2007-10-30

Danish & Norwegian beers in Portland?


The Belmont Station beer blog reports the following new beers to be sold at the beer store in Portland.

If you do not know it already Belmont is a great beer shop in Portland that is famous for the amount of beers and a genuin beer interest these guys have.

They also demonstrate with the list below that they have a big beer knowledge, they really know their business. It is always impressive to check out the latest beers they provide and you are really jealous for the beer that you can actually get over at Portland, wish I could have the same amount of great US-beers that they provide over here in Sweden.

New Danish Beer:

Norrebro Bryghus - North Bridge Extreme: North Bridge Extreme is the brewers gift to Anders on the 1 year aniversary for the opening of Nørrebro Bryghus.

Norrebro Bryghus - Skargaards Porter: An authentic Porter at 6% ABV.

Mikkeller - Stateside IPA: Mikkellers tribute to american micro-brew.

Olfabrikken - 100 Gram IPA: This is the second in a range of Ølfabrikken special ales.
New Norwegian Beer:

Nogne-O - Saison: Saison fra Nøgne Ø er flaskemodnet, dvs. upasteurisert og ufiltrert.

Nogne-O - Batch #100 Barleywine: A celebration of Nøgne Ø achieving batch #100.

Nogne-O - IPA: 17,5 degrees P, 60 IBU, 7,5 vol% alk. : Semi-dark, malty and very bitter ale.

Nogne - O - Dark Horizon 1st Edition: Dark Horizon is a ’hybrid’ - an ale that pairs the roasted bitterness of coffee with a wine-like complexity.

Haandbryggeriet - Norse Porter:
So the big question here is; When will we see a bunch of Swedish beers over at Belmont???

Seems that both the Danes and the Norwegians have found a way, but that the Swedes have not yet understod the interests of quality beers in the US.

One personal idea is maybe that most of the breweries as above are what I could call "US-inspired breweries", i.e. American IPAs, American Pale Ales, DIPAs etc, and that the Swedes are not in to that, at least not at the same level that the Danes like Mikkeller is playing around with.

GABF Recap: Looking for our Japanese friends!

Anyone who recognize yourself at this misserable photo taken during the GABF week over at Falling Rock?

Well we met a bunch of japanese beer lovers during the week, both over at Fort Collins Brewer and Odells and then later at Falling Rocks. I think you were a couple home brewers and someone connected to the Popeye bar in Tokyo.

Anyway I remember that we succeeded in getting our photographer taking a additional picture with a real camera (not through my cell phone) that seemed to go ok. If you ever get to my simple little blog, it could be quite fun if you could share this photo with me.

Thanks, and you never know if we will turn up at Popeyes in a distant future, or the Real Ale Festival in Tokyo, :-).

Boulder County Brews Cruise: Group Shots

Got a nice little picture from Chris over at Left Hand taken at the Left Hand brewery during the brews cruise a few weeks back.


For all you that joined this great beer experience, I can say again thanks to everyone and

"bira, bira, bärs, bärs, mera öl, mera öl"
to you all that maybe remember the "Swedes" noisy "song".

2007-10-27

QUICKTAKE: He'Brew Miraculous Jewbelation (8) (2004)

Straight from the cuvee list at Akkurat we decided to sample a beer beer from one of our favorite breweries in the US, namely Shmaltz Brewing Company (He'Brew).

So we found a HeBrew from 2004 and the 8th Jewbelation beer from this small but amazing brewery. Seems that you can store the beer but in the same time it was really time for the beer, it had started to sweeten and loosing the touch. But still you could feel that it was a genuin HeBrew.

The beer is labeled as a Amercian porter and the taste is very sweet with rich dark fruity notes and a slightly alcoholic finish. When you sipped on the beer you could get notes of everything from raisins, plum to chocolate & espresso. In the end a amazing beer that is slowly passing its best moments.

If you have missed the concept of Jewbelation it means based on the number you get the same amount of malts, hops and abvs, for example 8 malts, 8 hops and 8% ABV for this version.

Based on that you could enjoy the latest incarnation of Jewbelation this year in the form of the 11th version (amazing beer sampled at Falling Rock, Denver).

A touch of colorado in Sweden: Part II

The Colorado journey continues back home in Sweden. At the usual Saturday beer crawl in Stockholm we could ad Avery to the Colorado brewery list, together with the normal OB!

So where was that? You can probably guess if you have read my entries before, simply;

Oliver Twist

A touch of Colorado in Sweden?

Just coming back from Colorado at this years GABF it is always fun to discover that Sweden is not a bad place for good beers at the end.

We came back this night from a play at the municipal theatre (Le nozze di Figaro) and thought to test out the new pub of Bishop Arms Vasagatan. A busy place in central Stockholm were you seldom set your foot as a beer geek.

