And what about this one? Mikkeller & FFF?

A new beer project for 2008 from the brewers of Mikkeller and Three Floyds.

2 brewers of extreme beers combined in a single beer, can it be any better?, well lets see after the summer of 08.

Mikkellers own glass...

is now available through the brewery. Nice huh?

According to Mikkel himself the glass is inspired by the belgian brewery; De Dolle Boruwers in Belgium (one of my favorite belgium breweries).

And checking a example from the belgian brewery it looks really like that. Seems like a very good choice for such amazing beers, both from Denmark and Belgium.

Simply a great glass to sample great beers with, I can not wait to try to get hold of my own example.

Mikkeller meets Nøgne Ø

Read over at the Nøgne beer site that is now seems that everything is settled that Mikkeller the brewery from Denmark will get over to the Norwegian brewery in the beginning of 2008.

The brewer Mikkel Borg Bjersø is going to brew 2 batches of Mikkellers own styles (Beer Geek Breakfast) and also a guest brew together with Kjetil Jikiun (head brewer) at Nøgne.

Seems that this collaboration between these great brewers can be very interesting, anyway it is reported already that a a huge order of fruit is already placed by the brewer.

This news has also been recognized over at Mikkellers own blog; Mikkel(ler)'s Blog.

Nøgne Ø hits Hollywood...

I could not stop myself, but it is always fun to see your favorite Scandinavian beers and breweries out there in the "real world".

So here is a picture that I got through Hair of the Dog Dave blog and from a beer shop in Los Angeles (Vendome Toluca Lake, 10600 Riverside Dr North Hollywood,CA, if you interested)

So Portland, Hollywood etc, what can be be next?, for this great brewery from Norway.

If you do not spot the bottle, it is the bottle with the green circle (it is the Winter Ale), third bottle from the left.

Here is the same beer from a other shop in California, next together with a Mikkeller.

The Beer Hunter: for download

All of the episodes from the Michael Jackson "The Beer Hunter" series can currently be downloaded from here;

link

All originally produced and shown during 88/89, what I remember.

Oskar Blues Ten Fidy earns "2007 Beer of the Year" Honor

Saw that one of my favorite beers all categories for 2007 has been awarded the beer of the year over at the Denver Post.

Yes, I surely agree with them saying;

Ten Fidy Imperial Stout comes roaring out of the revered Oskar Blues Brewery just in time to warm the Colorado winter. As the late Country Dick Montana of The Beat Farmers used to say, it's just the man for the job, with alcohol by volume at a bristling 10 percent. Don't be scared off by the can -- all of Oskar Blues' outstanding brews are packaged in metal.

The pour on this bad boy is rich and viscous, with a head like chocolate icing. The aroma is full of coffee and cocoa, and those hearty flavors wrap nicely around the hops and malt for a smooth, roasty fullness.

The oats used in the brewing process give Ten Fidy a satisfying roundness in the mouth. A hint of molasses balances the barleywine-like 98 International Bitterness Units. The high alcohol content is barely noticeable on the tongue (but trust me, have a driver or call a cab).

OB also report for those lucky ones that a small batch of FIDY (in cans and kegs) will reach some bars and stores in some other US-states in January.

So I guess it will be just luck if some FIDY would turn up over here in Sweden, sigh. I had the last can from my fridge during the New Year beer sampling, so now I can only try to remember how it tasted, :-).

My Own Beer Resolutions for 08

Just read a nice little entry over at "The Beer Retard" regarding his resolutions for the new year. And inspired by this I had to create my own.

2007 was also I great beer year for me. I finally got myself together and actually started to write at least something here at my blog. I visited all the major beer festival that I got the change to attend, meaning Copenhagen, GBBF, Stockholm Beer and finally GABF in Denver. I will not forget those experiences.

Plus that a few smaller festivals or happenings like a small real ale fest in London in april and the Swedish\Danish challange in June. Even visited New York over the weekend and visited the favorites pubs plus a few new ones, among the amazing Barcade bar that is now on my top 5 list of favorite pub all categories.

Continued my stupid habit of taking a photo of each beer I drink and publish it on the web!, yes I know it is very geeky stuff.

I had amazing beers and really got stuck with all the IPAs, IIPAS, Imperial Stouts etc that I sampled both in the US, but also got the opportunity to drink them back home over at Oliver Twist (thanks Jugge). Discovered new breweries like Green Flash, Moylan, The Tap, Laughing Dog, Oggis.

