to add a short trip to Canada during our New England Mega beer trip that we are planning as the next big beer adventure.

2007-09-24

New beers from Samuel Adams


Both in November and December a couple of new beers will be sold through Systembolaget from the Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston. The beers will be provided by the reseller of Galatea. One of the beers has been available before but in very limited editions, the other two is at least new for me.

1. Samuel Adams Utopias 2007

For the bargain price of 1217 SEK, :). This beer is not brewed so often and it is seen as the most expensive and exclusive beer in the world. I have tasted the beer once at the Stockholm Beer a couple of years ago, and I would not say that it is worth its price, but it is a exiting brew, but nothing that is a favorite or on any of my top lists, frankly a bit to much. But my geek genes say that I will probably try to get a bottle anyway just because it is rare.

2. Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner

A new american experience for me in the tradition of doing double and imperial beers of traditional European styled beers. So here we have a Imperial Pilsner, meaning double of everything compared to a normal pilsner. Loaded with tons of Hallertau Mittelfrüh-hops that raises it to amazing 110 IBUs. Comes with the moderate price of 34 SEK.

3. Samuel Adams Holiday Porter

A american porter dedicated to the christmas tables and hopefully will be found by the Swedish christmast beer community (a big thing in Sweden to buy the Christmas beers when they are all realesed on Nov 16). 16 SEK for a 355 ml bottle.

All 3 will be available at Systembolaget, but to remember the Utopia is limited to only 36 bottles (of total 12000 produced).

2007-09-23

Stockholm Beer 2007: Beers to look for next week..

Had a blast with so much exiting beers at Stockholm Beer last night, but I am now already looking forward for the next weekend, hopefully I will be able to leave the US-beers for a while. So what can it be, well here is a interesting list, that might work;

1. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley Wine (cask)
2. Sierra Nevada Celebration 2007 (cask)
3. Gonzo imperial porter
4. Braunstein Viking IPA
5. Braunstein Heritage 2005 – Barly Wine
6. Dugges Idjit! 1st Limited Edition (Imperial Stout) 16,5 vol%
7. Dugges High Five! (India Pale Ale) 7,5 vol
8. Hantverksbryggeriet Prototyp X (Imperial Stout)8,6%
9. Bluepoint No Apologies Double IPA 10%
10. Ocean Brewery OCEAN RED ALE, Cask-edition 4,3 % ABV
11. Ocean Brewery OCEAN PORTER, Cask-edition 5,6 % ABV
12. Oppigårds Smithy Ale, 4,6% - new receipe
13. Oppigårds Porter 5,5% - stored in 6 month
14. Oppigårds Stout, 4,8% - oaked

Well some US-beers made to the list, what can you do?

Stockholm Beer 2007: A new brewery from Gothenburg!


It is not so often we get new breweries in Sweden, especially from Gothenburg. So it was very fun to see that we now have two breweries in the second city of Sweden. Dugges has given us many new exiting brews the last couple of years and is for many the best micro brewery in Sweden (I am one of them). So it is great to see a new brewery from the same city in the form of Oceanbryggeriet.

The brewery has a short but interesting history;

The "Oceanbryggeriet" was started during the winter of 2006. They are located at the old brewery of Lyckholm in Gothenburg and has recently started the production. The brewmaster is Thomas Bingebo and has a passed from the DWAN Brewery (Ireland), Messrs Maguire Brewpub (Ireland) and the Swedish brewery Jämtlands. The malt comes from Thomas Fawcett & Sons in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England. The hops also from England, but also American and german hops are used. The brewery has plans to produce both draught, bottled and cask-conditioned ale.

The location has been a brewery through the Lyckholms Brewery between 1880 and 1975 when the owner Pripps closed them down. Lyckholms was a pioneer in many areas, for example they had the first cooler facility in Sweden already in 1881, a automatic bottle machine in 1887 and was first with filtering beers in 1889.

The brewery was purchased by Pripps and became the Pripp & Lyckholm brewery. Production was stopped during the 60s and finally closed completely in 1975. All of the brewery equipment come from the Jämtlands Brewery and formelly the closed brewery of Gamlestaden in Gothenburg. So the equipment was bought back to Gothenburg when Jämtlands upgraded too new equipments. As a brewer Thomas B has the knowledge for creating great beers after doing over 700 brews for the Jämtlands brewery.

As the first couple of beers that were provided at the festival comes;

1. Ocean Red Ale (4.8 ABV, hops; Northern Brewer, Challenger, Bramling X & Cascade, A English Porter)
2. Ocean Porter (5.6% ABV, hops; Northern Brewer & Challenger, An Irish Ale)

We tasted them both and it looks very promising, especially the Porter was a direct winner, a tobacco & coffee combination that makes a real English style porter.

We within the beer community says; Great with a new brewery in the old beer capitol of Sweden and good luck in the future.

One more thing; the next 2 beers will the Ocean India Pale Ale & Ocean Pilsner.

Stockholm Beer 2007: Beer tasting list day I


Apart from the 11 beers we tasted during the Left Hand and Canadian beer tastings, my list of beer so far during the Stockholm Beer looks like below; (as normal very focused on the American beers at Oliver Twist, cant help myself for drinking beer from the best beer country in the world, but hopefully it will have a other and wider focus next week, :)).