The place is ok, but nothing to really recommend as a great bar, but it was in a sense a beer paradise if you actually got through the crowd of drunk people and could check out the fridges. We got stuck with one particular fridge that the entry is really about. I would simply call it "The US Beer Fridge", simply because it was packaged with loads of amazing US-beers.

A US-fridge from heaven

Probably a bit difficult to spot out all of the goddies, but checking the fridge I could spot the following US-breweris; 7 Flying Dogs, 6 Samuel Adams, 4 Great Divide, 7 Sierra Nevada, 3 Oskar Blues, 2 Rogue, 6 Left Hand, 6 Anchor.

Could it be better?, I do not know, at least not in central Stockholm (I am not comparing OT, this time).

Really good to actually test out a Dales Pale Ale and a Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Stout just 2 weeks after we came home from Colorado, and actually drink beer back home from places that you visited just weeks ago.

So we also fixed the nice little picture of a Dales girl and her beer, I guess my girlfriend could not imagine that she would actually drink a Dales when she put on her new Dale T-shirt this morning (gift from me when we visited Lyons, 2 weeks ago!).

At least this is a amazing beer and in someway it worked excellect after the Nögne #100 Imperial IPA from Norway, which was the beer that I simply had to test as the first beer (I know a Double IPA at 10% ABV as the first beer, but its unique and had to be tested).

As a bar the new BA is ok, but not my cup of tea. But you could not complain about the beer when you actually got the staff to pick them out; Nögne, a couple of Danes, 5-6 Swedish Micro, a US-beer fridge etc etc, simply amazing.

Right now it was not actually discovered by the Swedes visiting the place, the still were drinking Mariestad or Staro, sad by true.

In this new bar at least we had 3 different Colorado breweries to choose from (OB, GD & FD), that does not happen every day!, at least not 5 minutes from the central station.

2007-10-25

My top 5 canned craft beers

The breweries in the US are producing more and more quality beers on a can. And people are getting to understand that a beer on a can is just not a poor macro beer like a bud or similar.

My US-canned beer experience is still not so big but it is increasing so much lately that I have decided to create a top list. So here is my contribution;

1. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout
2. Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale
3. Maui Brewing Big Swell IPA
4. Butternuts Snapperhead IPA
5. 21st Amendment IPA

 

 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATED 090812

Removed and added 2 beers, the 21st IPA and the great IPA from Maui.


UPDATED 071225
Picture of the new IPA at Oliver Twist in the form of a IPA on a can;

UPDATED 071125
Seems the Darkness from Surly as a canned version was only in my dreams (but a good one).

So I have reordered and put in the IPA from Butternuts that I am 100% sure is a canned beer and something I have sampled a couple of times over at my local pub. They also has a pale ale in the form of "Pork Slap"!

The GABF07 week: The result in pictures...

So here is just some pictures from our great beer adventure around the Denver area.



What can you say?, we simply had a blast and will live on the beer experience for months to come.

Cheers to all that attended the GABF and the Falling Rock during the days & nights.

2007-10-24

Söderbärke Mikro Öl Festival (Beer Festival)


With the help from Thomas Husing here is the official list for this years beer festival over at Söderbärke (Oct 26-27). This is a yearly held festival that has created quite a lot of credit the last couple of years.

Will not be able to attend (already filled up with Copenhagen, Stockholm, GBBF and lastly GABF this year, so far, :-)).

But I really recommend for you guys that can attend to get over to the festival, because looking at the list it is pretty impressive for such a small and local beer festival. Seems like a good mixture of beer locally from Sweden, but also a good selection of imported beers from the UK, Germany and the US.

More information about the festival can be found over here; SöderbärkeMikroÖlFestival. And if you ever wonder where this place is located here is a map.

