MY_BEER_DIARY #3: 2009-08-21@OT

“Oliver Twist (OT)”:

1.	Triple FFF Alton's Pride (c)
2.	Sly Fox Phoenix Pale Ale (can)
3.	Two Brothers The Bitter End Pale Ale (b)
4.	Long Trail Double Bag (b)
5.	Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA (b)

 

Great to see that Long Trail brewery has founds its way over to Sweden and OT. We found this a very nice brewery in Vermont during our trip to New England last year. They do not do monster or master piece beers, instead its traditional styled beers with very good balance and variety. More in the English tradition compared to the more alpha hoppy variants many US brewers tend to stick with.

Also it was nice to see that OT has finally convinced the brewers that also the Pale Ale styled beers travel well, at least if you drink them early. Before the beer bottle batches from the US have almost 100% been stronger beers in ABV and high in the hoppinies, with styles like DIPA, Imperial Stouts or Barley Wines. So you sort of miss the more softer and balanced Pale Ales that you enjoy so much during the beer trips to the US. Finally it was nice to see several examples, including the Two Brothers and Sly Fox examples, instead of the monster beers we have had before from those breweries.

Then of course I could not help myself and ended the night with one of the better beers in the world, i.e. the Double Simcoe IPA from Weyerbacher, Simply amazing.

New US Craft beers available @ OT

A direct report from OT simply says that OT now has a new batch of craft beers on bottle.

Here is the latest offering. No report yet on the beers as I am still drinking my Triple FFF Alton's Pride on cask (a good start), but it is fun to see the old friend Long Trail brewery from last years New England beer trip.

Cheers to all at a Friday night.

MY_BEER_DIARY #2: 2009-08-19@OT

“Oliver Twist (OT)”:

1. Stone Ruination IPA (d)

2. Stone Ruination IPA (d)

3. He'Brew Rejewvenator 2009 (d)

Not much to report except that the Ruination was amazing, not as fresh and crisp as in Escondido, but still nothing to complain about, simply a masterpiece of perfection in a DIPA.

News: A new batch of US-beers at OT

Oliver Twist will have a new batch of US-beers ready on Tuesday August 18th. No information about what it will be, but the focus this time will be mostly on new bottles and not any new kegs.

Except that I have heard some buzz about Stone Ruination on draught, it can even be on already. You lucky bastards that are at OT will have a treat. Myself can just think about the fact that it was not so many weeks ago I was sitting at Stone Bistro & Res. drinking a really fresh Ruination.

Great to be “home” again…

Regardless of all the great beers, breweries and bars available during our trip to California it is always nice to know that you still have a beer heaven back home (OT) that you can return to.

Available US craft beers on draught this Saturday evening was two old friends in the form of;

1. Moylan's Moylander Double IPA.

2. Southern Tier Hoppe (Imperial Extra Pale Ale)

Seems I will survive with beer treats also in the future and have my beer experiences back “home” for a while.

Right now I think we have made enough beer traveling for a while, and then it feels great that I actually live in one of the best beer cities in the world, feel really lucky.

Cheers + nice to be “home” again.

Three US Craft Breweries that should be brought to Sweden

During the trip to California this summer a couple of breweries brought extra attention to us all. Off the many beers and breweries sampled I would like to see the following breweries making it over the ocean and land in some of the better beer bars in Stockholm (like for example “Oliver Twist”, hint hint). Maybe they have been here already, but regardless I definitely think they should come here more regularly.

1. The Bruery

Location: Placentia, California

Beers: Black Tuesday, White Oak Sap, Papier, Saison Rue, Sour in The Rye etc.

People: Patrick Rue - CEO / Founder, Michael Rue – President

Description: A newcomer (just celebrated their first year) to the quite limited brewery scene in the LA area. As the number of breweries around LA was very thin it was really a treat to find this brewery tucked away close to the border of anaheim. Patrick Rue (the founder) has Belgian relations in the family, and it seems that this has also affected his brewery influences. Most of the beers have some touch of Belgium beers and flavors all blended with different type of oak techniques (bourbon, brandy, white oak etc). The more standard beers like; Orcha White, Saison Rue, Trade Winds Triple are all good, but nothing extraordinary. But then when it comes to the more advanced and experimental beers it is a completely other story. We initially thought that the beers were ok but nothing really to talk about, then when we went for the special flight they had available we were completely knocked down bye all the flavors and aroma. I can simply say that the “Black Tuesday, a strong imperial stout (19.50% ABV!!) stored on bourbon barrels, the “White Oak” and Papier (Bourbon Barrel) were all one of the better beers I have ever tasted. Simply a amazing trio of beers that we just wanted to take with us. Unfortunately we were a bit too early and the beers are not yet available on bottle (info at the brewery told us late fall or similar).

As the brewery as many other craft breweries are being distributed by “Stone” and their distribution company I can see that it must be possibilities to get their beers in the next available container. The owner (Mr.. Rue) of the brewery is always keen on getting the beers out (even got their card to be able to set up the needed contacts), so therefore I hope we can see a “Black Tuesday”" on the other side of the Atlantic in a soon future, I will anyway be on the buying list.