1. North Coast Red Seal, (that we normally start with)
2. Dogfish 60 Minutes IPA (cask)
3. Flying Dog Snaked Dog IPA
4. Sierra Neva Anniversary Ale (cask)
5. Left Hand Imperial Stout (cask)
6. Dieu du Ciel Brasserie Solstice d'Hiver (cask)
7. 21st Amendment 21A-IPA (can)
8. Dugges 1/2 Idjit (cask)
9. Avery 12
10. Odell India Pale Ale

Any winners?, well that is very difficult because they were almost all very potent beers. But a short list probably looks like below;

1. 60 Minutes IPA (this is the best IPA overall from Dogfish, 90 & 120 are great but this one is the most balanced and drinkable beer from the brewery)

2. Dugges 1/2 Idjit & Left Hand Imperial Stout (we are really looking for the whole Idjit next week!, and 3 samples of the imperial stout show that this is one of my favorite Imperial stout both on bottle and cask)

3. 21st Amendment 21A-IPA (for being such a good example of a IPA on a can!)

Plus a special credit for the 21st Amendment Watermelon Wheat, not a great beer, but it gets extra points to actually tasting like watermelon, and that is really a achievement.


The full US-beer line of beers at the Oliver Twist booth.

Stockholm Beer 2007: Canadian tasting with the beer writer Stephen Beaumont

Second tasting was hold by the famous beer writer Stephen Beaumont and focused on the new Canadian beers that Oliver Twist is providing for us this year at the Stockholm beer.

It is always fun to see new beer countries in Sweden and when the tasting is hold by a very famous beer writer of Canadian Beers it is even more exciting. Stephen is a beer writer, both as a author of beer books and also a popular writer at many of the big US and Canadian beer magazines.

At this years festival Oliver Twist is providing around 20 beers from 10 different breweries from Canada and with a focus on the east coast of the country. And you can see that the breweries are inspired by the Belgian counterparts, so we tasted a list of very good belgian inspired beer. But for us it was more interesting to taste some of the more normal beers of the style ESB, Stout and IPAs.

Did not get the full list of beers that we tasted but here is the beers that I had time to write down.

1. Black Oak, Summer Saison
2. King Brewery, Pilsner
3. ALLEY KAT BREWING Co, Herbstweizen
4. MILL STREET BREWING Co, Coffee Porter
5. Unibroue La Terrible

Very nice beers and something to start with when you want to test what beers in Canada is all about.

But my personal favorite of all the Canadian beers was one of the available beers on draught. That meant the Solstice d` Hiver from the brewery DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE in Montreal, Canada. Dieu du Ciel Solstice dHiver (Winter Solstice) as a beer style is barley wine (to me a American styled barley wine compared to a traditional English one) with a amber color, thin off-white head, raisin touches in the malt base, alcohol with some brandy flavours, chocolate and vanilla notes. A very potent winter ale that was a very interesting sip of beer and one of the winners during the first day at the festival.

DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE is a brewery and pub in Montréal, Quebec. The brewpub is one of Montreal's leading brew pubs. The place is owned by three former microbiology students and self-proclaimed beer aficionados. All the beers at Dieu du Ciel are brewed right on the premises; patrons can observe fermenting and brewing paraphernalia that make up part of the bar's decor. Dieu du Ciel's has a number of porters, stouts or ales boasting with intriguing names like 'The Pagan', 'Sunday Morning Mass', 'The Resurrection' and 'The Goddess of the Night'.

If you want to learn more about this brewery and why the guys started the brewery, check out their site and history over at; URL.


Reporter from Ale Street News (left) and people from the Canadian brewery DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE (right).

Stockholm Beer 2007: Left Hand Tasting with Eric Wallace

This years US-beer list at Oliver Twist was amazing like always. But one of the better news was the arranged beer tasting that we stumbled upon when we passed the VIP-corner at the Oliver Twist booth. Jugge at Oliver Twist simply asked if we wanted to attend the Left Hand tasting, and that sounded interesting. It was hosted by the founder himself (Eric Wallace) that started the brewery in 1993 over at Longmont, Colorado.

It is always fund to hear how a brewery was started and how it came to be that a guy like Eric just thought that being a brewery could be fun. If you reflect on the fact that 4-5 of the big selling beers were all invented so early as 1994 (first beers that come out from the brewery), it is an amazing story and success. As a new brewery it take a while to find you style but here we have a brewery that already at start made amazing beers, and have sticked to them.

One fun story that Eric told us was the fact that Sweden had something to-do with him being a brewer. In short the story is that Eric traveled together with his wife on one of the big ferries across the Baltic Sea (between Sweden and Finland) back in 1991. On the boat he tasted a new beer as he normally does, this was a goal for him, simply to taste as much of new beers he could where ever he traveled. He found a strange new bottle of beer that he could not recognize, and thought that this was great, a nice ale that was so much better than the lagers on draught that was available. So he checked the bottle to see what kind of beer it was and was surprised to find that the beer was from the US. What he had tasted was the first ever beer for him from Samuel Adams! He thought it must be an English beer and was so surprised and exited that it was a beer from his own country that he decided that if these guys can create good craft beers in the USA he must also do it!

Jugge over at Oliver Twist is a large sponsor of beers from Left Hand and the beers are almost ever available at OT. And now this will be even bigger when the Milk Stout will be available at 200 stores through our own Systembolaget (state owned shops where all strong beer are sold). So it will be interesting to see if the Milk Stout could challenge the big hit beers of North Coast Red Seal and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at Systembolaget.