SMÖF 2007

Bryggeri

Ölsort

%

Land

Bath Ales

Bath Wild Hare

5

England

Bernard Family Brewery

Bernard Světlý Ležák 12°, fat

4,7

Tjeckien

Bernard Family Brewery

Bernard Cerné Pivo 13°, fat

5,1

Tjeckien

Bernard Family Brewery

Bernard Svetly lezak 11

4,5

Tjeckien

Bernard Family Brewery

Bernard Jantarový Ležák 11°

4,5

Tjeckien

Bohemia Regent

Bohemia Regent Svetly Lezak, fat

5

Tjeckien

Brasserie Almaza

Almaza Pilsener

4,1

Libanon

Brauhaus Riegele

Riegele Feines Urhell

4,7

Tyskland

Brauhaus Riegele

Riegele Kellerbier

5

Tyskland

Brauhaus Riegele

Riegele Alte Weisse

5

Tyskland

Brauhaus Torgau

Torgauer Landbier

5,5

Tyskland

Butcombe Brewery

Butcombe Gold

4,7

England

Christophe Noyon Brasseur

2 Caps

6

Frankrike

De Proefbrouwerij

IKI

4,3

Belgien

Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu AG

Das Schwarze

4,9

Tyskland

Dugges Ale o Porterbryggeri

Johannas Bästa Bitter

4,6

Mölndal

Dugges Ale o Porterbryggeri

Avenyn Ale

5

Mölndal

Duvel Moortgat

Maredsous 6 2005

6

Belgien

Flying Dog Brewery

Gonzo Imperial Porter 2005

9,5

USA

Fürstlich Fürstenbergische

Furstenberg Weizen hefe dunkel

5,4

Tyskland

Föroya Bjór

Rockall Brown Ale

5,8

Färöarna

Great Divide Brewery

St Bridgets Porter

5,9

USA

Hantverksbryggeriet

Baronen 2005

9,6

Västerås

Haus der 131 Biere

Akosombo

5,5

Ghana

Haus der 131 Biere

Owusu Dark

6,5

Benin

Heather Ales

Fraoch Ales

5

Skottland

Hong Kong S.A.R. Brewing

Hong Kong Dragons Back

5,2

Hong Kong

Hue Brewery

Hue Beer

5

Vietnamn

Inveralmond Brewery

Blackfriar

7,5

Skottland

Irish Pub

Svarta Katten, cask fat

4,1

Sundsvall

Irish Pub

Stabbläggaren, cask fat

4,3

Sundsvall

Kilimanjaro Beer Works

Serengeti-Banana

5,1

Tanzania

Kopparbergs Bryggeri

Zeunerts Merke

5,3

Sollefteå

Kulmbacher Brauerei

Kapuziner Weissbier

5,4

Tyskland

Kulmbacher Brauerei

EKU 28

11

Tyskland

Kulmbacher Brauerei

Mönchshof Kellerbier

5,4

Tyskland

Lao Brewery Co

Beer Lao

5

Laos

Lefebvre Brasserie

Vallon

5,8

Belgien

Left Hand Brewery

Jackmans Pale Ale

5,2

USA

Left Hand Brewery

Deep Cover Brown Ale

4,4

USA

Left Hand Brewery

Haystack Wheat

5,0

USA

Leikeim

Leikeim Schwarzbier

4,9

Tyskland

Lindemans

Lindemans Lambic 1996

6

Belgien

Lion Brewery

Lion Stout

8

Ceylon

Meantime brewing

Meantime Pale Ale

4,7

England

Nils Oscar Bryggeri

Nils Oscar Julöl 2005

7

Nyköping

Nogne Ö

India Pale Ale 2005

7,5

Norge

Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri

Brännskär Brown Ale

5,3

Nynäshamn

Närke Kulturbryggeri

Kaggen Stormaktsporter 2006

10

Örebro

Närke Kulturbryggeri

Max Golding Starkporter 2007

7,2

Örebro

Närke Kulturbryggeri

! , fat

8,8

Örebro

Närke Kulturbryggeri

Närke Slättöl, fat

4,7

Örebro

Närke Kulturbryggeri

Söderbärke Festivalöl, fat

5,8

Örebro

Närke Kulturbryggeri

Sim-Ko

4,8

Örebro

Närke Kulturbryggeri

Anders Göranssons Bästa Rököl, fat

6,3

Örebro

Okells

Doctor Okells IPA

4,5

England

Oppigårds Bryggeri

Oppigårds Old Town Ale 2005

6,5

Dalarna

Oppigårds Bryggeri

Smithy Ale, fat

4,6

Dalarna

Oppigårds Bryggeri

Winter Ale 2007, fat

5,3

Dalarna

Orkney Brewery

Dragonhead Stout

4

Skottland

Oskar Blues Brewery

Old Chub Scottish Ale

8,0

USA

Pivovar Maly Rohozec

Rohozec Podskalak Světlé Výčepní 10°

4,2

Tjeckien

Pivovar Maly Rohozec

Rohozec Skalak Světlý Ležák 12°

5,3

Tjeckien

Pivovar Maly Rohozec

Rohozec Skalak Tmave Speciali 13°

5,9

Tjeckien

Pivovar Náchod

Primátor Premium Lager

5

Tjeckien

Pivovar Svijany

Svijanský Máz 11°

4,8

Tjeckien

Pivovar Svijany

Svijanská Kněžna 13°

5,2

Tjeckien

Pivovar Svijany

Svijanský Kníže 13°

5,6

Tjeckien

Pivovar Svijany

Svijanský Rytíř Bitter

5

Tjeckien

Postbrauerei Nesselwang

Allgäuer Landbier

4,8

Tyskland

Postbrauerei Nesselwang

Postwirts Dunkel

4,9

Tyskland

Pugsley Brewing LLC

Sea Dog Hazelnut Porter

5,4

USA

