New England Report IV:2008-07-17

Reporting from the Fairview Motel outside New London NH. Here the trip also can continue on the web.

We have had a couple of more amazing beer days with loads of New Hampshire and Vermont beers, including the Vermont Brewers Festival (more about that later on).

If we continue with the actual trip and after the Cape Ann brewery (I later actually got a cap from the brewer himself outside burlington, thanks) if looks like this;

We took the car and continued back in the country from the coast and took us all over to The Tap in Haverhill, MA, a bit north or Boston. The was a natural spot after several pints of the amazing Leatherlips IPA.

(Tap handlers at the Tap in Haverhill)

The Tap has several great beer and is really a nice little town outside the Boston area. They are located in a town that was ages ago very famous for the shoe industry. Therefore they use the old shoe samples as part of the tap handlers.

Sampled beers included;

25. Rejuvination
26. Haverale
27. APA
28. Leatherlips IPA (amazing IPA at only 5% ABV, but in hops tastes like a double IPA, we even got a six pack to go)
29. Fresh Roasted Coffee Stout

After Haverhill we took the car up to Smuttynose Brewing Company in Portsmouth NH. We got the great opportunity with some talk with the bartender to be able to get a short brewery tour. Very fun to just have a quick browse through this brewery. As Smuttynose and especially the IPA is one of our old US IPA bit was really fun to check out the brewery. We got to see all of the production and even some of the future oaked barell experiments they are playing around with at the hidden corner of the brewery.


Sampled beers include;

30. Pale Ale Shoals
31. IPA
32. Portsmouth Lager
33. Old Brown Dog

The list expanded and as you see some people takes the beer list very seriously;

After the samplers and the brewery tour we had to continue and with some free samplers given to us at Smutty we went down to Portsmouth Brewery (sister brewery for Smutty) and sampled the following beers;

34. Bottle Rocket IPA
35. Black Cat Stout
36. Imperial IPA

After finally coming to Portland, maine we got rid of the car and headed down to downtown Portland. Portland by night included;"Grittys"

37. Bitter (cask)
38. Pub Style Pale Ale (cask)

"Sebago Brewing Company"

39. Fryes IPA
40. Boathouse Brown Ale
41. Roadhouse Red Ale

"Great Lost Bear" (Best bar in Portland, just sorry that it was the last place for the night and so far away from everything else, took us 40 minutes to walk between Sebago and the lost beer)

42. Stone Coast 420 IPA
43. Gearys Porter
44. Gearys Ale (cask)

At least you could understand that if you only need one place in Portland, the Great Lost Bear is the place. A cool place with loads of beers and atmosphere. But as always this should have been the first place to visit instead of the last place after a very long beer trail.

New England Report III: 2008-07-17

First day if we talk about breweries and the beer trail took us to the "Cape Ann Brewing Company" in Glouchester, MA.

Sampled beers included;

20. Fishersmans IPA
21. Fishermans Pumkin Stout
22. Fishermans Brew (lager)
23. Fishermans Tea party Barley Wine


24. Bavarian Wheat

New England Report II: 2008-07-16

Day II in and still in Boston. So this is the day that we need to show our beer friends the best of greater Boston beer scene.

The beers and places that we succeeded in getting to during the day includes (the weather was sunny and sunny etc)

"Beer Works", Canal Street

7. Fenway American Pale Ale
8. Back Bay IPA
9. Victory Red (cask)

"Bukowski Tavern" (during the wait of the Stone beer 12th anv.)

10. Lagunitas IPA
11. Sixpoint Bengali Tiger IPA
12. Cambridge Brewing Company Porter

"The Sunset Grill & Tap"

13. Bear Republic Racer 5
14. Boulder Beer Hazed & Infused
15. Moylans Double IPA
16. Allagash Curieux (cask)
17. Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard
18. He'Brew Lennys RIPA

"The Deep Ellum"

19. Ipswich Mild Brown

New England Report I

Hi,

Yes we actually came to the US and started our New England Beer Trail 2008. The problems with my internet access has continued so a few days has passed with many beer experiences that you could talk about.

As always it is getting a bit late and I really hope that this one is a good choice to try something out on the net. Couple of the last attempts has ended with giving up and instead going to sleep.

So lets get some facts so far.

