This Weekends beers...

The beers tasted during the last weekends pub crawl around the Stockholm beer scene turned out to be quite a impressive collection, or what?.

A great real ale from Orkney island + 4! US-beers on draught, that is really something. Seems that the Stockholm beer scene is getting better and better.

1. Stone Arrogant Bastard (draught version)
2. Moylans Moylanders Double IPA
3. Lost Abbey Red Barn Ale
4. Blue Point Hoptical Illusion (draught version)
5. Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine
6. Orkney Brewery Dark Island (real ale)
7. Hazelnut Brown Nectar(draught version)
8. Fort Collins Brewery Rocky Mountain IPA (draught version)

The return of the Rocky Mountain IPA outside Fort Collins

The attentive reader of my blog maybe remembers that I talked about a very small brewery outside Fort Collins that we visited during the GABF week in October.

The name is Fort Collins Brewery and they are producing a bunch of great brews, which is a great achievement for such a tiny brewery (5000 barrels).

The fun part about this was that they were a bit surprised that the IPA had been served outside Fort Collins, and outside Colorado, and even outside the USA, and not just the bottle!

Because the beer that was a couple of months old as a product was served both on bottle and even a draught version was served over at my local pub in Stockholm, Sweden, here is the proof; The OT US-draught list.

And now this strange and fun story continues, because today the Rocky Mountain IPA was served on draught for the second time outside the US (at least to my knowledge) and at a other location over at Akkurat.

And to be even more fun it was now served with a proper and genuin pump clip. The clip was brought directly by myself from the brewery during our visit to the tap room and was later delivered to "Rille" over at Akkurat during the Friday beer run.

He had built his own pump clip, but was very satisfied that I have been keeping the clip in my wallet since the visit to the brewery.

So thank you very much to the girl (do not remember your name) over at the tap room that gave away some valuable merchandise.

Now we are waiting for the Chocolate stout, or probably just me because I also have the clip for that beer kept in the wallet, :-).

For you guys over at the brewery, it seems that we over here in Sweden are still enjoying your beers although it is a bit of a secret how it has travelled over here. But I guess Jugge over at Oliver Twist has something to do with it, :-).

Anyway a great beer, and it was surely enjoyed by the rest of Akkurat beer geeks tonight. Akkurat only has 2x20l kegs so I guess the beer will be gone during the beginning of next week.

Rocky Mountain IPA served at Akkurat, with a proper beer clip.

And the beer served as the US-beer of the evening.

Also thank you very much for recognizing my little blog over at; BLOGS: Rocky Mountain IPA.

Great Real Ales in December + Harviestoun!

Oliver Twist in Stockholm is always a great place for really quality served Real Ales (not just micros from the US), and December looks like a good month.

Just noticed that a old favorite is returning next month in the form of the Scottish brewery Harviestoun. This was a favorite brewery for some years and a couple of summer months when it was the traditional Real Ale brewery of the summer at Oliver Twist.

Unfortunately it was purchased by the Caledion brewery in the fall of 2006 and the brewmaster quit (retired) at the time of the purchase. So it is not the same thing when the beer now returns as a real ale to OT, but still this brewery produces quality brews.

It is difficult to say if the beers are different now. I guess it is more connected with a feeling and not facts, but something is different just because it was bought by a macro-brewery. Still beers like Schiehallion (She-ha-li-on) is a very good lager beer (very hoppy and dry to be a beer from GB), that has been a favorite at OT during the summer months.

The other breweries and beers that will be available in December are the following;

1. RCH Brewery

1.1 Double Header
1.2 Firebox
1.3 Old Slug Porter

2. Elgoods Brewery

2.1 Greyhound
2.2 Old Black Schuck
2.3 North Brink Porter
2.4 Cambridge

3. Harviestoun Brewery

3.1 Schiehallion
3.2 Bitter & Twisted
3.3 Ptarmigan

RCH Brewery is new for me, seems to be a very small brewery in North Somerset, England, will be fun to test. The number one beer based on ratings seems to be the Old Slug Porter.

Yeah... A other Bastard at OT

Yes,
the Arrogant Bastard from Stone is back on cask at Oliver Twist (1x60l) and part of the on-going crazy US-draught beer list at OT in Stockholm.

This is probably one of the better beers in the world, not on my personal top list but as a beer it is simply amazing. And today it seems that it was really good stuff! because at the end it was the only beer for the wednesday visit, but 3 times!.

So people, if you want the beer, please hurry because today we already had a little party of people drinking the beer (including the people behind the bar), and we (myself and the gf had 5!). Meaning I watched at least 15 glasses being served within a couple of hours.

Current list of the crazy draught list looks like below;

NEWS: The London Beer Map

There is always fun with new ways to find good beer places and in a city like London it is great to be able find the particulary good ones.

Just found a new map over at Stonchs and his blog. Seems something you can use next time you get to London and wants to find a really good place.

At least it will work as good complement to the book of "London Pub Walks" by Bob Steel that we have used the last couple of times.

Oh, and here is the actual link to the "The London Beer Map".

Dugges Ale & Porter Brewery at Denver?

Yes I know it has been a while since GABF-07, but we promised ourselves to show our nice T-shirts from Dugges over at GABF when we brought them with us to the USA.

So here it is, you could not get the great beers at GABF or anywhere else but we at least brought the T-shirts and did some advertising for our favorite Swedish brewery.