Pugsley Brewing LLC

Sea Dog India Pale Ale

6,0

USA

Ridna Marka

Pshenychne Etalon

5

Ukraina

Ringwood

Ringwood Old Thumper

5,6

England

Ringwood

Ringwood XXXX Porter

4,7

England

Rochefort - Abbaye de Notre

Rochefort 10 2006

11,3

Belgien

Rouge Brewery

Chipotle

5,5

USA

Rouge Brewery

Dry Hop Red

5,2

USA

Rouge Brewery

Half-E-Weizen

5,2

USA

Sakara Gold

Sakara Gold

4

Egypten

Samuel Smith

Famous Taddy Porter

5

England

Samuel Smith

Old Brewery Pale Ale

5

England

Samuel Smith

Nut Brown Ale

5

England

Samuel Smith

Organic Ale

5

England

Sandbacka Bryggeri

Sandbacka Brown Ale, fat

5,5

Sandviken

Sandbacka Bryggeri

Sandbacka Porter, fat

6

Sandviken

Sandbacka Bryggeri

Sandbacka Red Ale, fat

5,5

Sandviken

Sierra Nevada Brewing

Bigfoot Barley Whine 2005

9,6

USA

Skebo Bruksbryggeri

Herrgårdsporter

5

Rosslagen

Skebo Bruksbryggeri

Höstrusk

4,8

Rosslagen

St. Bernardus

St. Bernardus Pater 6 2005

6,7

Belgien

Stralsunder Brauerei

Störtebeker Schwarzbier

5,0

Tyskland

Taybeh Brewing

Taybeh Beer Golden

5

Palestina

Tempo Beer

Maccabe

4,9

Israel

Timmermans

Lambicus Blanche

4,5

Belgien

Traquair Brewery

Traquair 900

9

Skottland

Ulan Bator Breweries

Ulan Bator Baadog

4,8

Mongoliet

Unibroue

Edition 2005

10

Kanada

Weideneder Bräu

Weideneder Papst-Bier

5,4

Tyskland

Westmalle - Trappisten

Westmalle dubbel 2006

7

Belgien

Williams Brothers

Williams Brothers Roisin

4,2

Skottland

Ölands Gårdsbryggeri

Segerstad Pale Ale

2,1

Öland

Ölands Gårdsbryggeri

Ölandsöl

5,9

Öland

Ölands Gårdsbryggeri

Långe Erik

3,5

Öland

Ölfabrikken

Ölfabrikken Porter 2006

7,5

Danmark

2007-10-19

US draught list at Oliver Twist Oct-Nov 2007

Just back from Colorado and this years GABF it is excellent that you can still trust the people of OT when you see the updated list of draught beers from the US during october and november.

Here is the complete list, bold is the one being served right now, which is actually a Canadian beer that was served during the Stockholm beer festival.

1 stone ipa slut
2 no apoligies dipa blue point slut
3 Read seal på nu
4 aprhodisiaque dieu'd ciel montreal
5 oak aged yeti great divide
6 avery ipa
7 humboldt red nectar
8 moylan's ipa
9 smuttynose wheat ale
10 old rasputin
11 sierra anniversary
12 hoptical illusion
13 old stock ale 2007
14 avery red point ale
15 hazelnut brown
16 sierra ipa
17 unearthy ipa
18 smuttynose ipa
What do you think?, quite a impressive list of beers on draught. Seems that we from now on actually have a steady list of US beers on tap all year round.

Cheers to Jugge over at OT.

Thomas & Jörgen during the Great Divide luncheon.

UPDATED 071021
And here is the actual list from last Saturdays beer round.

GBTD-07: The tour and the beers

Our beer tour in Colorado during the GABF was mostly about the beers, so what did we have?.

But it is always a bit tricky to keep track of everything you drink, so I have probably missed some of the beers during the trip (mostly during the massive number of strange brews we had or did not have at the Falling Rock during the late nights in Denver).

Any way here is the "complete" nerd list;

Saturday October 6
1. Boulder Beer Cold Hop
2. Mountain Sun Illusion Dweller
3. Mountain Sun I&IPA

Sunday October 7
4. Pumphouse Kilt lifter
5. Pumphouse Flashpoint IPA
6. Pumphouse Red Alert
7. Pumphouse Pyro Porter
8. Pumphouse Igniter Pale Ale
9. Avery Elites Brown Ale
10. ODells 90 Shilling Ale
11. Left Hand Milk Stout
12. Avery IPA
13. ODells 5 Barrel Pale Ale
14. Redfish Treehugger Organic IPA
15. Boulder Beer Hazed & Infused
16. Redfish Big Easy Pale Ale
17. Walnut Seasonal Wheat Beer
18. Walnut Buffalo Gold
19. Walnut Indian Peaks Pale Ale
20. Walnut St. James Irish Red Ale
21. Walnut Big Horn Bitter
22. Walnut Old Elle Brown Ale
23. Walnut Devils Thumb Stout
24. Bj Tatanka Stout
25. Bj Piranha Pale Ale
26. Bj PM Porter
27. Stone Black IPA (Old Chicago)

