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.
2007-09-08
A arrogant bastard at Oliver Twist!
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4 comments:
Wow! What a special place to have access too. Nowhere in the US that I know of can you find a draft selection so diverse in beers from all across the country. Those are some mighty nice beers, and I saw you mentioned the Oaked Bastard, cause I think that beer is great. The effect of the wood chips on rounding out the flavors of the regular Arrogant Bastard is just amazing.
Yes I know. We feel very lucky to have such a great place over here in Sweden and Stockholm. It is always fun to see that sometimes it is easier to get a certain beer compared to someone over on the US-east coast getting a beer from the west coast.
We have the similar experiences with czech-beer were we have a pub that have 10-12 different on draught, compared to the czech republic were you have to visi 10-12 different places all over the country to taste them all. Or the fact that we can get all trappist beers at one place, and togehter with all lambic breweries (1-2 on draught).
Yes I know we are lucky bastards. The only problem is that it is very expensive to taste them all.
So for example Arrogant Bastard on draught costed 88 SEK, around $13!, but for me it is a bargain if you think about how far the beer has travelled and how exclusive it is over here in Europe.
Mattias - you are a lucky man! That's an incredible selection - I've rarely seen such a gathering of excellent beers. The Publick House in Boston is about the only place I've seen that may compare. That's especially incredible for a European pub. Also, interesting to see so many American brews in a country that has so many phenomenal local options to choose from. Nevertheless, Oliver Twist is doing some excellent things - I'll definitely stop in if I'm ever in the area.
Ben, talking about Boston, my personal favorite around Boston since I visited the extreme beer fest in feb must be the Sunset Grill (Allston). Talking about at least US-micro then they have 112! on tap. So for me that we really a beer heaven and "a bit" better than Oliver Twist. Just a small thing, they had 3 bastards on tap; Normal, cask and the oaked on tap! I can really recommend that place if you are ever in the Boston area, :).
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