2. Alpine Beer Company

Location: Alpine, California

Beers:  Duet IPA, Pure Hoppiness, Exponential Hoppiness, Nelson Rye etc.

People: Pat Mcilhenney (owner & brewer)

Description: Alpine brewery is located in the small city of Alpine outside San Diego. The brewery was started by a home brewer (Pat) as many other brewers. They actually started 1999 by sub-contracting with AleSmith Brewery in San Diego and the “McIlhenney’s Irish Red” beer. In 2002, they opened their own brewery in Alpine. They have also very recently set up the plan to build a small brewpub and a larger taste room. But when we visited they were still in the original location were everything is in the same building, including as small taste room (actually just a small bar table just in front of the brewery) were you could sample all the beers available.

I was really surprised by the overall quality of all the beers available. They have a large number of really tasty IPA, but also the lighter beers like the Irish Red and the Alpine Ale (an APA) were all really well balanced.Then of course the two high alpha IPAs in the form of “Pure Hopiness” and “Exponential Hoppiness” were two really classic west coast IPA. I think that we maybe have seen this brewery sometime in Sweden, but regardless I would like to some of these bottles could come over, at least the 2 high alpha IPAs would travel safely and will be a big hit on the shelves at “OT” or “Akkurat”.

3. Island Brewing Company (IBC)

Location: Carpinteria, California

Beers: Jubilee Ale, Nut Brown Ale, Big Island IPA, Paradise Pale Ale etc.

People: Paul Wright (Founder) (the nice gentleman below on the left side)

Description: Located in the city of Carpinteria and have been in operation since July  2000. It was started by Paul Wright, a former submarine captain, that as many other also started out as homebrewer (received a homebrew kit for Christmas in 91) and made quite quickly a brewery name in area. After working for breweries like Marin Brewing company he then started his own business in 2000.

This is a very small family run brewery that is brewing a amazing line of hoppy and tasty brews. I especially like the Jubilee Ale, but also the Island Pale Ale. Same thing as with Alpine that I think I have seen this brewery in Stockholm (like at the Stockholm Beer Festival) once, but it is still such a great brewery that some more bottles could be consumed over here.

Yes and then it was Stone...

Just if you missed it, it just happened to be a amazing beer tasting with Stone Brewery over at Oliver Twist, Stockholm last Thursday.

With personal brought beers by Greg K himself we simply had a amazing beer journey and sampling, including the very very new Stone 12th Anniversay oatmeal stout.

Quite fun that I planned to have that particular beer over in Boston on July 16th when it was supposed to be introduced there. But who needs to go to the USA when the CEO himself brings his beers to us.

Cheers and thanks very much for all the beers and information Greg. This was a very good start of the summer and all the beers we are supposed to enjoy arround New England.

10! beers were sampled and all brought directly from the US.

And yes I was actually there, here is the proof, thanks BK for the picture...

Beer mayhem at Oliver Twist

After some problem with the distribution (due to the cheap dollar everyone wants to buy, so it was difficult to get a free container) the beers for the US-beer Mayhem at Oliver Twist has finally arrived.

At least the menu is ready and we are all waiting to get the opportunity to get hold of some draught US-beer again.

It was a while now and I have not got the opportunity to drink some great US-micros since the NY-trip at the end of March. Looking at the list it seems that we can return to the "normal" line of US-micros from all over the country.

Also seems that Jugge has also got some beers again from the Fort Collins Brewery (hope they know about that this time, :-)), hope it will be as good as when we visited the brewery last year.



Hope ya all turn in, at least you that has the opportunity!

QUICKTAKE: The beers from Skinners

We have recently been enjoying real ales from both Rudgate and Skinners lately in Stockholm. Escpecially Skinners is a very good example for a great new brewery from Cornwall. Well "new", at least the brewery is quite new when it started up the business in 1997.

The brewery was started by Steve and Sarah Skinner in 1997 in Truro, Cornwall and they have quite quickly established themselves as one of the major craft breweries in the South-West. The brewery is family-run and operates all brewing in Truro and where they have a great selection of cask conditioned ales that has earned them prizes including twice Supreme champion of the South West and SIBA UK National Reserve Champion of Great Britain.

One of the fun part of the brewery is the quite hilarious labels that they use for the bottle design and also the beer name. What about; "Pennycomequick", "Jingle Knockers" or "Bishop Bills Truro Brew"? and these labels;



Served beers at OT that I have sampled so far is Skinners Keel Over and Skinners Figgys Brew.

The first one is a classic styled bitter, with a clear deep golden to amber colour and big white head, a decent real ale bitter. Second one is a darker bitter, copper in color and white head, a bit of hops with notes of malt, also very decent and drinkable.

The beers are not master pieces but they do decent drinkable beers that you can drink much of. Beers do not always need to be strong and hoppy and master pieces, some times you just feel for a drinkable beers and that is where breweries like Skinners have a place for me.

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.

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.

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.

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;

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.

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

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.

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