Stockholm Beer 2007: And the winner is?

The festival has ended and some of the breweries returned home with a bunch of prizes. Some of the most interesting beer that won according to me, looks lkte below; (here is the full list link)

Category: Best Bottled Ale 4.8-5.9 ABV
Harpoon IPA (Harpoon Brewing Co)

Category: Stong Beer 6% ABV & above
Shakespeare Stout (Rogue Ales)

Categroy: Stong Beer 8% ABV & above
90 Minute IPA (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)

Category: Swedish Bottle Beer
Oppigårds Slåtteröl (Oppigårds Brygger AB)

Category: Draught Ale 4.8-5.9 ABV
Avenyn Ale (Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri)

Category: Draught Beer 6% ABV & above
Imperial Stout (Nils Oscar Company AB)

Category: Draught Beer 8% ABV & above
Slottskällans Imperial Stout (Gamla Slottskällans Bryggeri AB)

Category: Swedish Draught Beer
Avenyn Ale (Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri)

I guess it is good choices, but for my own taste the list is a "bit" different. My personal favorite during the weekens would look like below;

Best beer all categories:
1. Blue Point No Apologies Imperial IPA (cask)
2. Left Hand Imperial Stout (cask)
3. Dieu du Ciel Brasserie Solstice d'Hiver (cask)

Best Swedish Beer:
1. Dugges 1/2 Idjit!

Best newcomer that can be something:
1. Dugges Idjit!

Best unexpected beer:
1. Spinnakers Iceberg Pale Ale

And the winner is...

Knut Albert over at his beer blog recently reported that Time Out has ranked the best bar in London to the very tiny but great pub of "The Rake".

Fun to see that many people has found this great pub behind the borough market in London. It has been on my London pubs short list since last year when we visited for the very first time. Visited it again during the GBBF this year and it was still a great little pub. How about the secret?, well I think it mostly because it is so different compared to the normal english pubs and the amount of different beers that are sold on this tiny bar, also different compared to the pubs.

For me it is like shrinking Akkurat in Stockholm into to a tiny space but keeping at least a big number of beers all over the globe (The pub seats 44 people and the bar is only 13x7 feet!)

So right now my personal top list in the English capital is;

1. The Wenlock Arms








2. The Rake








3. The Royal Oak