How about the tasting, well it looked like below;

1. Left Hand Sawtooth Ale (nutty, caramel flavors followed by herbal earthiness of hops)
2. Left Hand Jackmans Pale Ale (hopped pale ale with a solid malt foundation)
3. Left Hand Milk Stout (Classic cream stout with addition of sugar mellows)
4. Left Hand Black Jack Porter (Dark chocolate & espresso and smooth clean finish)
5. Left Hand Oak Aged Imperial Stout (Unfiltered Russian Imperial Stout, smooth with raisins, coffee & dark chocolate)
6. Left Hand Oak Aged Imperial Stout (draught version) (Even more smoother, a classic)

All amazing beers and my personal favorite is still the Imperial Stout. But as a classic pale ale a newcomer for me was the Sawtooth Ale, a very drinkable beer and its not difficult to understand that this is the number one selling beer from Left Hand.


Jugge from Oliver Twist and Eric during the tasting.

It will be interesting to visit the brewery during the GABF-week in Denver. We are all looking forward for that and hopefully meet Eric again, at least he told us that we were welcome to visit them.

UPDATED 2007-09-25
I made a mistake so I was caught on picture during the tasting, here is the proof; Over at Ofiltrerat. That was really not expected, :).

Stockholm Beer 2007: Pictures from the first day

Stockholm Beer 2007 Part I

So the first day at the festival has passed, and as a summary it was probably the best festival ever. I will come back with a series of reports from this important beer festival.

We really had a blast last night, at least it feels like that today, :).

.

2007-09-21

Beers from Nils Oscar at Stockholm Beer 2007

The Nils Oscar brewery will have some exciting new and updated stuff at the Stockholm Beer this year. Always fun because Nils Oscar is not directly famous for producing many new products, they are more into producing a fixed number of beers produced in the best possible way.

They often get criticized among the beer geek community in Sweden that they are seen as a bit boring, simply because they stick to their normal beers. For my personal opinion it is simply two different strategies, produce a lot of new beers with the result of both amazing beers but also a lot of failures, or you try to concentrate on doing the best possible beers and stick to that. And I think both strategies works and should be accepted by the beer communities.

Anyway the following list of beers will be provided by Nils Oscar;

1. Nils Oscar Farm Ale 30L**Updated, with more hops!**
2. Nils Oscar Julöl 2007 30L **(Christmas beer), A new recipe**
3. Nils Oscar Rökporter 30L**(Smoked porter), A new beer!**
4. Nils Oscar Trippel 30L**A new beer!**
5. Nils Oscar Kalasjulöl 30L**(Christmas beer), Updated, with more dark beer malt**

The trippel is a very strange beer, had the opportunity to test it at Akkurat a few weeks ago and it was an amazing beer, but very difficult to define.

2007-09-19

Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival 2007

Just reminding you all, now it is 1 day left before everything kicks off; URL.

And do not forget that Akkurat is having a pre festival starting today with the theme; Crazy Draught Festival.

The Oliver Twist beer list at Stockholm Beer 2007, Part I (Canada)

Here is the current list of beers from Canada that Oliver Twist will provide for us beer drinkers at this years Stockholm Beer.

For all of you joining the event have a great time at the festival and especially at OT if you like beers from the US and Canada (English real ale will not be sold by OT this year but probably provided by others).

For the rest of you, well you are missing 2 great beer weekends in Stockholm.

Alberta
ALLEY KAT BREWING Co
Full Moon Pale Ale 5%
Herbstweizen 5%

Ontario
BLACK OAK BREWING Co
Black Oak Pale Ale 5%
Black Oak Nut Brown Ale 5%

Saskatchewan
BUSHWAKKER BREWING Co
Stubblejumper Pilsener, 5%
Palliser Porter 5,7%
Summer Wheat 4,5%

Quebec
DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE
Aphrodisiaque 6,5%
Solstice d` Hiver 9%

Ontario
KING BREWING Co
Pilsner 4,8%
Dark Lager 4,8%

Quebec
McAUSLAN BREWING Co
St Ambroise Pale Ale 5%
St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout 5%

Ontario
MILL STREET BREWING Co
Tankhouse Ale 5,2%
Original Organic Lager 4,2%
Coffee Porter 5,5%

Nova Scotia
PROPELLER BREWING Co
Extra Special Bitter 5,0%
London Style Porter 5,0%
Propeller IPA 6,5%

British Columbia
SPINNAKERS BREWING Co
Mitchell`s E.S.B 5,2%
Twenty IPA 6,0%
Currant Noir 8,2%
Das Razz 8,2%

Quebec
UNIBROUE BREWING Co
The normal stuff n,n%

!ALL INFORMATION ABOVE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY JUGGE AT OLIVER TWIST AND THROUGH THE HELP OF "BK", THANKS!

Also go to the official festival site for more information; Stockholm Beer 2007

The Oliver Twist beer list at Stockholm Beer 2007, Part II (USA)

Last post was the beers from Canada, and that was new for this year at Stockholm Beer, short, but very large compared to other years when we only had Unibrou to test.

But now over to a larger list, the planned US-micro beer list with beers to be sold at this years event.

Have fun...