2008-07-15

Arrived in Boston and our hotel; "Midtown Hotel.

Straight to our favorite bar in Boston; "Bukowski Tavern" on Dalton Street.

1. Stone Arrogant Bastard
2. Cisco Whales Tale Palse Ale
3. Smyttonose IPA

"The Other Side Cafe"

4. DogFish 60 Minute IPA

"The Lower Depths Tap Room" (owned by the Bukowski team)

5. The Tap Leatherlips IPA (amazing IPA at 5% ABV)
6. Otter Creek Copper Ale

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...

Yes I am still here!

If anyone is still reading this blog except myself I just need to inform that our New England Beer Trip 2008 will just start in a couple of hours.

Hopefully I will have access to some kind of network and hope to make at least some comments about the trip.

It will start tomorrow (actually in a couple or hours) with going over to Boston, MA and end on July 30th.

We will probably not finish everything as planned but here is at least the main plan and where you can check were we probably are on this little beer trail.

New Spring beer from Sam Adams at OT

Not that I like american style weiss\wit beer much but at least I need to give Oliver Twist some credit when they serve new beer from the US on draught, and even on the standard list of beers.

This beer showed up a couple of weeks ago at my favorite pub i Stockholm. It is called a "White Ale" and is a seasonal spring beer from Samuel Adams. So to categories it in style I would say simply a "Sam Adams"-style beer inspired by belgian witbier, meaning more Sam Adams instead of a normal witbier.

So if you like the taste of Sam Adams beers (as I do) and want to try something different this is your beer.

I like Sam Adams in the sense that it is a great starting point for people that usually drink international lagers. It is a beer that you can give a ago and often people like it and through that can learn and understand that a beer can actually taste something without being too much.

Often you hear that I want a beer, but it should not be dark, as to say that all dark beer would taste to much and different compared what they normally drink. Is that not strange?, why would just a dark beer taste more, at least you can not generalize like that. It is like say that a red wine would always taste more than a white wine, just because red is more color than white!.

According to Sam Adams this beer "has clear malt & wheat notes, and dominated by 9 spices and dried fruits". Personally I would say a beer with light orange color with a white head for a short while. For a wit-bier it has the lemon and orange you like in a beer like hoegaarden, quite refreshing as a summer beer and at the end very drinkable.

Not great and nothing I will drink much of but at least I will recommend it to people who wants something different and like to sample a US-beer.

In average I would give it a 4/10.

Tribute to my favorite pub; all categories

What should a great pub\bar be?

Many beers? From many countries? Quality beers? Friendly Staff? Good food? Great location? Large? Small? Modern? Old?

Well that is a tricky question. But at very few occurences you just feel that this is it, this is something I like in pub, and this is a place that I like to return to.

This little tribute is such a place.

Barcade located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York city started out as a car workshop that was bought by a couple of micro beers & arcade enthusiasts in 2005. The place opened up in September 2005 and has quite quickly developed as a beer heaven for US-micro beers on draught, also recently on cask that is being more and more popular in the state.

So what about the hype, lets start with the actual building.

When you first arrive to the place it is really not easy to understand that this is a pub and a place where you should actually get close to. It looks like something that should actually been teard down ages ago, but that is part of the charm.

It is a rought place that just with its little sign saying "Barcade" shows directly what the place is about.

A place where you primarly drink beer (no food is served except beer nuts and chips) and can enjoy it with others also liking the beers to be based on quality and love to the craft brewing industry.

When you enter the place you will notice the exposed brick walls and the 25-foot ceilings, on the

left side a row of arcade games from the 80s, on the right hand side a long bar that strechtes out from start to end of the place.

And this is also one of the key things with a great bar, meaning the bar, you should be able to sit at the bar and not just get the beers from it. For me beers should be consumed at the actual bar, through that you can really get the atmosphere of the place.

So to summarize so for, it needs to be rough, meaning a place with a built in athmosphere and soul that shows that the place is primarly for beers and not just a place that has been heavily designed to be cool and classy. Secondly we need a long bar, either on the side or placed at the end of the place.

