Last night was the second day for us at the Stockholm Beer Festival and it turned out to be a great evening and festival as always. I had expectations to broaden my perspective a bit and try more of the other beers available at the festival. And as I reported a few entries ago I had a list of potential beers to taste. And I tried, I promise you I really tried this time, but the result was not actually as planned and we got stuck over at Oliver Twist most of the time, again :-).
From the potential list of 13-14 beers I only succeeded in sampling 4!. 1. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley Wine (cask), 6. Dugges Idjit! 1st Limited Edition (Imperial Stout) 16,5 vol%, 9. Bluepoint No Apologies Double IPA 10%, 12. Oppigårds Smithy Ale, 4,6% - new receipe. And it was through help of some friends, so it was not all my own samples. What can you do?, currently I am into these type of beers and it is not everyday you can sample them, so what the heck.
Below is the full list of beers that I sampled myself and paid for, no additional tasting as last week so this time it was all up to my own planning and taste.
SECOND DAY RESULTS:
1. Nils Oscar Kalasöl (new receipe)
A classic Vienna styled beer brewed by Nils Oscar. This year it had a updated receipe, so that was why it was on the list. Sorry, I did not notice any differences, a good beer, but a bit boring for my taste.
2. Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque
Second draught beer from the Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel brewpub in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. A American styled Stout with Dark chocolate & Cocoa! It was like drinking a chocolate crème brulée and with 80% cacao or similar. Interesting but it was simply to much for me. Instead I still recommend last weeks draught beer from this brewery; Solstice D'hiver. Other geeks I spoke with had other thoughts about this beer and were very exited about it. So it seems that at least the brewery is doing a very good job with the beers.
3. Spinnakers Iceberg Pale Ale
An India Pale Ale (IPA) brewed by Spinnakers Brewpub Victoria, Canada. One of my favorite "normal" beers for the evening. A very clean and balanced American style IPA, drinkable and something that you can drink a lot of. A very nice bitter finish and something to recommend. One of the best "normal" Canadian beers during the festival, will be on my top 3 from my Canadian beer experience so far.
4. Stone IPA (Cask)
What can you say, a classic American IPA from one of the best breweries in the world. On my top list and it will still be there. Avaiable on draught over at the Oliver Twist booth and it was in the same league as the Dogfish head 60 min IPA last weekend. A clean balanced IPA, a classic.
5. Närke Örebro Bitter
If you talk about classic beers and from my top list this is the Swedish counterpart. One of the best beers from Sweden and from one of the best breweries in the world. Not always available at the Stockholm pubs so it has been a while since I sampled it, and now when the Bishop Arms branch had their own booth at the festival I thought to sample it. This was one of the first beers from a Swedish micro that I really liked and made it a classic for me as soon as it came out. Örebro Bitter is an English style ale, hopped with East Kent Golding and Cascade and as I said a classic and something to really recommend.
6. Dugges Idjit!
A Swedish Imperial Stout first presented at the festival, see my earlier entry about this new beer, that might be a new classic Swedish stout. Stockholm Beer 2007: A new Swedish beer classic? .
7. Dugges 1/2 Idjit!
Porter from Dugges and part of the Idjit range of beers. 1/2 Idjit is simply half a Idjit!, so it is a very potent porter and one of my favorites. It has a dark ruby color. Hint of coffee beans and a very roasted taste. Long roasted aftertaste with some alcohol buzz. As Dugges says this is half a Idjit but it is really making its own place and among the best porters available.
8. Steamworks Conductor Imperial India Pale Ale
An American style IPA from Steamworks brewery over in Colorado. This is a very potent beer and on the list because it was a imperial IPA which I always have to taste if available. Amber in color with a little white head. A very strong smell of hops, I believe it includes Simcoe. Simply a very drinkable DIPA, not on the top list but as a hop head this was quite a good beer. A new brewery at the festival and Sweden and it seems that they can do beer here also. Brewery is from Durango, Colorado.
9. Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA
Oh what can you say? Well the name says it all. This is a amazing DIPA and something I have to write more about in a separate entry. QUICK TAKE: Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA.
10. Hantverksbryggeriet Blåbärs Lambic Special (blueberry lambic)
Strange brew from the Hantverksbryggeriet over at Västerås. Sampled it last year at the festival and it is still no success. Like a alco-pop with some sourness, calling it a lambic is simply a shame. Something to jump over.
11. Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner
A very good hop bomb pilsner!, this was surely a winner and something that was on my top list for the night. See my earlier entry about this pilsner from Samuel Adams; QUICK TAKE: Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner. Will be available at Systembolaget in the beginning of December. 
Beer of the evening:
Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA
2007-09-30
Stockholm Beer 2007: Beer tasting list day II
2007-09-23
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.
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).