Best beer experience all categories;

"Drinking a draught Oak Aged Gordon in Lyons and OB during a very sunny day and the GABF week, we never wanted to leave!".

To add something to that experience it was also the same day that they released "Ten FIDY Imperial Stout" on a can!


Anyway based on that, how about 2008?, well here is my own Beer Resolutions for 2008:

1. Continue to buy a read more beer books and to learn more.

2. Several beer trips but this will hopefully be the smaller festivals year and I will not focus only on the big ones. The smaller are often more pleasant and you have the possibility to actually enjoy the beers and the breweries.

3. Plan and hopefully also get to New England for a longer beer travel experience during the summer.

4. Continue with the blog and trying to expand my thoughts and writing, meaning not just about all the beer I drink.

5. Pay more attention to less hoppy styles of beer (copied from the beer retard)

6. Try more beer styles and find new beer countries that I have not experienced so much before, has been the case before but the last 2 years I have been stuck so much with US beers. This years I recon that I will give a new try with German beers, but also maybe check some beers from Argentina and even Japan. The German experience has already been started in smaller scale.

7. Try to actually drink beers from my beer collection that I bring home, and not just store them, that can be done by others, meaning pubs and other establishments.

8. And finally come back to Barcade!

Thats it.

A Happy New Beer Year...

We had a nice calm New Year back home and of course with a bunch of great brews from my "beer cellar". Hope you all had a great time, what ever you did and I wish all the best for 08.

Our beer menu for the evening event consisted of the following components and order;

New Years Beer Menu:
1. 2*Nøgne Ø Pale Ale 2006
2. 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze 2004
3. Cantillon Rosé De Gambrinus 2003
4. Shipyard Longfellow Winter Ale 2006
5. Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale
6. Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
7. Smuttynose Smuttonator
8. Drakes Imperial Stout
9. Oskar Blues Ten FIDY (can)

Consumed but not part of the actual menu, mainly brought to the party:
10. Ridgeway Bad Elf Winters Ale
11. Rochefort Trappistes 10
12. La Trappe Dubbel
13. Anchor Steam Beer
14. North Coast Red Seal Ale
15. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Bottle)

And yes we also had a full dinner during the beer menu and actually wine was consumed during the main course!

Regarding favorites, well then it must be the OB and the imperial stout, pours like motor oil, a amazing beer on can that I hope we soon can find at the fridges over at OT, plus the GD fresh hops which was a newcomer for me and a really fresh and hoppy pale ale that all of us enjoyed. And of course you can not forget the Cantillon that in this stored bottle from my "cellar" was dry as a dry Champagne counterpart, which worked very well with the starters.



Cheers!

What about a beer festival in 08?

UPDATED 08013

We have no fixed plans for a beer festival in the US next year. This year we visited the extreme beer fest in Boston and the GABF over at Denver. But next year is still blank.

So I have tried to find a bunch of festivals that sound OK and fits suitable days (spring or the fall). So far I have also created a shortlist.

But what do you think out there?
Am I missing something?
Do you recommend a certain festival?
Or is something definitely no idea to attend?

What we are looking for is a good local festival with a large amount of US-craft beers (does not mean huge like GABF) in a calm and civilized arrangement. Last year the extreme beer festival was definitely something we enjoyed and the type of festival we are looking for. So something that is different from for example the extreme big festivals as for example GABF represents. It is also a plus if it is located in a area where you can have some additional days to explore; meaning with breweries, pubs and other beer related activities.

So what do you think? What should it be?

Top 4:

1. The Spring Craft Beer Festival, Uniondale, Ny; March 29 (*****) + a short stop over at the 1st Manhattan Cask Ale Festival@Chelsea Brew Co.

2. Beer Summit April 2008, Boston; April 18 & 19 (***)

3. Philly Craft BeerFestival, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; march 1 (*)

5. NY Brewfest, New York; September (**)

(*) Means what the current status looks like.


Outside the list:

5. American Beer Fest, Boston; June 15, 16 (*)

6. TAP newyork08 New Yorks Craft Brew Festival, Hunter, NY; April 26,27

7. 25th Annual San Francisco International Beer Festival, Fort Mason, San Francisco ; April 26

8. Great International Spring Beer Festival, Providence, RI; May 5

9. Brooklyn Pigfest; May 12
.

QUICKTAKE: Green Flash Imperial India Pale Ale

Oh, what can you say?, maybe as it says on the bottle;

"Its all about the hops!"