Alaska
Alaskan Brewing Co
Alaskan Smoked Porter
Alaskan Amber

Colorado
Avery Brewing Co
White Rascal
Ellie's Brown Ale
Old Jubilation
Out of Bounds Stout
Hog Heaven

New York
Blue Point Brewing Co
Toasted Amber Lager
Hoptical Illusion IPA
No Apologies Double IPA

Oregon
Deschutes Brewery
Black Butte Porter
Obsidian Stout
Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Inversion IPA

Delaware
Dogfish Head
90 Minute IPA
60 Minute IPA
Raison D Ètre

Colorado
Flying Dog Brewery
Gonzo Imperial Porter
Old Scratch Amber Lager
Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale

Colorado
Great Divide Brewing Co
Titan IPA
Denver Pale Ale
Ridgeline Amber Ale
St Bridges Porter
Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Massachusetts
Harpoon Brewing Co
Harpoon IPA
Munich Style Dark
Octoberfest
Smoked Porter
Kellerbier
UFO Raspberry

Colorado
Left Hand Brewing Co
Jackman’s American Pale Ale
Sawtooth Ale
Milk Stout
Black Jack Porter
Imperial Stout

California
North Coast Brewing Co
Red Seal Ale
Old Rasputin
Old Stock 2007
Brother Thelonius
Le Merle Belgian Style Saison

Colorado
Odell Brewing Company
5 Barrel Pale Ale
Cutthroat Porter
IPA
90 Shilling Ale
Double Pilsner

Colorado
Steamworks Brewing Co
Steam Engine Lager
Conductor Imperial IPA

Oregon
Rogue Ales
Juniper Pale Ale
American Amber
Chipotle Ale
Shakespeare Stout
Honey Orange Wheat
Kell´s Irish Style Lager

California
Stone Brewing Company
Stone Smoked Porter
Stone Ruination IPA
Stone IPA
Arrogant Bastard Ale

Georgia
Terrapin Beer Company
Rye Pale Ale
Golden Ale

Pennsylvania
Victory Brewing Co
HopDevil Ale
Victory V Twelve
Storm King Stout

California
21st Amendment Brewery
Watermelon Wheat (Can)
21A IPA (Can)

!ALL INFORMATION ABOVE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY JUGGE AT OLIVER TWIST AND THROUGH THE HELP OF "BK", THANKS!

Also go to the official festival site for more information; Stockholm Beer 2007

2007-09-18

And the winner is...

Knut Albert over at his beer blog recently reported that Time Out has ranked the best bar in London to the very tiny but great pub of "The Rake".

Fun to see that many people has found this great pub behind the borough market in London. It has been on my London pubs short list since last year when we visited for the very first time. Visited it again during the GBBF this year and it was still a great little pub. How about the secret?, well I think it mostly because it is so different compared to the normal english pubs and the amount of different beers that are sold on this tiny bar, also different compared to the pubs.

For me it is like shrinking Akkurat in Stockholm into to a tiny space but keeping at least a big number of beers all over the globe (The pub seats 44 people and the bar is only 13x7 feet!)




So right now my personal top list in the English capital is;

1. The Wenlock Arms








2. The Rake








3. The Royal Oak

Some geeky statistics...

It is always fun with the unnecessary statistics about beers. I guess this is not so new but it is actually the first time for me where I found a list of the top IBU rated beers. You quite often discuss about what the beers with the highest IBU actually is or how the IBU is when it does not say on the bottle (often the case).

You guess it must be the Dogfish Head 120 Minutes IPA, but I have heard and tasted even more high level IBU beers.

So here is some interesting urls (at least for my geeky interests);

100 Most Alcoholic Beers (ABV)
100 Most Bitter Beers (IBUs)

And if you are wondering about the "winner" (if this is something to achieve) with the massive number of 2007 IBUs. I have to inform you that this is a Danish beer experiments from Mikkeller (beating all the US-hop monsters, and that I actually tested in Denmark during the beer festival in Copenhagen.

Here is some information about the beer from the brewer himself (they are actually 2)

Mikkeller X Hop Juice 2007 IBU



This beer is unrated by me because it was just a fun experiment and you can not actually say what it tasted because with that amount of hop it simply does not taste anything that has to do with beer, you just feel the bitterness.

High level IBU beers are something that I often enjoy, but you have to feel the difference between the bitterness and the rest of the beer to be able to be enjoyable. If it is just bitter there is no beer experience at all. And the secret is to combine that in a balanced way, sounds easy but you often see extreme example that proves that you can not create a great beer just with spicing it with loads of hops. It’s like saying that a crappy meat dish with bad quality meat could be a masterpiece just because you spice it until it is just "spicy".

Anyway it was interesting to taste and was surely a big it if you check the number of people that actually queued to get an "undrinkable" beer! picture below from the festival;



More statistics, has anyone heard about or actually tasted the number 1 beer regarding ABV? (If you skip Dave from Hair of the dog that is a retired beer).

Hakusekikan Eisbock 28%

A just remember one thing... beware the Hop Monster!

2007-09-16

Skinners in Stockholm

As I earlier reported some new Real Ales are found at the quality pubs in Stockholm. Recently it has been the great Skinners brewery. Very decent real ales and traditional english. Look forward for some more beers from this brewery and also the purity brewery as I tasted last weekend. So far the favorite is the Pure UBU, a very clean and balanced golden ale.

QUICK TAKE: Southern Tier Backburner Barleywine 2007

Sampled at Oliver Twist last Saturday after a good dinner. Southern Tier is a personal favorite and also a favorite by Oliver Twist is seems.

It is difficult to say why, but you at start feel that this is typical Southern Tier style beer. So in one way it is a bit difficult to say what kind of beer it is when you first feel the Southern Tier taste, meaning that it takes a couple of seconds to say if it is a DIPA, Barley or something else. That is not a bad thing, I really like when a brewery has distinct taste in all their beers.

This is a "american" barley wine from the Southern Tier Brewing Company in New York, 22 oz. bomber, 10% ABV, 85 IBU.

It has a mahogany color and with some ruby shades. It has a sweet smell with some caramel, citrus & alcohol. And for me it is more a English type barley wine, i.e. it has not the massive amount of hops that you normally feel in the american style version.

Does not mean that it is not a hoppy beer, it comes with 85 IBU so that say something about the experience. Taste is toffee and slight roasty. Basically it is very balanced compared to other rivals from the US, but more English then you could expect from Souther Tier.