I guess you have to start somewhere, and you never know, you might come across a High Five IPA or a Idjit somewhere in the States quite soon, or at least in a distant future, :-).

What about Dugges?, well it is tiny brewery in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden that for me is a Swedish version of breweries like Stone or Moylans. Classic beers inspired by the USA, England, Sweden and beer styles like IPA, Stout, Barleys and Imperial Porters, etc, in short beers with a attitude.

The have great beers like;

Dugges Avenyn Ale
Dugges Bollox!
Dugges Britannia
Dugges Celebration Ale
Dugges Fuggedaboudit!
Dugges Gnoffs APA
Dugges High Five!
Dugges Holy Cow!

And when we are still at it, here is picture number 2 of "Dugges in the States" advertising campaign (not sponsored by the brewery, if you thought so), :-).

QUICKTAKE: A new draft beer from Colorado and something from Moylans!

The crazy US draught list over at Oliver Twist has continued the last couple of weeks and when we finally have emptied the great but very strong Canadian Barley Wine (which took 2 weeks!) we are now finally back to the US and some great IPAs. The list has changed back and forward the last week but the selection has been great.

First is a additional new beer from Colorado in the form of the regular IPA from the Avery brewery. For me Avery is more famous and better doing strong barleys and oaked strong experiments like "Hog Heaven","Uber Schwein", "The Beast Grand Cru Ale" or "Mephistopheles Stout".

But as a regular IPA it is great anyway and a very normal beer for being from Avery.

The beers pours an orange color and with a thick hite head. Smell is the tradionally grapefruit/citrus tones, the taste is a strong an sticky hops aroma with some malt balance. At the end a bit more balanced than the rest of the big IPAs, and extremelly balanced if you compared with other beers from this brewery.

The second beer on the list, at least for me (you can not be there every day) was something that I surely was looking forward for. Moylans IPA is one of my favorite California IPA and the better breweries from the same state.

If you compare the beer with the Avery version you can summarize it simply by saying that it is not at last balanced, but in the same time that is probably not the idea.

I like it and something that you can drink loads off. It is simply a very bitter hop bomb with mild malt sweetness. Sticky grapefruit and floral hoppiness that stays around for ages.

Not the best IPA in the world, but as a hop junky this is surely a beer for me. I can agree with people saying that Moylans is often a bit to much, but in the same time it seems to be the idea of the brewery and often that is something that we hopgeeks like and something you would miss if they would turn to be a more normal brewery.

Current crazy list from OT, seems that we have more beers to look forward for.

QUICKTAKE: A master piece on a can...

What can you say, it can not be any better; A Imperial Stout from on a can from Oskar Blues Brewery, Lyons, Colorado. Bought Oct 10 over at Lyons, Colorado, which seems to be the first day this amazing beer was avaible in a can. So I bought 4 to get home (one was consumed on the bus back to Denver).

It was a great feeling to taste this beer back home and in my own living room, and just fresh from the fridge.

It can be only Oskar Blues that would come up with the crazy idea to produce a strong Imperial Stout (10% ABV) on a can. But what can you say, it can not so much better, and it surely works.

The beer pours like a very thick motor oily texture, black like the night. It has virtually no head. It has some very strong roasted coffee scent´and toffee are also present. And the great thing is that you can not feel any trace of alcohol, just some nice warmness fills you up.

We are already waiting for when this beer will be available over here in Sweden, based on the fact that we already have the current line up of OBs at severial places around the country. For example the Bishop Arms pubs has them and is practically seen as a house beer over at Oliver Twist.

Amazing to know that all these amazing beer cans are all being produced in this little barn over at Lyons (photo taken during our brewery tour in October and the same day as the stout was released as a regular beer).

A new bishop has been born: Part II

I reported a month ago that we got a new Bishop Arms over at Stockholm in the form av Bishop Arms Vasagatan.

And now just a month later I recently got the information that we will have a additional Bishops, this time over at Bishop Arms Folkungatan, in the centre of SOFO (South Of Folkungagatan). This one will open in the middle of December and as the establishment at Vasagatan it will be a so called gastro pub, plus a very large collection of Whiskey (400).

Lets see how this will affect the close by pubs of Big Ben and Bistro Humlehof, they will surely see some strong competion with the beer consumers of Södermalm and around SOFO.

UPDATED 080212
The place is now opened after some initial delays, here is the official url: http://www.bishopsarms.com/Stockholm_Presentation_DXNI-129773_.aspx. Have not been at the place but I will hopefully have a report ready after the first visit planned for this Friday (080215).

A update from Portland: Swedish Beers!

With some very quick reaction regarding my comment about Danish and Norwegian beers being for sale in Portland, I got some great new from Chris over at belmont station;

As luck would ahve it, we got several Swedish beers in this morning. Nils Oscar IPA, Barleywine, and Imperial Stout, plus Oppigards Winter Ale.

It's a start :)

Chris @ Belmont Station

So now Swedish beers can hopefully find beer consumers in the States, at least in a very small scale. And it seems to be a good start with beers from two of the better breweries from back home.

Wonder which beers you can expect next, what about; Dugges Ale och Porterbryggeri (yes they have bottleing equipment now), Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri or what about Ölands Gårdsbryggeri?

And if anyone is interested in the "complete" list of Swedish breweries, here is the latest update; Komplett lista över nuvarande Svenska Bryggerier.