This is a beer from San Diego and is in the category "San Diego style IPA"; meaning a super-hoppy, high gravity ale, and probably everything I want in a beer, at least when I have my hop-monster moments.

The beer has a very orange color with a light high head. It has a aroma with citrus and pine hints. And the taste is a strong hoppy backbone with the same pine and citrus touches as in the aroma. This is a real hop-monster (101 IBU) but still very balanced and extremelly easy to drink, only problem is that you want more of it. With 9% ABV it feels amazing that you can create such a great beer when the alcohol is not noticable as in this beer.

Great brew, and as the brewmaste says; "Its all about the hops!".

This beer is really amazing and I am already rearranging my toplist to find a suitable spot for it (not easy, but I will have it a try at least, :-)).

As a brewery I discovered this brewery during this years GABF and we tested both the pale ale, WIPA, and this IPA. For a small local brewery in San Diego and only 5 years old this is a great brewery and I will try to test more of them as soon as I get the opportunity.


Green Flash West Coast IPA at Falling Rock in Denver

Cheers!

Flying Dog is moving...

Just got the information that the Colorado brewery Flying Dog is moving all brewing operations to Frederick, Maryland.

This is one of my favorite breweries the last couple of years and this seems to be a big step for the brewery. In reality it means all operations and that they are closing down all brewing in Denver.

"Here’s the word from president and CEO Eric Warner:"

As you may have heard, Flying Dog Brewery recently announced that we are embarking on the next step in our illustrious, 17 year history of crafting remarkable beer by concentrating all of our brewing and production to the brewery in Frederick, MD, where 70% of Flying Dog Beer is already being brewed. This move will take place in January and we are working to ensure that our entire production team will be able to make this move over to Maryland. Accounting, sales, marketing and other administrative functions will remain largely unaffected by this change and our HQ will remain in Denver.

We decided to make this proactive move as it has become increasingly important to be extremely nimble in today’s business environment. Only those who can quickly adapt in the hyper-Darwinian economy will survive and in today’s craft brewing landscape. We are facing unprecedented cost pressures due in large part to the tremendous hop and malt cost increases. Concentrating our brewing operations to one facility will help us become more efficient while maintaining our exceptionally high brewing standards. This is a smart, proactive move for our growing company and will allow us to most efficiently use our resources.

The Frederick facility is a state-of-the-art brewery that has already been producing great beer for Flying Dog and we look forward to ramping up production and growing our business even more than the +20% trends we are experiencing in 2007. The bottling line in Frederick has lower oxygen uptake at filling than the one in Denver, which translates to better flavor stability and longer shelf life. It also kicks out bottles at twice the pace of the line in Denver. The brewhouse in Maryland is also capable of brewing a wider range of recipes than the one in Denver. Finally, the brewery in MD plans on substantial capital expenditures and plant upgrades (close to a million bucks in 2008 alone) to continue to brew better beer in an efficient and environmentally friendly way

It will be interesting so see what this will mean for the brewery and what will actually happen with the current brewery in Denver. At least it feels good that we actually got to visit the brewery in Denver just a couple of months before it was closed. Anyway it seems that the change is not so drastic when you see that actually 70% is already brewed in Maryland. The plan is at least to grow and that is always good I guess. The company is on pace to brew 50,000 barrels of beer this year, a 20 percent increase.

A Real Ale report

Coming back from the city last night I did some more real ale experiences with beers and breweries not sampled before. From the real ale offering over at OT sampled to of them (very tired of Christmas beer so the Otter Claus was left out).

1. Robinsons Double Hop (Cask): A ESB brewed by Robinsons from Unicorn Brewery, Stockport, Cheshire, England. Reddish colored with a light head. Malty and hoppy aroma with some citric notes. Quite bitter finish, but ending quite fast. Not excellent but a decent ale and much better than the Christmas beer that I am so tired of right now. Simply refreshing and lite that you can drink more pints of.

2. Elgoods Old Black Shuck (Cask): A dark stout brewed by Elgoods brewery from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England. A balanced stout with pleasant roasted flavours. Coffee and caremel notes. Quite short on the finish but at the end a very decent and drinkable beer.

QUICKTAKE: New England Brewing, Atlantic Amber

Sampled last night over at Oliver Twist and the second beer from this brewery (the first one was the IPA (Sea Hag)).