It is not a favorite beer from Souther Tier or a favorite barley, but it is decent stuff and something that you can drink without being kicked out of the seat when you talk about alchohol and the hop level.

So on my american barleywine toplist you still find;

1. Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale

2. Great Divide Old Ruffian Barley Wine

Some more stupidity from Sweden!

Sweden and how we look at alcohol never stops surprising me. A few weeks back I wrote about the consequences for Swedish breweries now when it is legal to buy beers through internet as long as the reseller is outside the country. The breweries can not sell directly to us, and they are too small to sell to Systembolaget (state owned shops). Instead the only option they have is to export the beers and then we can buy them back from an internet site outside the country, and probably with greatly increased prices, plus that you also have to buy with added Swedish beer taxes to the increased price.

So what about more stupidity and something that made me very angry this morning?, here is the story.

In Sweden and many other European countries that have high alcohol taxes compared to other European countries have similar problems. The problem is that people try to override the problem through buying all the alcohol outside the country or even buy smuggled beer that is pouring into the country.

The result is that people buy cheap beers that do not help the beer culture at all. And this affects the brewery industry in the country with the result that only a few large ones can remain, and they often have to go the same way for surviving, meaning that they export the beers so that the Swedes can buy them outside the border in countries like Denmark or Germany. And to make this in an economic way they try to produce the beers cheaper and quicker, which results in poorer quality during the production.

With that the brewery industry has tried to lobby for years trying to convince the Swedish parliament for creating a better situation that can help the local breweries against the cheap crappy rivals from abroad. The bigger breweries in Sweden have calculated that a 30% decrease would help them so that the beers can compete. The politics are arguing that this would mean that we would drink more. But the truth is just that you would move the market back so that we buy more beer locally in Sweden at the Systembolaget and at pubs and restaurants. I do no think that we would drink more, because for us the price is very important and that is why the abroad market has increased. And if you need to buy beer once or twice each year, I would speculate that you naturally buy more just because you try to calculate how much you need and think it is so cheap.

If you buy it locally at Systembolaget or even better at your local pub you can buy when you feel for it and with that you drink less and hopefully drink less. At least increasing the taxes and driving the market outside the country or over to the black market does not help, at least that is not the solution. It only just destroys the local brewery market in each country that tries it.

So what is then the stupidity which I am so angry about? well, here is the deal.

EU has recently settled that Sweden has different taxes for Beer and Wine, where the wine tax is higher. They then mean that Sweden as a country is executing discrimination against the wine industry in Europe compared to the local market, which is mainly the beer industry (Swedish wines is not a big market, :)).

When this decision came it was discussed that this was a blow to the Swedish alcohol regulations and that it would finally break up, and many people were so upset. The solution that was discussed that now Sweden had to decrease the wine taxes so that we get the same taxes, and the beer industry argued as mentioned before that both taxes should decrease to a more normal level.

But what happened? well the news came this morning that the government has now find a solution to the problem. Instead of decreasing the wine taxes to the same level as the beer taxes, the solution is that the beer tax is DECREASED to the same level as the wine tax. And with that the total alcohol taxes is increased, not decreased.

How stupid can it be? we do changes due to the EU rules but not in the same time look at the consequences. No, we just decrease it, and the answer back from the responsible minister is that it will have limited effect to the Swedish market.

Limited effects! The beer is pouring into the country and the market is moving to a black market which means that the Swedish brewery industry is dying. And the minister says limited effect and come with a conclusion to the problem that the solution is decreasing something that is killing a market and is driving people to drink cheap Euro lagers. Limited effects?

Seems that the Swedish politics can not try to create newer and better solutions when the feel that the old system is breaking up, no they think that they can find a solution by just keeping the system and doing strange decisions within the existing system instead. It is time for Sweden to understand that the battle is over and trying to keep the system just means that it will create very unlogic results, like;

1. More and more alcohol is bought outside the country.
2. More and more is moved to the black market.
3. Swedish breweries are dying
4. We drink more and more and concentrated to cheap beers and wine, and at home instead of good quality products at the local restaurants and pubs.
5. To buy a micro product for home consumption you have to buy it abroad through an internet site

What can you say? "OUT OUT YOU DEMONS OF STUPIDITY"...

2007-09-15

My top 5 US-breweries all categories


Just for fun, here is my official top 5 US micro breweries overall.
Meaning best of everything and five 5 breweries I could stick with forever, if you talk about US-beers.

1. Russian River Brewing Company (Santa Rosa, CA)
2. Weyerbacher Brewing Co.
3. Stone Brewing Co. (Escondido, CA)
4. Green Flash Brewing, (Vixta, CA)
5. Bell's Brewery, Inc (Kalamazoo, MI)

UPDATED: August 12, 2009

(Almost on the list; Alpine Beer Company (a new favorite from SD) & Great Divide)

2007-09-14

The Franken Beer Festival at Akkurat

The last years big success is continuing this year at Akkurat. During the Stockholm Beer festival weeks, Akkurat will continue the new "tradtion" to have different micro festivals at the pub.

This year they have found a couple of new breweries from Franken (in germany if you have missed that). More information will follow, but right now the breweries that will be at the festival are the following;

Beck Brau: (Trabbelsdorf ), Fässla (Bamberg), Spezial Bräu (Bamberg),
Heller Bräu "Schlenkerla" (Bamberg),
Keesman (Bamberg), Kaiserdom (Bamberg), Greifenklau (Bamberg), Hommel
(Merkendorf)
Wagner (Merkendorf), Krüg (Breitenlesau), Grasser (Huppendorf),
Foerst - Goldener Löwe (Drügendor), Hartman (Würgau)
Günther- Bräu (Burkunstadt) ”You touch my tralala….”

