Stockholm Beer 2007: Canadian tasting with the beer writer Stephen Beaumont

Second tasting was hold by the famous beer writer Stephen Beaumont and focused on the new Canadian beers that Oliver Twist is providing for us this year at the Stockholm beer.

It is always fun to see new beer countries in Sweden and when the tasting is hold by a very famous beer writer of Canadian Beers it is even more exciting. Stephen is a beer writer, both as a author of beer books and also a popular writer at many of the big US and Canadian beer magazines.

At this years festival Oliver Twist is providing around 20 beers from 10 different breweries from Canada and with a focus on the east coast of the country. And you can see that the breweries are inspired by the Belgian counterparts, so we tasted a list of very good belgian inspired beer. But for us it was more interesting to taste some of the more normal beers of the style ESB, Stout and IPAs.

Did not get the full list of beers that we tasted but here is the beers that I had time to write down.

1. Black Oak, Summer Saison
2. King Brewery, Pilsner
3. ALLEY KAT BREWING Co, Herbstweizen
4. MILL STREET BREWING Co, Coffee Porter
5. Unibroue La Terrible

Very nice beers and something to start with when you want to test what beers in Canada is all about.

But my personal favorite of all the Canadian beers was one of the available beers on draught. That meant the Solstice d` Hiver from the brewery DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE in Montreal, Canada. Dieu du Ciel Solstice dHiver (Winter Solstice) as a beer style is barley wine (to me a American styled barley wine compared to a traditional English one) with a amber color, thin off-white head, raisin touches in the malt base, alcohol with some brandy flavours, chocolate and vanilla notes. A very potent winter ale that was a very interesting sip of beer and one of the winners during the first day at the festival.

DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE is a brewery and pub in Montréal, Quebec. The brewpub is one of Montreal's leading brew pubs. The place is owned by three former microbiology students and self-proclaimed beer aficionados. All the beers at Dieu du Ciel are brewed right on the premises; patrons can observe fermenting and brewing paraphernalia that make up part of the bar's decor. Dieu du Ciel's has a number of porters, stouts or ales boasting with intriguing names like 'The Pagan', 'Sunday Morning Mass', 'The Resurrection' and 'The Goddess of the Night'.

If you want to learn more about this brewery and why the guys started the brewery, check out their site and history over at; URL.


Reporter from Ale Street News (left) and people from the Canadian brewery DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE (right).

Stockholm Beer 2007: Left Hand Tasting with Eric Wallace

This years US-beer list at Oliver Twist was amazing like always. But one of the better news was the arranged beer tasting that we stumbled upon when we passed the VIP-corner at the Oliver Twist booth. Jugge at Oliver Twist simply asked if we wanted to attend the Left Hand tasting, and that sounded interesting. It was hosted by the founder himself (Eric Wallace) that started the brewery in 1993 over at Longmont, Colorado.

It is always fund to hear how a brewery was started and how it came to be that a guy like Eric just thought that being a brewery could be fun. If you reflect on the fact that 4-5 of the big selling beers were all invented so early as 1994 (first beers that come out from the brewery), it is an amazing story and success. As a new brewery it take a while to find you style but here we have a brewery that already at start made amazing beers, and have sticked to them.

One fun story that Eric told us was the fact that Sweden had something to-do with him being a brewer. In short the story is that Eric traveled together with his wife on one of the big ferries across the Baltic Sea (between Sweden and Finland) back in 1991. On the boat he tasted a new beer as he normally does, this was a goal for him, simply to taste as much of new beers he could where ever he traveled. He found a strange new bottle of beer that he could not recognize, and thought that this was great, a nice ale that was so much better than the lagers on draught that was available. So he checked the bottle to see what kind of beer it was and was surprised to find that the beer was from the US. What he had tasted was the first ever beer for him from Samuel Adams! He thought it must be an English beer and was so surprised and exited that it was a beer from his own country that he decided that if these guys can create good craft beers in the USA he must also do it!

Jugge over at Oliver Twist is a large sponsor of beers from Left Hand and the beers are almost ever available at OT. And now this will be even bigger when the Milk Stout will be available at 200 stores through our own Systembolaget (state owned shops where all strong beer are sold). So it will be interesting to see if the Milk Stout could challenge the big hit beers of North Coast Red Seal and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at Systembolaget.

How about the tasting, well it looked like below;

1. Left Hand Sawtooth Ale (nutty, caramel flavors followed by herbal earthiness of hops)
2. Left Hand Jackmans Pale Ale (hopped pale ale with a solid malt foundation)
3. Left Hand Milk Stout (Classic cream stout with addition of sugar mellows)
4. Left Hand Black Jack Porter (Dark chocolate & espresso and smooth clean finish)
5. Left Hand Oak Aged Imperial Stout (Unfiltered Russian Imperial Stout, smooth with raisins, coffee & dark chocolate)
6. Left Hand Oak Aged Imperial Stout (draught version) (Even more smoother, a classic)

All amazing beers and my personal favorite is still the Imperial Stout. But as a classic pale ale a newcomer for me was the Sawtooth Ale, a very drinkable beer and its not difficult to understand that this is the number one selling beer from Left Hand.


Jugge from Oliver Twist and Eric during the tasting.

It will be interesting to visit the brewery during the GABF-week in Denver. We are all looking forward for that and hopefully meet Eric again, at least he told us that we were welcome to visit them.

UPDATED 2007-09-25
I made a mistake so I was caught on picture during the tasting, here is the proof; Over at Ofiltrerat. That was really not expected, :).