This beer is of the style normally called "A California Common" which means a beer brewed with lager yeasts at ale temperatures. The style originates in 18th century California, where the brewers without access to refrigeration produced beers using lager yeasts in combination warm temperatures and then naturally cooled the beers on the roof tops of the breweries. The biggest beer in this style is probably the Anchor Steam range.

The beer is clear amber with a white head, quite malty aroma with a floral note and medium bodied. The taste consisted a light caramel sweetness, with hops arriving towards the end. Not amazing as the Sea Hag but a good representative of the style and always fun with a canned beer.



A fun thing about this beer is that it on the can says that the beer won a price as a "altbier"? over at GABF in 1993!. You could wonder how big this category was in 93 to be able to win Gold as a altbier. But based on the definition of altbiers it might have something in common;

"Traditionally fermented warm but aged at cold temperatures."

Cheers!

A beer trip of Norway?

If you ever wanted to do a beer trip in Norway then you should check this blog entry over at Knut Albert.

The micro market is very tiny in Norway but at least it is growing and based on the regulations in Norway it is impressive to see that some people dare to make a try of brewing beers at all.

How about something new?: Laughing Dog Brewing

Sometimes you feel just to promote new breweries that you discover and hopefully something that might be coming to a pub close to you. Small breweries are something that you as a beer geek always need to promote.

So if you ever see a beer from Laughing Dog Brewing you should definitely test it out. This is a tiny brewery that we discovered during this years GABF and the brewery is located in Selkirk Mountains just outside of Sandpoint Idaho and in the city of Ponderay. They produce a full range of beer style as; pale ale, IPA, Stout and ESB. The bottles all come with the Laughing Yellow Lab that appears on all of their brews and is Ben their family dog. The full range of beers looks like this;

1. Laughing Dog Pale Ale
2. Laughing Dog India Pale Ale
3. Laughing Dog Cream Ale
4. Laughing Dog Sweet Stout
5. Laughing Dog Crotch Sniffing Bastard (ESB)

And they also do an Imperial IPA called; Laughing Dog Devil Dog Imperial IPA.

All great beers, where my personal favorite was the pale ale, which a very hoppy aroma pale ale and balanced perfectly with a great mixture of malts. As a pale ale this is a perfect beer that is not too much of everything, simply a very balanced beer, but still with the citrus hop kick you want in a beer.

So remember this, if you see the beer, let them a go. Just saw that the beers are available over at; Belmont Station in Portland.

So when can we expect this beer over at Oliver Twist or Akkurat??

Buy a Idjit to your home...

Just read that through the result that Brill & Co has taken over the distribution of all beers from Dugges, it also means that directly a range of the beers will be available over at Systembolaget. As a start this means;

1. Gustafs Finger
2. Bältesspännaren
3. Kals Stout

all available on 0,5l bottles.

But the most interesting news is that Mikael over at Dugges also informs that during spring 08 we can look forward for "½ Idjit!" at Systembolaget and finally in the fall we can enjoy; Idjit!.

If you have missed the talk about the Idjit! range of beers, then here is a short recap;

½ Idjit! is a porter brewed by Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri on the west-coast of Sweden. ½ simply means that it never went the whole way up to a full Idjit, so it just became of potent port at 7.0 ABV. It comes with a darkish color with a very thick tan head, coffee, choco and with a hint of liqorice flavour. Simply a amazing beer when it has been available.

Then to double that and brew something totally crazy Dugges is also brewing the full Idjit that can be described as big Imperial Stout at ABV 16.5!. Still only available as limited test brews this beer will be stored at least six months and seems to be a beer that might come up to the level as Imperial stout beers as Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter or Nøgne Ø Dark Horizon First Edition.

At least it has been a beer to wait for, and getting the news that we can actually buy it locally at the Systembolaget is great news, and much better than the hype with Kaggen that is a great beer but impossible to get hold of.

How about Scandinavian micros?

As an interesting reflection it seems that the times are changing in the Scandinavian beer scene, at least the tendency looks like that. What I am talking about is the fact that for years you have seen the Scandinavian micro beer scene evolve and grow steady with new Danish, Norwegian and Swedish micro breweries popping up each year.

But strangely enough it has been impossible to actually get hold off the beer between the countries. You were enjoying great new micros in Denmark but due to some reason you could not get a decent beer back home. It seemed odd by it was easier to get a great US-micro or a Belgian beer compared to you closest neighbors.