Monday October 8
28. Avery Hog Heaven
29. Avery The Reverend (oaked)
30. Avery Dramant
31. Avery Breezes Bad Karma oaked (cask)
32. Avery The Beast 07
33. Oskar Blues Tenfidy Stout
34. Oskar Blues IPA
35. Oskar Blues Pale Ale
36. Estes Park Renegade IPA
37. Estes Park Samson Stout
38. Estes Park Trail Ridge Red
39. Estes Park Porter
40. Estes Park Raspberry Wheat
41. Estes Park Stinger
42. Estes Park Gold
43. New Belgium Fat Tire
44. CooperSmiths Sigdas Green Chilli
45. CooperSmiths Not Brown Ale
46. CooperSmiths Oktoberfest
47. CooperSmiths Kölsch
48. CooperSmiths Punjabi Pale Ale
49. ODells 5 Barrel Pale Ale
50. ODells Cutthrout Porter
51. Full Sail IPA
52. Stone IPA

Tuesday October 9
53. New Belgium 1554
54. New Belgium Lips of Faith
55. New Belgium 2 Below
56. La Folie Sour Brown
57. Abbey
58. Fort Collins Brewery Major t p Wheat
59. Fort Collins Brewery Retro Red
60. Fort Collins Brewery Rocky Mountain IPA
61. Fort Collins Brewery Z lager (rauch bier)
62. Fort Collins Kidd Lager
63. Fort Collins Chocolate Stout
64. ODells Hillbilly Hefeweissen
65. ODells Double Pilsner
66. ODells Isolation Ale
67. ODells cutthroat Stout (nitro)
68. ODells Easy Street
69. ODells Levity Amber Ale
70. ODells 5 barrel Pale Ale
71. ODells 90 Shilling Ale
72. ODells IPA
73. Cutthroat Porter
74. Rock Bottom (Longmont) Double Barrel Pale Ale
75. Dry Dock SS Mirror Pale
76. Dry Dock Mild
77. Dry Dock Enterprise IPA (nitro)
78. Dry Dock Breakworker Pale Ale
79. Green Flash West Coast IPA
80. Summit Extra Pale Ale
81. Boulder Beer Hazed & Infused
82. Arrogant Bastard
83. Great Divide Titan IPA (Cask)
84. Victory Hop Devil
85. Oskar Blues Gordon Double IPA

Wednesday October 10
86. Boulder Beer Mojo IPA
87. Boulder Beer Mojo Risin Double IPA
88. Boulder Beer Stout
89. Left Hand Milk Stout
90. Left Hand Imperial Stout
91. Pumphouse Pyro Porter
92. Oskar Blues Oaked Gordon
93. Oskar Blues Pale Ale
94. Oskar Blues tenfid Imperial Stout (canned)
95. Lagunitas IPA
96. Lagunitas Undercover Shutdown

Thursday October 11
97. Great Divide DPA
98. Great Divide Titan IPA
99. Great Divide Hibernation
100. Great Divide Barley Wine
101. Great Divide Belgian IPA
102. Breckenridge Amber
103. Breckenridge Pale Ale
104. Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout
105. Breckenridge Vanilla Porter
106. Breckenridge R220 Red
107. Breckenridge 471 IPA
108. Breckenridge Lager
109. Avery Uber Schwein (oaked hog heaven)
110. Summit Pale Ale
111. Stone Double Bastard 05
112. Stone Imperial Stout 03
113. HeBrew Jewelation Whiskey Oaked
114. HeBrew Lenny On Rye (RIPA)
115. HeBrew Anniversary 11
116. Stone Anniversary 11
117. Stone Vanilla Porter

Friday October 12
118. Flying Dog Double Dog Pale
119. Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale
120. Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Stout
121. Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine

Saturday October 13
122. ??? IPA (pitcher)
123. Anchor Steam (cask)

Sunday October 14
124. Great Divide DPA
This was the beer that I tested myself and is not connected to the actual GABF festival, which is an other story.

GBTD-07: My samples at GABF, Day 1 + 2


Friday evening
1. Moylans IPA
2. Pizza Port Beach Street Bitter
3. Pizza Port Wipeout IPA
4. Russian River Toronday 20th ave
5. Russian River Bearfication
6. Seabright Blur IPA
7. Surly Darkness Imperial Stout
8. Surly Furious IPA
9. Iron Hill Imperial Stout
10. Brooklyn Blast IPA
11. Allagash Inoculator
12. Bear Republic XP Pale Ale
13. Blue Frog Porter
14. HeBrew Origin
15. Firestone Walker DBA
16. Pelican IPA
17. Summit IPA
18. Bells Two Hearted IPA
19. Firestone Walker Rufus
20. Duck Rabbit Draught Milk Stout
21. Capital Oaked Imperial Stout
22. Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster

Saturday evening
23. Frank Street Brewery Park City IPA
24. Dogfish 120 IPA
25. Dogfish World Wide Stout
26. Goose Island Dublin Stout
27. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
28. Summit Northern Porter
29. Laughing Dog IPA
30. Smuttynoose Imperial Stout
31. Smuttynoose Lager
32. Stone Coast 840 Imperial Stout
33. Troegs Double Bock
34. Victory Festbier
35. Wild Goose IPA
36. Yards Pale Ale
37. Avery Gemini IPA
38. Elysian The Wise ESB
39. Elysian Jasmin Stout
40. Elysian Dragontooth Stout
41. Rock Bottom Hop bomb IPA
42. Issaquah Brewery Manage a frog
43. Walking Man Jay Walker Imperial Stout
44. Bend Outback X
45. Drakes demongizer Double IPA
45. Moyland Irish Dry Stout
46. Oggis Hop Juice
47. Oggis Black Magic Stout
48. Big Dogs War Dog Imperial IPA
49. Montana Brewery Espresso Stout
50. Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine
51. Vinos Quawpaw Quarter Porter
52. Hams Double Peg Imperial IPA

The end...

GBTD-07 (GABF): A tribute to the best bartender in the World

This is a simple and very short tribute to a bartender at the Falling Rock tap house in Denver. Thanks for being the coolest bartender in the world and thanks for making the beer moments at Falling Rocks during the GABF week a amazing time that we will not forget in a very long time.

Difficult to explain but we really like the Falling Rock establishment, it had everything you want in a bar. A rough place with simple rules, meaning serving the best beers in the world as fast as possible.

Sometimes it was difficult to get a beer, but when you finally learned that you got your single second of reconition with you and you succeed in knowing exactly want you want it turned out well and you got your beer in a second. Did you miss it you had to wait for the next turn, if you got one!.

It is not easy when 100 people are all screaming we want beer and you simply answer back; "What do you want?, give it to me?, What do you want?". Myself had not served a single beer with that pressure, really cool, simply outstanding.
Hope you can handle the silence now when the GABF is over and everything go to normal.

If you have never been to Falling Rock and do not know how a good bar should be, according to me, here is the shortlist of my best rough beer bars in the USA that play in the same league as the Falling Rock.

1. Barcade, Brooklyn
2. Toronado, San Fran
3. Bukowski's Tavern, Boston

Happy Swedes in Lyons (Oskar Blues)

Got a nice little picture from our new beer friend "J" over at The Beer Hermit when we had a wonderful time (did not want to leave) over at Oskar Blues in Lyons during the Left Hand Beer Tour (more about that later on).

Thanks J, unfortunately I have not found a picture of you, but at least we had a blast during the days at GABF and thanks for the fun talks we had.

Also noticed that we got mentioned at his blog over here; The Brew Cruise Rocks Boulder County!, look for "Swedes".

Yes I know we sounded a lot (reported as raucous cheers), we normally do that when we are on buses when we get beer to drink during the same time, :-).

2007-10-16

GBTD-07 (GABF): Back from the US...

So we are all back from the US and our beer trip in Colorado. Had a great time drinking amazing beers all week, plus meating a bunch of new great people.

Unfortunately I had no time or simply too tired (dizzy) to find any inspiration to write something interesting when we came back to the hotels. I tried a couple of times, but early decided that it was better to go to sleep so that you could continue the beer journey in a controlled order the next day.

But I have a bunch of material to work on and hopefully come back to it during the next couple of weeks (seems that my work has taken all my time during the week I came back, so I have not find the time yet, :-)). For the time being here is a nice picture taken at the Great Divide gathering (people cheering; the normal beer crew, the OT gang and owner of GD on the right side).

2007-10-11

GBTD-07 (GABF): The Great Divide Luncheon

Before the festival had actually started we where invited through the good friends at OT to a special get together early party over at the Great Divide brewery.

At 12.00 sharp on the Thursday av bunch of happy beer drinkers got together and could enjoy the great bears of GD within the brewery itself.

It is always fun for a beer geek to actually get the opportunity to have your favorite beers at the actual source and also meet the creators of these wonderful products.

[Original picture removed on request] [140513]

We had a great lunch and got the possibility to help yourself through out the brewery. It interesting to see that such a great brewery and a brewery that you see as quite big is housed in such a small complex in central Denver (quite central anyway).

Simply you can say that you do not need much space to create great products. As it was free we sampled a lot of the different brews available both at the party inside the brewery and also at the nearby tap room (DPA, Titan, Hibernation 07 (heard they also had H06 but did not see it available), barley wine, belgian IPA, samuray, the lot).

Best beer?, the oaked imperial stout and the new fresh hop beer (had earlier already bought a bottle to get home an enjoy for myself!, seems that the concept of "fresh hops" is quite in right now.)).