Crazy Draught Festival at Akkurat

When we are talking about beer news I also like to inform you all that the same pub (Akkurat) will have a crazy draught festival starting on wednesday September 19 which is connected to Stockholm Beer Festival.

What they are doing is simply to get some very exclusive draught beers from their cellars. And if you know about Akkurat you can imagine that we can look forward for something very exclusive.

The information so far looks very promising;

1. Chouffe Houblon
2. Sierra Celebration
3. Eylenbosch Kriek & Frambozen ’89
4. Cantillon Vignerone
5. Cantillon St. Lamvinus
6. Mixed vintage collection from Nils Oscar
7. Fullers Vinage Cask 2006
8. Straffe Bink
9. Närke Stormaktsporter (yes, draught!!)
10. Närke Rainbow Warrior
11. North Coast Collaboration Old Rasputin
12. Koff Porter 7,2%

What can we say?, it looks great. Especially Närke Storkmakts Porter on draught, yeeeh.

Not beer, but...

very new for us in Sweden, at least from the state!. The pub Akkurat in Stockholm reports that today (070914) they will have a test run on some American meads plus a few other countries. As I know this is the very first time we can test American mead in Stockholm and also probably in Europe.

So what can we get? here is the full list of available starting tonight;

Heidrum (USA):
1. Orange Blossom
2. Sage Blossom
3. Alfalfa Blossom

Mountain Meadows (USA)
1. Honeymoon Nectar
2. Cranberry Mead

APIS (Polen)
1. Korzenny
2. Piastowski
3. Jadwiga

Lurgashall Winery (England)
1. English Mead

I will probably come back with a short report how this little experiment worked out over at Akkurat.

UPDATED 2007-09-15 00:22
Just came back from Akkurat after my first mead experience. To summarize it; very interesting but I am not convinced. For me and I have to excuse anyone that enjoys mead, it is good as a replacement for a dessert wine or similar, but that’s it. The tested meads during the evening were the following;

1. Mountain Meadows, Honeymoon Nectar (like a traditional dessert wine, this is my number 2)
2. Heidrum, Alfalfa Blossom (like a Champaign, sparkling, but not a winner)
3. Apis, Korzenny (more traditional and sweet)
4. Apis, Piastowski (even sweeter)
5. Apis, Jadwiga (king of the hill, like drinking liquid honey, but for me this was the winner, 16% and so sweet that you hardly could drink it at all)

2007-09-10

QUICK TAKE: Pure UBU from Purity Brewery

Cask at Oliver Twist this Saturday. This was a newcomer from me and was quite a refreshment when it seems that we have been drinking Dark Star beers all summer long when you talk about Real Ale in Stockholm (nothing wrong with Dark Star, but it is always good with something else).

So it is quite nice that a couple of other breweries are coming along, right now it seems to be the UBU from Purity and a couple from the Skinners brewery, but hopefully other breweries will come along when the summer is now ending.

A newcomer from me and it also seems to be a very young brewery in the UK. It is a 4.5% ABV and a distinctive premium amber coloured beer that was very refreshing.

The story seems to be that the brewery was started in 2004 and early had a vision to support the environment through natural ingrediants, support recycling and respect their community, which seems nice!

The beer UBU is pronounced OO-BOO that has something todo with secrets or something, really not sure. The malts come from Maris Otter, Crystal & Black Malts and added with Challenger and Cascade hops. Simply a full flavoured and very balanced beer which was quite nice. A lot of citrus and refreshing hops, very nice condition at Oliver Twist (as usual).

I really like this one and would it give 4/5. Look forward for more beers from this very exiting brewery (seems they have 2!) and it is of course always fun with new English breweries.

2007-09-09

Canadian beers in Sweden


We have been enjoying some Canadian beers the last couple of years and mostly in the form of the Unibroue brewery in Quebec (my personal favorite is the Raftman), but that's it.

Now I got informed by Jugge at Oliver Twist that they will skip the English real ales at this years Stockholm Beer and instead concentrate on the normal US-micro beers that we have enjoyed the last couple of years, but will instead also add at least 8 breweries from Canada. I do not which, but it will be interesting to see what they have found for us. If you look at the great US-micros that they have provided, this seems to look very promising. Last year we were enjoying both Stone IPA and Russian River Pliny The Elder on tap, so we are looking forward what OT will give us this year.

I have very limited knowledge in good Canadian breweries (except Unibroue), but hopefully I will have the chance this time to learn a bit more during the festival.

What do you think?, what are the favorite Canadian breweries, if any?

Only 11 days left..

Just to remind you and have the possibility to attend. It is 11 days left before this years Stockholm Beer kicks off.

It is held for the 16th time at Nacka Strand south of Stockholm and is seen as one of the best beer festivals in the world. Here is a link to buy tickets for the festival (ticnet).

This year we can expect around 1.300 different beers, whiskey and calvados to be available. Yes whiskey and calvados because the full name of the festival is "Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival". And this time they have also increased the festival with a additional "taste house" of 2500 m2.

Regarding beers here is the full list of all that will attend; url.

To be a small country as Sweden it is a bit impressive that the festival is the largest beer festival in Europe (can be discussed, but according to Stockholm Beer it is the largest, I guess it depends what you mean with largest, I would guess that they are talking about the number of different beers, but I am not sure) and the largest whiskey festival in the world.

US beers in the UK, a reflection from a Swede

I just read a article at the hop-talk blog written by maeib over at his blog; maeib's Beerblog that I thought to reflect on and try to compare it to the similar situation in Sweden.