The Oliver Twist beer list at Stockholm Beer 2007, Part I (Canada)

Here is the current list of beers from Canada that Oliver Twist will provide for us beer drinkers at this years Stockholm Beer.

For all of you joining the event have a great time at the festival and especially at OT if you like beers from the US and Canada (English real ale will not be sold by OT this year but probably provided by others).

For the rest of you, well you are missing 2 great beer weekends in Stockholm.

Alberta
ALLEY KAT BREWING Co
Full Moon Pale Ale 5%
Herbstweizen 5%

Ontario
BLACK OAK BREWING Co
Black Oak Pale Ale 5%
Black Oak Nut Brown Ale 5%

Saskatchewan
BUSHWAKKER BREWING Co
Stubblejumper Pilsener, 5%
Palliser Porter 5,7%
Summer Wheat 4,5%

Quebec
DIEU du CIEL BRASSERIE
Aphrodisiaque 6,5%
Solstice d` Hiver 9%

Ontario
KING BREWING Co
Pilsner 4,8%
Dark Lager 4,8%

Quebec
McAUSLAN BREWING Co
St Ambroise Pale Ale 5%
St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout 5%

Ontario
MILL STREET BREWING Co
Tankhouse Ale 5,2%
Original Organic Lager 4,2%
Coffee Porter 5,5%

Nova Scotia
PROPELLER BREWING Co
Extra Special Bitter 5,0%
London Style Porter 5,0%
Propeller IPA 6,5%

British Columbia
SPINNAKERS BREWING Co
Mitchell`s E.S.B 5,2%
Twenty IPA 6,0%
Currant Noir 8,2%
Das Razz 8,2%

Quebec
UNIBROUE BREWING Co
The normal stuff n,n%

!ALL INFORMATION ABOVE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY JUGGE AT OLIVER TWIST AND THROUGH THE HELP OF "BK", THANKS!

Also go to the official festival site for more information; Stockholm Beer 2007

The Oliver Twist beer list at Stockholm Beer 2007, Part II (USA)

Last post was the beers from Canada, and that was new for this year at Stockholm Beer, short, but very large compared to other years when we only had Unibrou to test.

But now over to a larger list, the planned US-micro beer list with beers to be sold at this years event.

Have fun...

Alaska
Alaskan Brewing Co
Alaskan Smoked Porter
Alaskan Amber

Colorado
Avery Brewing Co
White Rascal
Ellie's Brown Ale
Old Jubilation
Out of Bounds Stout
Hog Heaven

New York
Blue Point Brewing Co
Toasted Amber Lager
Hoptical Illusion IPA
No Apologies Double IPA

Oregon
Deschutes Brewery
Black Butte Porter
Obsidian Stout
Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Inversion IPA

Delaware
Dogfish Head
90 Minute IPA
60 Minute IPA
Raison D Ètre

Colorado
Flying Dog Brewery
Gonzo Imperial Porter
Old Scratch Amber Lager
Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale

Colorado
Great Divide Brewing Co
Titan IPA
Denver Pale Ale
Ridgeline Amber Ale
St Bridges Porter
Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Massachusetts
Harpoon Brewing Co
Harpoon IPA
Munich Style Dark
Octoberfest
Smoked Porter
Kellerbier
UFO Raspberry

Colorado
Left Hand Brewing Co
Jackman’s American Pale Ale
Sawtooth Ale
Milk Stout
Black Jack Porter
Imperial Stout

California
North Coast Brewing Co
Red Seal Ale
Old Rasputin
Old Stock 2007
Brother Thelonius
Le Merle Belgian Style Saison

Colorado
Odell Brewing Company
5 Barrel Pale Ale
Cutthroat Porter
IPA
90 Shilling Ale
Double Pilsner

Colorado
Steamworks Brewing Co
Steam Engine Lager
Conductor Imperial IPA

Oregon
Rogue Ales
Juniper Pale Ale
American Amber
Chipotle Ale
Shakespeare Stout
Honey Orange Wheat
Kell´s Irish Style Lager

California
Stone Brewing Company
Stone Smoked Porter
Stone Ruination IPA
Stone IPA
Arrogant Bastard Ale

Georgia
Terrapin Beer Company
Rye Pale Ale
Golden Ale

Pennsylvania
Victory Brewing Co
HopDevil Ale
Victory V Twelve
Storm King Stout

California
21st Amendment Brewery
Watermelon Wheat (Can)
21A IPA (Can)

!ALL INFORMATION ABOVE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY JUGGE AT OLIVER TWIST AND THROUGH THE HELP OF "BK", THANKS!

Also go to the official festival site for more information; Stockholm Beer 2007

Canadian beers in Sweden

We have been enjoying some Canadian beers the last couple of years and mostly in the form of the Unibroue brewery in Quebec (my personal favorite is the Raftman), but that's it.

Now I got informed by Jugge at Oliver Twist that they will skip the English real ales at this years Stockholm Beer and instead concentrate on the normal US-micro beers that we have enjoyed the last couple of years, but will instead also add at least 8 breweries from Canada. I do not which, but it will be interesting to see what they have found for us. If you look at the great US-micros that they have provided, this seems to look very promising. Last year we were enjoying both Stone IPA and Russian River Pliny The Elder on tap, so we are looking forward what OT will give us this year.

I have very limited knowledge in good Canadian breweries (except Unibroue), but hopefully I will have the chance this time to learn a bit more during the festival.

What do you think?, what are the favorite Canadian breweries, if any?