The Tap room at GD

We also met some interesting people during this event, among them our good friends of OT and Akkurat, a guy also from Sweden with the name of Marc who is working for Galatea (a big beer distributor in Sweden), Jim from last days brew cruise and also Ray McCoy (Beer drinker of the year 2003) and his wife Cornelia (also a beer drinker of the year winner!).

So as a summary this was a excellent way to enjoy beers early in the day and a very good start for the rest of the festival and something I am glad I could join.

Cheers

A beer vulcano at GD?

2007-10-10

GBTD-07 (GABF): 2nd Annual Boulder County Brews Cruise 2007

One of the best beer experiences I have had took place before GABF actually started. We first heard about the brews cruise through Jugge over at OT a few weeks before we went over to Colorado and something that we are very glad that we did not miss.

The Boulder Country Brews Cruise is a event arranged by the good people over at Left Hand Brewery and this was the second year that they arranged it. The concept is simple, for the bargain price of 40 bucks you get a t-shirt, a arranged bus that will take you to 4 different interesting breweries in the Denver area, breakfast and lunch, plus a bunch of lovely and interesting people to join you on the beer cruise.

Everyting started out in morning outside the convention centre where GABF was held in central Denver. A full bus of people started the journey for "breakfast" and the first beer of the day. Together with the normal beer crew we also got good company with the people from OT and Akkurat (local pubs in Stockholm). So we had a great group of people from Sweden to acompany the rest of the Americans on the bus.

First stop was Boulder Beer outside Boulder, a brewery with great beers like Mojo IPA and Hazed & Infused. We got some breakfast and the opportunity to check the brewery with a short brewery tour. Boulder Beer is really a pioneer as a micro brewery in the US if you recon that it started out so early as 1979. At that time the only existing micros was anchor in san fran and a few others. So its fun to see that the brewery is very lively and continues to produce new and exiting beers.

The journey continued and we ended up in Longmont and the Left Hand Brewery. We were met by Eric Wallace who is the founder and brewer of Left Hand. We all met him when he visited the Stockholm Beer festival in September and when we had a tasting round together with him at the OT booth.

So this was the second time we met and it was fun to actually meet him at his own brewery and hometown of Longmont. The beers were all excellent as they alway are. Had a amazing cask version of the milk stout that you could drink all night long, seems that this stout is getting better and better in my mind.

Together with the Imperial Stout also on cask this was probably the best beers we had during the beer cruise.

Jugge and the rest of OT gang disapeared during the end of the visit to Left Hand, so we had to leave them behind.


Seemed that they got the opportunity to have a additional sampling somewhere at the brewery, it was told that it was something new and exiting that Eric sneaked out of the brewery!

Next stop it was time for the Pumphouse Brewpub in central Longmont. Here we got lunch and a new beer of the day. What I remember I had the porter, which is quite nice as a beer, and very traditional to the style. Seems that Pumphouse is doing a full range of beer styles and is very focused on English style beer and following that tradition. A nice place for food and sports if you are into that.

The OT gang got back to the bus through the help of Eric W and a couple of Mountain Beer Mixers that was later passed on through the bus (which increased the mood on the bus, so when we later arrived in Lyons and Oskar Blues we had started to learn the Americans on the bus Swedish beer songs, or something, :-))





Last stop for the day was Oskar Blues over at Lyons which is really where the mountain region starts, so it is a very exiting place and a great place for such a amazing brewery. Located in a very small building, you here have a brewery, restaurant, bar and blues club.


We got some great beers (Oaked Gordon!) and got the oppotunity to check out how they handles the cans (yes, if you do not know it, this brewery makes all the beer in cans).


They now even has put their great imperial stout in a can, which is really a great idea, so I bought a 4-pack of the Tenfidy imperial stout to take back home. 4 amazing beers for the amount of 10 bucks, that is really a bargain.

Spent the last hour of the beer cruise at the outdoors terrace with a pint of OB and did not want to leave. You could probably have been sitting there for the rest of the day but the bus was leaving, so we simply had to leave and get the last pint of OB Pale Ale with us on the bus.

With some additional Swedish beer songs and some explanations about who we were at the front of the bus we continued the journey back home to Denver. Seems that everyone on the bus had a blast during the day and if you ever go to GABF I really recommend to get on the bus, this is really a good start of the festival and in some sense this was even more fun than the actual festival.

Also thanks to "J" over at The Beer Hermit blog for taking a nice picture of us when had the beers over at OB in the sun.

More pictures from this amazing day can be found here;

GABF07 (Left Hand Beer Bus Cruise)

GBTD-07 Special Report: Rocky Montain IPA!