In short the article points out 3 different reasons why there are so few US-beers available in the UK;

1. High prices compared to domestic beers.
2. US beers are seen as crap beers like Bud etc.
3. UK beer drinkers and the British palate are not compatible with the American style beers.

From a Swedish perspective you can summaries that in short we have the same situation, a few differences but in short it looks very similar.

Let’s start with pricing, as you probably know we are not trusted to buy our beers in normal shops, instead the state is controlling the sales through a monopoly situation and we can only buy the beers at our local Systembolaget. The Swedish beer tax has one single goal and that is to limit the sales as much as possible.

Otherwise the state thinks that we would drink us to death. This means that beers are expensive and the way our big breweries are trying to address this is mainly to produce beers as cheap as possible. The goal is to be able to sell beers with a moderate price so that we continue to buy them. The result of this trend is that almost 100% of all beer sales at the Systembolaget is concentrated on cheap crappy Euro lagers that mostly have the taste of the can and alcohol (we Swedes are looks for price performance regarding alcohol, so many of the favorite ones are strong beers and over 7%, which simply means that the breweries are adding alcohol to the already crappy beers and with the result that it only taste of alcohol and a touch of barley).

So you can imagine what happens to the sales of an imported beer from the US, it is simply impossible to compete, as long as we talk about the majority of the market where price performance is the only strategy.

Lets compare, one of the most popular beers simply called Svensk Starköl (Swedish Strong Beer!) comes with a price of SEK 7.60 (21.51 SEK/LIT) and then compare it to a US-import; Sierra Nevada Pale Ale SEK 22.50 (63.38 SEK/LIT). So the Swedes simply chooses the Swedish strong, simply because you can get almost 3 cans of it compared to the US-imports, they do not care that the strong beer can not be seen as a beer, just some kind of brew with alcohol added to it.

Well, now comes the message, you would think that selling US beers is useless. But that is not the case. Maeib also mentions this in his article; we will never catch the big heathens when the buy beers, but the small US-breweries that have come to the Systembolaget are actually selling a lot of beers. There is a small group of people in Sweden that is learning to drink good beers, mostly because of the available beers at our pubs.

This interest in increasing so much that small breweries in the USA is actually making money of selling beers to the Systembolaget, because you have a quite big amount of customers to sell to. This is mainly because Systembolaget is a very big buyer when they actually buy something.

As a reflection is that when Read Seal Ale at the North Coast Brewery is delivering beers to Systembolaget the whole brew that day is only for Systembolaget. The trucks are standing outside the brewery and is delivered directly and loaded to the trucks.

This now means that Systembolaget is one of the biggest buyers and is seen as a very important for a brewery on the west coast of the USA! You can imagine that when Red Seal is now sold at 100 shops in Sweden with addition of sales each month and has also spread too many local pubs that buy directly through the reseller.

This is seen as very important business for the micro breweries and has, for example BA in the USA recently reported the following in their statistics;

Recent US Craft Beer Launches in Sweden
In late 2005, North Coast’s Red Seal Ale was awarded a tender from Sweden’s retail monopoly, Systembolaget. As a result, Systembolaget has guaranteed placement for Red Seal Ale in the retailer’s top 100 stores throughout Sweden. The brand will hit the shelves in April 2006. This listing is expected to also drive sales in Sweden’s hotel and restaurant sector.

So what I am trying to say is that the US-breweries should try even further, because the markets in small countries like Sweden can be important and if you get your foot into Systembolaget it can be hit, plus that the more beers we get through Systembolaget the more our interests of such craft beers will increase.

As in GB the price is important, but with an import quality beers at the US ones this should not been seen as a problem. It is as any other quality product and imported from far places, the price will always be high, but they are not too high compared to what you actually get to drink. Myself sees it as not so expensive to buy a beer for SEK 22, because compared to the SEK 7.6 beer this such a better product and is seen as a little bargain, especially compared to buying the beer at the pub, which would probably be SEK 50-60 or similar.

How about the second thing maeb mentions; US-beer are seen as crappy beers, and the first reaction you get when you tell people that the best beer country for me is the US, not England or Belgium is that you are kidding.

The only way to change this is making people drink the beers. Because what I have seen is that if you take your friends to a pub where you can get a US beers the result very often is that they come very soon to the conclusion that this was simply great, I did not understand that a beer could be so good.

So when I have the possibility to choose a beer for someone I always tend to test a US-beer and this has resulted in the fact that next time they will test a US-beer if available (same thing if you give them a Belgian or English craft beer). And when they then go to the Systembolaget and find out that they can at least buy a bottle of Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or a Red Seal then we have suddenly succeed in getting one more to actually respect good craft beers.

So that is the idea here, get them to taste it and they will often like it. This is the same for people in the GB; as soon as you can actually get a good craft beer at your local pub, then people will actually buy it. Not the majority of people, but enough to make a market and hopefully widen what you can get at a pub in GB or Sweden.

Finally the third point that maeb is talking about. This is simply not true, same thing as in Sweden, we only like light Euro lagers and sometimes a porter or two, well if you get people to test they will almost always like it and return to better beers the next time they test it themselves.

And you are surprised when it happens and that beers seen as very difficult almost always is a hit. I remember one time when we had a company dinner with a customer around a year ago at Oliver Twist (my favorite US-beer pub in Stockholm, and the only one!); with the company card we got to the taste many of the beers from the US-beers fridge. And to my surprise the favorite one was the strongest and the hoppiest monsters like Dog fish 90 min and 120 min, plus Hops Infusion from Weyrbacher!