This was definitely the case between Denmark and Sweden. You have a close neighbor with great new beers but you had to pass the borders to actually get them. Why this was the case was a bit difficult to understand. Some explained that it was caused by different types of regulations, but that could not be the whole truth because why it then works for US-beers or other countries.

Others have explained that the breweries are so small so that they had to concentrate within their own market. And that is probably a big explanation, but also causes you to ask yourselves why it would be so difficult to sell a beer just a few miles between 2 cities just because we have a country border, and a country that should be so easy to export to.

The larger breweries actually instead did other varieties to the extreme where they export main street lager beers to countries like Denmark so that we the Swedes could buy them back, just because of the price. But you could not buy a great beer from the same country; just a Carlsberg and brewed in Sweden!

But then something changes.

You can not explain exactly when it actually happens, but it is small steps that you slowly notice and then suddenly something is different. What I mean is that suddenly you have seen the market to change. Not largely but at least for the better. These small changes that I have seen and has caused the market to change are as I see it;

1. Nøgne Ø being available as Christmas beer at Systembolaget in 2005\2006.

2. Also a short run of the Nøgne Øs Pale Ale an Amber ale at Systembolaget in 2006.

3. The Swedish\Danish beer match at OT in June 2007 (my blog entry), which made more people in Sweden being aware of the Danish and Swedish micro market

4. A returning sample of breweries from the beer match at Stockholm Beer in Oct 07

5. Nøgne Ø being sold by Brill & Co through Systembolaget during fall 07

6. Galatea starts to import; BB, Norrebro & Broeckhouse

Through these small steps and probably a few others that I have not seen or noticed myself you can actually get a decent micro brew from you closest neighbors.

Through Systembolaget(the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly) and the so called "beställningssortimentet" you can now actually get beers from Nøgne (like; Nøgne Ø # 100!! (nr 89403)) (Brill & Co), Bryghuset Braunstein (BB), Noerrebro Bryggeri & Brøckhouse, all through Galatea.

In the better pubs like Bishops Arms, Oliver Twist (both Ølfabrikken and GB has been available after the summer) and Akkurat in Stockholm you can get the same beers.

This is not much if you actually know what is available in the micro market for each country, but it is at least something and represents a good collection of quality breweries. And if this is a trend we have something to look forward after.

I am not 100% sure but I also think that you can see the same trend in Norway and Denmark regarding Swedish beers. At least I have noticed that a brewery as Nils Oscar is available in Denmark through Ølbutikken in København and Dugges Ale- & Porterbryggeri has been available as draught version now since May 2007 over at "Den Tatoverede Enke" in Copenhagen. Dugges has actually made a special beer just for the Danish market and DTE in the form of; Enkens Brown Porter.

This is good trend and something that I think should be normal. Meaning that my personal opinion is that it should be natural to get a good micro beer from a neighborhood country and it should be no difference just because the beer is from Norway or Denmark.

Doing a comparison is that it is closer between Malmö Sweden and Copenhagen Denmark compared to Malmö and Stockholm or that it is very close between Oslo and Gothenburg.

So why should it be more difficult to get a beer from Norway in Gothenburg compared to a beer from the US or Belgium.

So now I am looking forward for some new great Norwegian micros, yes I know there are not so many out there, but those available are at least great.

So how about a beer from Haandbryggeriet in a pub close to me?

Getting close to the end...

Christmas has passed and we are getting close to also end 2007. Over at Oliver Twist we are also getting to the end of the OT US-draught attack.

I have personally just missed a few of them but it has been a great beer experience and a "ok" substitute for not being in the US and drinking them directly. So last night it was time for the last beer, at least the named ones (according to the list we can look forward for at least one more secret beer).

And this time it was the IPA from the Smuttynose brewery over at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

This beer has been a favorite on the bottle a couple of years and was surely a big hit a day after christmas and much better than all the christmas beers that you are really a bit fed up with right now. So the 20l keg came and went quite fast during the evening so at 21.00 it was emptied and the US-draught could be finished and passed to the beer history books.

Now we are already looking forward for the next batch of US-beers at OT that is scheduled for January or February.

Not much but...

anyway for you all out there;

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Beer Year...

Work has taken all my time the last couple of weeks so I have not found the inspiration to fill my blog with any interesting things. Right now I have to spend a few days with my family, but I will hopefully be back in a day or so.

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.