More Danes in Stockholm

+ = Hygge

During next week and starting at January 29th there will be a Danish beer and food week at Bishop Arms North in Stockholm. This seems to be more of the good trend that we get more and more collaboration between our neighbohod countries regarding craft beers.

The planned beers for this events as reported by bk and c from Bishop Arms looks as follows;

On draught:

Bryghuset Braunstein: Porter, Pilsner, Amber lager & Viking IPA.

On the bottle:

Ølfabrikken: Cream Ale, Pale Ale, Rug IPA, Porter & Brown Ale.
Nørrebro: Skärgårds Porter, New York lager & Ravnsborg Red.

These beers will also be served with Danish food and especially a setup of different "Smørrebrød".

Närke Beer Festival at Akkurat

(Quote based and translated on information from bk);

"Akkurat as the first bar in the world will have a small "Närkefestival" and will have up to 12 draft beers with up to 7 different served simultaneously. This will start on Thursday Jan 24 at 17.00 & will continue as long as beers is available.

The beer from Närke Kulturbryggeri will be;

1. !
2. Anders Göranssons Bästa Rököl
3. Black Goldings
4. Närke Sim-Ko
5. Kll’n v f n d’vill
6. Riktigt Jävla Mörker (Cask)
7. Riktig Örebro Styrian Bitter (Cask)
8. Örebro Bitter
9. Närke Slättöl
10. Närke Mörker
11. Max Goldings 2007
12. Stormaktsporter 2005!!! "

This seems to be a great initiative from the world famous beer bar in Stockholm and with a brewery that is getting better and better during the years. Örebro Bitter is a classic beer now, anyway feels like it. And the latest US-inspired beers of Sim-Ko and Kll’n v f n d’vill are both really quality and fun beers.

Damn, of course it seems that I will miss this event due to work and a planned trip to Åre. Well I hope those that can get there on Thursday will have a great time.

Spring US Beer Festival 08: The result

I reported earlier (What about a beer festival in 08?) that we were planning a spring beer festival somewhere in the US. It was a bit difficult but mainly due to the exact timing and a reasonable distance from Europe during a extended weekend we finally came up with a suitable place. Yes, I know there are plenty of great beer and breweries on the west coast (like Portland that has been mentioned in some of the comments I got) and other places in the country but this year the journey will take us to;

The Spring Craft Beer Festival, Uniondale, Ny; March 29 + that we are also planning a short stop over at the 1st Manhattan Cask Ale Festival@Chelsea that I just stumbled upon a few days ago.

This will be great, a couple of beer festival and then the rest of the time heading for some beer journeys to my favorite places like;

1. Barcade, at 388 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, ******

2. Blind Tiger Ale House, at 281 Bleecker Street, *****

3. Mugs Ale House, at 125 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, ****

4. Ginger Man, The, 11 East 36th Street, ****

5. CB Six, at 252 East 51st Street, ***

6. Spuyten Duyvil, at 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn ***

Sadly the earlier number 3 spot; The Collins Bar, at 735 8th Ave. @ 46th St., as I earlier reported is no more so we can not start the trail anymore over at this amazing little place close to Times square.

But I guess we can live with House Of Brews - W. 51st Street close to the hotel. And hopefully some other places can be included that we have not visited in NY before.

Some sad news I missed from NY

When I was planning today for our spring New York beer trip (yes it became NY this time) and was checking for the better bars close to the hotel I stumpled over some really sad and disturbing news.

One of my favorite NY-draft-beer-bars in central manhattan is no more.

What I am talking about is the "The Collins Bar", on 8th Avenue, just a single block west of Times Square has been closed down.

This happened in the end of July 07 simply because the whole block has been sold by the landlord and the building will be torned down. The plan seems to be building condos or similar.

This is really upsetting, it was simply a great place and a natural spot to start your NY-adventures in central manhattan.

So what should we do now?, where should we go when Collins is no more?

Anyway it has been a joy to be able to spend some great US draft beer hours at this place. And it feels fine that we at least had the chance to spend a last time when we visited NY last May.

It was also fun that the first time you just happened to stumple over the place as the first bar found just a few hours after arriving in NY and discovering that we had a amazing place just minutes from our hotel across the street.

The Gotham Imbiber reports at the blog that they had a farewell party at the end of July. Seems that they had a great time and closed with pride.

Lets see if they have the chance in a distant future to start up a similar place somewhere else in NY, at least the new spot for Blind Tiger turned out very well (talking about places being closed down and moved simply because they could not stay and instead replaced with a other Starbucks!).

So I am raising my glass a last time for this great place; rest in peace.

OB Ten FIDY in Denmark

Just saw that Oskar Blues Ten FIDY Imperial Stout is currently available over at Ølbutikken in Copenhagen. That is really good news for the Danes and for us up here in Scandinavia. So now I understand where the OB Ten FIDY maybe came from when it was spotted over at Akkurat today, at least that is my theory.

From the site it says;

Navn: Ten FIDY
Bryggeri: Oskar Blues Land: USA Øltype: Stout
Indhold: 330 ml Alkohol: 9,4 % Pris: 52 kr
Beskrivelse:
Dåseøl!!

Well 52 kr for this amazing beer, that is really a bargain. Imperial Stout pouring as motor oil in a can, great stuff!!.

For learning some Danish, it seems that "Dåseøl" means a beer on a can (burköl in Swedish).

QUICKTAKE: Southern Tier Imperial Oat

Well it seems that it did not take long for me before it was time for a US extreme beer. I actually tonight tried a pils from Germany and a english real ale. But anyway we had to try the new beer from Southern tier, at least over at our favorite place in the world (OT).

This beer is really completely pitch black with a dark tan with a very tight lacing. The aroma is of rich toffee, coffee and some sort of dried fruit and a very alco warming ending. It comes with a very hop character to bring balance to the extremelly strong roasted malty end. It finishes somewhat sweet´and that tells me about the oat compared to a "normal" thick imperial stout. Except that it is mainly a Imperial Stout compared to a "traditional" out-based stout. The difference is mainly the sweetnes, otherwise it is a US-inspired stout in the Imperial category.

This is a really big one in every way and not for the faint of heart. At the end it is really a complex beer and a other new example of a great beer from the southern tier brewery.

I promised myself to test other types of beer this year, but still the US-Imperial Stouts are very good and one of the best beer styles you can end a evening with.

Based on my scale I would give it a 5- or similar, together with Thirsty Dog Siberian Night Imperial Stout and Bells Expedition Stout that are still my favorite Imperial Stouts.

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.