Barcades primarily serves micro beers through out the country and almost always on draught. The beers are handled with care and served with a understanding of glassware and suitable amount of beers (bad example of that is an other great place but that has no understanding of amount and glassware, at Mugs Ale Hourse also in Williamsburg I was served a Weyerbacher Double Simcoe India Pale Ale in a English pint!, great bargain but without understanding that you can not drink a English pint of a beer with arround 10% without loosing your touch and the touch of the beer), so you get a double ipa or a imperial stout in snifter or tulip, a american pale ale in a american pint glass as it should be.

One of the strange things that I have noticed the last couple of years in NY is the trend to replace the glass from american pint to english pint, why?, you should keep the glass that it should be not try to copy the english tradition.

Becuase if so, you are missing one thing, english beers are often light beers with ABV between 3 and 4%, american micros are often stronger in taste and ABV, so it is not a good idea to serve a 6-7% ABV Pale Ale or IPA in a larger glass, you just get drunk people not enjoying your beers.

Other things you notice is the staff, who has the knowledge and love of beers. They know what they are serving and they can talk about what the beer is about. If you do not know what you want they can help you out, and they have that special ability just by asking a couple of question can get the beer you really like, or just by knowing your last beer can spot out the next you should have, just before you realize it yourself.

Amount and number of changing beers is on my list of a good place, but is not the most important thing you look for. But anyway here you have a large number of taps and that is constantly changing in line and a great collection of beers from both the east, west coast and the rocky areas.

For example in this particular moment I could have enjoyed the following beers (unfortunately you can not be in NY every weekend, :-);

Allagash Four, Avery Karma, Blue Point Oatmeal Stout (cask), Middle Ages Kilt Lifter, Rogue Shakespeare Stout (Nitro), Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale, Sly Fox Saison Vos, Southampton IPA, Victory Prima Pils etc etc.

So this place is on my number one spot, it can not be any better, only pity is that NY is so far away. So I have to enjoy most of my beers locally. But at least everytime I am in NY Barcade is the number of spot.

Thanks to the folks at Barcade, thanks for giving me the ultimate beer experience.

Beers from Argentina enjoyed in Sweden

Monks Café on Wallingatan 38 Stockholm/Norrmalm speciality is large number of beers, estimated to 1200 different bottles and arround 16 on the tap. I am not there so often (you can not visit every good place in Stockholm) but at some occurences we get up to the place and to try out some new brews from around the world.

This time I like to get the opportunity to give some credit to beers from Argentina. Maybe not a country that is famous for the beers, but why not, if Sweden can produce great micro beers why not Argentina.

So we sampled some of the beers available (Monks had a little Argentina beer festival, but I am sorry to say that I do not know the rest of the available beers) and discovered the beer from Antares. This is a small Brew Pub/Brewery located in the city of Mar del Plata (located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the Buenos Aires Province) brewed at the New Patagonia Brewery.

Antares beer is one of the fastest-growing premium beer in Argentina and has recently started to be available outside the country, exported to countries like Canada, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Japan.

Even in May month it has been announced that the beers (at least the lager) will be available in the US through the distribution of Aladdin Beverage (Brooklyn , NY). The lager seems to be the largest beer when talking about sales but we instead concentrated on the more interesting styles of port and stout.

First one was the porter that at start due to the cold storage did not taste much, but when the beer was warmed it turned out to be a very well made porter. This is a classic porter with aroma of toffe, coffee and and the end some roasted malts. It has has a quite thick beige head and quite oily in the mouth. Not a favorite in porters for me but at least very drinkable.

Second one was the stout (Antared Imperial Stout) that also comes with a deep dark brown color with a similar brown\beige head as the porter. This is of course something else compared to the porter, simply because of the storage and ABV. It has a very strong roasted malty character with quite smoky tastes. Not a favorite in imperial stouts (like Bells Expedition Stout and Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter) but it has the standard characters of a imperial stout and can be recommended to at least try out.

Always interesting to learn new beer countries and it will be interesting what the planned beers from Brazil that Monks is going to provide for us.

For the interested, here is a complete list of beers from Monks that are or at least have been available;

1. Antares Barley Wine
2. Antares Imperial Stout
3. Antares Kölsch
4. Antares Porter
5. Antares Scotch Ale
6. Aracuana Bock
7. Aracuana Doppio Malto
8. Aracuana Pale Ale
9. Aracuana Weizen
10. Otro Mundo Golden Ale
11. Otro Mundo Nut Brown Ale
12. Otro Mundo Strong Red Ale

The Beer Summer in Stockholm has arrived

Last Saturday the summer finally arrived in Stockholm and took us all with storm. Seems that everyone was out enjoying the short opportunity to get some sun. Stockholm looked like a enormous beach area and you could not understand that we had snow just a couple of weeks back.