This is a special announcement to the great people at Fort Collins Brewery over at Fort Collins, Colorado. We had a great time over at the brewery today and enjoyed all of the great beers you do. During that time we had a discussion about Rocky Montaint beers in Sweden, especially the IPA. Yes, it is true we actually got the beer over at Oliver Twist, Stockholm, Sweden at the end of summer, both on bottle and then later at a draught version during the US-beer draught weeks. Here is the proof (the IPA is the 2nd beer served);

And here is the same beer served at the brewery today, in a growler. Thanks for creating so great and exciting brews, and good luck in the future.

Always fun to hear that we got a beer over at Stockholm from a brewery that is so new and small that they got very surprised that the beer had travelled all over the world to a bunch of beer lovers in Sweden.

2007-10-04

Great Beer Trip to Denver 2007 (GABF) has started!:


I and the rest of the beer crew has left for Denver and this years GABF. So it will probably be a little bit slow over here during next week. But you will never know, it might be possible to add some live updates during the trip, but nothing that is promised.

Anyway we will have a nice little beer trip in Colorado and hopefully experience some new and existing breweries and their beers. In short the trip will look something like this;

Main plan

6 Oct Stockholm – Denver – Car to Boulder
7 Oct Boulder – Longmont (pub) – Boulder (TPBC, ABC)
8 Oct Boulder – Estes Park (EPBC) -- Grand Canyon -- Fort Collins (motel i FC)
9 Oct Fort Collins (under dagen, NBB, OBC, FCB) -- Denver (hotell Denver)
10 “Boulder County Brews Cruise” (Starts in Denver) (BB, LHBC, OBGB, RM)
11 Denver tour + breweries (GDB, FDB, BBBP, RM) + The Great Divide Lunch (12.00)
12 Oct Denver (GABF I)
13 Oct Denver (GABF II)
14 Get back home again
Breweries:
Denver: Dry Dock Brewing Co (in Aurora), Great Divide Brewing Company, Flying Dog Brewery, Breckenridge BBQ & Brew Pub
Boulder: Boulder Beer, Twisted Pine Brewing Company, Avery Brewing Company
Longmont: Left Hand Brewing Company
Lyons: Oskar Blues Grill and Brewery
Estes Park: Estes Park Brewing Company
Fort Collins: New Belgium Brewing, Odell Brewing Company, Fort Collins Brewing

Bars:
Denver: Falling Rock Tap House, Breckenridge Ball Park Brew Pub, Cherry Cricket, The, Old Chicago, Blake Street Tavern, Victory American Grill And Bar
Boulder: Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery, Southern Sun Pub and Brewery
Fort Collins: Choice City Butcher Shop And Deli, Washington's Bar & Grill, Lucky Joe's Sidewalk Saloon, Pickle Barrel

And our planned route

Brewery map of Sweden

Just added a new link (under the profile) to a google map of the breweries in Sweden. The list is provided by the Swedish Beer Consumers Association, that I am a member of.

Here is the URL.

That means that we currently have 37 breweries in the country, quite amazing if you compare to the situation 5-10 years ago. As a small reflection the total number of breweries has looked like below;

1890 554
1955 119
1993 13
2002 18
So from 2002 it has increased with additional 19 breweries, and that has only inclued new small micro breweries.

2007-10-02

The best 6 beers you'll never drink

I just stumpled over a short but a bit interesting article over at tampa bay!

It can be connected a bit about a entry a few days ago where I wrote about unusual and hard found beers.

That is exactly what this article is about, beers that we talk about but rarely can drink because it is almost impossible to get them. And it is quite fun that 2 of the beers from this paper in tampa bay are both from Scandinavia, one from Sweden (Kaggen) and one from Denmark (X Imperial Stout).

Seems that this reporter know his stuff, but are also a bit arrogant (maybe its ironi, I do not know, :-)), but he writes about why they are so rare is due to;

The foremost is the general public doesn't want them
and
They are typically obscure styles such as Flanders Red, Imperial Stout or Baltic Porter
So a Baltic Stout or a Flanders Red are "obscure" beer styles?, well its not to me, but I am maybe not seen as normal and part of the "general public" when we talk about beers, :-).

2007-10-01

Stockhom Beer 2007: Missed a beer!

Just saw that we missed one of the better DIPAs at the Stockholm Beer Festival this year, and it was even a cask version.

Well you can not have them all and you could not be there every day, seems the Brooklyn Blast Pale Ale was served over at Carlsberg during the last Saturday of the festival and when Garett Oliver, brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery had a presentation, and also the toast for late Michael Jackson. If you are wondering about Carlsberg togehter with brooklyn simply it is because all brooklyn beers are distributed nowdays by Carlsberg in Sweden and Denmark.

At least I got to taste the beer last New York beer trip in May when we visited the Brooklyn brewery (served in a plastic glass).

But it feels a bit strange that we missed a hop monster when it was available on cask, :-), as a DIPA lover it feels hard that we did not even think about heading for the Carlsberg booth during the festival, probably because of all the rest of the boring beers sold over at Carlsberg.