This dinner was talked about weeks after, and the comments I got was simply, I could not believe that a beer could be so good, that is always fun to hear. So it is not true that a palate would be built in a certain way, for example how could then the favorite beer for a person that is used with a big strong lager beer then be Dog fish 120 min!!!

The situation is not great in Sweden, but we can at least get a few beers at Systembolaget and we have several pubs that have US-micros for sales. So what can I say, we want more beers and do not be afraid to test, it can be a hit, and we will help you drink the stuff.

For reference this is the current list of US beers at Systembolaget;

Anchor Bock Beer, Anchor Christmas Ale, Anchor Steam Beer, Anchor Summer Beer, Black Jack Porter Brewer's Choice,Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout,Brooklyn Brown Ale, Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Local 1, Budweiser Liberty Ale, Miller, Miller Lite, Old Stock Ale, Red Seal Ale, Samuel Adams Black Lager, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Samuel Adams Summer Ale, Samuel Adams Boston Ale 15.60 11253 Samuel Adams Octoberfest, Sawtooth Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot.

Real Ale Nils Oscar Imperial Stout at Akkurat!

This entry is mainly for maeib over at maeib's Beerblog. Today at Akkurat we had Nils Oscar Imperial Stout as a casked Real Ale version. (Färsk = Fresh)

And what can I say, well simply it was amazing!!, like the bottled version and the normal draught one but so much smother and tasty, simply world class.

Hope you enjoy your bottle of Nils Oscar when you finally open it. And I can also inform you all that in November Nils Oscar will release a; "Smoked Porter"!! (Nils Oscar Rökporter 2007), which seems very interesting, thanks Palle for producing such great brews.

2007-09-08

A arrogant bastard at Oliver Twist!

So the time that we all beer geeks have been waiting for in Stockholm has finally come. Oliver Twist in Stockholm came to the end of the US-micro draught list and ended up with a bastard!

We all thought that the rest of the beer crews had spend all of the beers during the week and the rest during Friday, has been on tap since the beginning of the week, but we were lucky and could get hold of a Arrogant Bastard from Stone Brewery in San Diego during our traditional Saturday pub cruise.

I have tasted the beer before both on bottle and tap (Sunset Grill & Tap in Boston and couple of other places) so it was not new for me, but today it came to its best days. I do not think this is the best beer in the world and Stone as a brewery is a bit exaggerated mostly because that they are very good at creating a need for buying their beers, frankly Stone is the micro brewery in the states that is best in selling the beers and making money of it and creating a hype (maybe over hyped?), but is not the best when it comes to the actual beers.

Anyhow today the beer was excellent and just told me one thing; "Drink me, I am the best beer in world".

I really enjoyed it this time, and you can understand why it get so high rating at sites like RateBeer or BeerAdvocate, and as a hop head this is really my cup of tea.

It comes with a strong malty smell with loads of hoppy bitterness and a warm touch of alcohol. Do not remember in details compared to the bottled version, but to my likings this is one of the few beers from the US that is a bit better as a draught version (in Boston we had three of these bastards; normal on tap, cask and the oak ed version of tap!).

I really love this stuff and Stone is still one of my favorite breweries in the states, does not care about how commercial they are, as long as they produce great beers. It is not so often, but this time I had to buy the same beer once again during the same evening, that say something about how great it was.

With the result that we have now tasted at least 8-10 US beers on tap during a couple of week and that we can buy at least 25 or 30 other types of US-beers on the bottle at Oliver Twist I would like to challenge you all (if I am not the only one reading this blog entry, :)).

Can we find a better pub in Europe or the rest of the world except the US that has the amount, range and knowledge of US-beers than Oliver Twist in Stockholm?

Just asking because I do not know of a better place and is wondering if any other place in Europe can compete with this kind of quality beers from the USA.

Please help me and add any comments about a similar place outside the US that compete with the following; (what has been provided to us the last couple of weeks at Oliver Twist)

Great divide: Denver pale ale., Ridgeline amber ale., St Bridges porter., Titan IPA., Old ruffian barley wine.
Oskar blues: Dales pale ale., Old chub., Gordon double IPA.
Left hand: Sawtooth., Deep cover brown ale., Black jack porter.,Imperial stout.,Milk stout.,Haystack wheat.,Jackmans pale ale.,Warrior IPA.
Rouge: American amber.,Dead guy ale.,Dry hop red.,Brutal bitter.,Chipotle.,Chocolate stout.,Shakespeare stout.,Hazelnut brown.,Half-a-weizen.,XS imperial IPA.,XS Russian imperial stout.,Anniversary.
North coast: Acme IPA.
Andersson Valley: Hop ottin IPA.
Avery: IPA.
Dogfish head: 60 minutes.,90 minutes.,Festina peach.
Fort Collins: Chocolate stout.,Rocky mountain IPA.,Rocky mountain IPA.
Lost coast: Indica IPA.
Butternuts: Porkslap ale.,Snapperhead IPA.
Pyramid: IPA.
Smuttynose: IPA.,Big A.
Southern Tier: IPA.,Java stout.
Speak easy: Double daddy.
Stone: Arrogant bastard.,Ruination.,Vertical epic.
Thirsty dog: Hoppus maximus.
Victory: Hop devil.

And of these the following were served on tap (plus the Indica India Pale Ale not on the list);

And remember that Oliver Twist gets a load of these beers at least every third month or so, and we also were drinking the Vertical from Stone at the outdoor teracce just a couple of weeks ago,

I am simply asking myself, can this be the US-beer heaven in the world?, at least in Europe and outside the US.