So it was a good time to get together and drink some great beers. The normal beer meeting with the The Swedish Beer Consumers Association had this time been transformed to picnic in the park.

We all met at tantolunden on Södermalm and had a great time with some sampling of beers and chocolate.

It felt a quite interesting experience to sit together and drink great quality micro beers from all over the world, when people at the same time arround were enjoying the maybe more "normal" fizzy yellow macro lagers in large scale. It was like a little island thrown out on a big field of international lagers and cheap wines.

Most of the beers came fram Anders H and Lasse and from one of their many beer trips to Copenhagen, so the quality was great and we were lucky enough to get some great beers from escpecially the USA.

How about the beer list that I personally enjoyed, can it be any better, micro beer and summer in Stockholm,

1. Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale

2. Oskar Blues Old Chub

3. Green Flash Double India Pale Ale

4. Närke ?

5. Runöl

6. Guiness export 7.5% (from a stach of beers that Carlsberg wanted to throw away due to the date, 2004!, very sweet beer and not really what you think a Guiness should taste)

7. Oppigårds Påsköl

It was a good day and I think we should do this more often, it is not always you get such great beers at a park in Sweden. Thanks to who ever came up with this brilliant idea, instead of just sitting inside in a dark pub sampling beers that we usually do when we have such gatherings.

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!

All you need in a fridge..

Yes what can it be except a couple of canned Imperial Stouts and Imperial Porter!

Trying to find some time...

It always seems that this time of the year has one problem and that is the tendency that everyone wants to be finished at the same time. So I am currently struggeling to deliver all the things you have promised (IT things) to do. Through that I very seldom have to time to write something interesting over here, hopefully it will come back.

At least here is a picture of a happy beer geek (myself) drinkning a english pint! of Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA over at Mugs Ale House \ Williamsburg \ Brooklyn for the bargain price of 5 bucks. Yes I have been to New York a couple of weeks back and had a great beer week, excellent trip, but I have simply not found the time to explore it over here at my little blog.

Happy

And happier

Tribute to a Swedish Real Ale Brewery

It is great pleasure to introduce a new brewery that has touched my beer heart the last couple of months. Sometimes you just feel that this is it, this is great from start, and for the little "brewery" up north in the city of Sundsvall it has simply been a joyride for us beer geeks in Stockholm.

It is amazing that a place that is actually a local small pub in Sundsvall can do such master pieces. Simple traditional beers with genuin English cask conditioned traditions. You can simply in short say that this is "Real" real ale because they do the beer so traditional that it can ever be, well structured in the style and very british.

The Irish Pub in Sundsvall has been in business for quite a while now but it is just the last couple of months that it has appeared as a genuin brewery, at least now when the beer is available not only locally in Sundsvall. Its like a big secret has been revealed that has been hidden up north. Just a pitty that we have had to be waiting such a long time.

I guess I have sampled all the available beers and styles served at Akkurat the last 2-3 months, and they have all been great and very distinct in flavor and tradition.

Some of the sampled beers has been;

Irish Pub East India Pale Ale

Irish Pub Guld Kusten

Irish Pub Svarta Katten


So what could be better when we talk about Swedish Real Ales, well the market is not really big but at least the quality is high, so it would be my favorite brewery in Gothenburg and the amazing Ocean Brewery. Favorte beer from that brewery is the great english IPA in form of the Ocean India Pale Ale;


Cheers.

April news at Akkurat

You might not always notice these lists outside Akkurat (if you are not a smoker also, :-)). But anyway here is the planned list for Akkurat in April. And if you have missed it, Akkurat is one of the best pubs/bars in Sweden and probably the world (beeradvocate rating).

Something to look forward for?, well Harviestoun always marks out the coming of spring and summer together with Dark Star, and what about some Avery Reverand on draught (now when the list is getting to the end at Oliver Twist, it is time for Akkurat to strike back, :-) ).

New Beer: How about some "Imperial Mild"

So what do you think about the continued struggle by US breweries to do everything Imperial?

I thought I had seen everything, but what about this one that we sampled at our latest trip to New York, an "Imperial Mild". Yes a Mild coming with a stunning flavor and around 11% ABV!.

Well I guess it mostly a joke and a try to describe the beer, compared to really trying to be a mild. But at least we found it quite amusing.

And yes if you are wondering, I know, I have been very lazy and have not found the time to add anything new at my little blog for a very long time. But now I am hopefully back again, and during the time I have been having quite a few beer experience that I will try to come back to; like our beer trip to NY and the 1st Manhattan Craft Beer Festival, a "little" beer festival on long island, great new Swedish real ales from Sundsvall, great new draught US-beers at Oliver Twist (Avery is the king), getting closer to the beer mayhem at OT in May, just started to plan for the New England Beer trip during the summer, great new beers from Dugges and Ocean, new favorite beer bars in NY etc etc etc.

Link to the beer at beeradvocate; http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1635/41832 (Seems so new that is has still no rating, but is according to them a american barley wine, seems more approriate than a mild)

Bistro Double IPA Festival

The yearly Double IPA festival has been held once more over at Bistro, San Fran, California.

And as normal I which I had the time to actually be there, sigh!!

Närke Kulturbryggeri Festival: Missed a hit

Well I have really nothing to report except that I missed the Närke brewery festival at Akkurat, yes the whole weekend. I had to go on a business trip so I had to leave all the great beers from Örebro to the rest of the beer community at Akkurat and instead drink "Stor Stark" for 50 SEK in Åre!. So the only thing I have is the menu!.

For those enjoying this event you could drink amazing things like;

1. Stormaktsporter from 2005!!!
2. "!", An Old Ale at 8% ABV

etc etc. Well a classic that I missed but anyway it was a hit (500l was served during a few days) and hopefully Akkurat will have the great taste to have a rerun in a close future,

please?

Never mind the Bollox!: Swedish Imperial IPA

Today it was time for a new beer in the form of a American styled Imperial or Double India Pale Ale and a new masterpiece from the brewery in Mölndal.

What I am talking about is the new Bollox! beer from Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri. It has been served in Gothenburg for a couple of weeks now, but it is now time for Stockholm and the North branch of the Bishops Arms chain.

Dugges is most often a great brewery, simply that you get everything you want as a beer geek; new inventions, no restrictions, always a new type of beer, never boring, always something to wait for, much of everything etc etc etc.

The problem with bigger craft breweries is that they tend to start sticking with the big sellers and develop on that, and as a beer geek you instead tend to like the smaller craft breweries simply because they bring you something new every week or month or quarter.

So now it seems that Dugges has continued the success of the Bollox! branch, which is still a US-inspired IPA with bitter dry hopped aroma hops with tons of Centennial, or simply as the brewery says;

"No bullshit, this is the bollox!"

The new beer is the same beer with the same type of sweetnes with tons of hops but developed in the same category as Imperial IPAs (at least inspired) as "Russian River Pliny the Elder" or "Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA".

A very dark amber color with a steady white head, sweetnes comes first and when the beers matures in the glass & gets warmer you get a malty bitterners and warmness from the alcohol (9.2 ABV), and finally it explodes in hops touches. Simply a Swedish hop monster that will be a hit among the beer geeks, or at least the hop heads.

It is not up in hop heaven (cheers to pliny!), but as for a Swedish beer and for a brewery as Dugges (1 person) it is a big achievement and it is always great to have a hop buzz not only all the way over at the US.

You can close you eyes and you could believe that you are sitting drinking a US ADIPA at Barcade or Toronado or at a local brewery in Southern California.

So thumbs up for Dugges and it looks like 2008 will be a great new beer year, so whats next?, at least we are waiting for the "Perfect Idjit!".

The new cupboard...

The new cupboard has arrived, so now we can finally get some order again in the increasing number of beer glasses. Feels great to have a place to store all the glasses that you "need".

So the cupboard is now divided into four different categories;

1. US Beer pints
2. Large & small tasters
3. Belgian lambic glasses
4. Assorted glasses from Stockholm beers

+ assorted belgian glasses for all kind of purposes.