As I write this the festival is coming up on it’s last hours. I’ve been thinking about visiting the festival on both weekends but I’ve never gotten around to it. Well there is always next year

I’ve been to the festival six times now and it’s always one of the high points of the year. Lots of intresting beer and allot of interesting people to talk to. The only downside is that it becomes a bit to much people after a couple of hours. My favorite is definitely the first 2-3 hours of the day when the crowd is quite modest and you don’t have to spoon 10 other guys to get a beer. But besides that it’s great. Everybody is very friendly and the amount of great beer seems limitless.

We spent most of our time at Oliver Twists booth, but I have to say that Brill was my favorite for the evening. I had som amazing beer there and the service was great. I also quite enjoyed trying Kaggen at Bishops Arms. The only place I got a complaint with is Monks. I’m not a fan of buying a whole bottle at festivals and that is the only reason we left and didn’t come back. But I still like Monks and I love that they make their own beer. But I would love them even more if they would sell me some tasters in the future so that I can try more of their own beer.

Another complaint would be the transportation. The bus came every 30 minutes and SL sent a small bus for the job. Maybe SBWF can organize alternative transport in case SL doesn’t realise that there is an event going on.

In total we tried about 90 beers and I rated about half of thoose. Feels like a decent result after 10 hours of sampling beer.

All in all this was a great festival and I can’t wait for the next one. Well at least I can satisfy myself with SMÖF at the end of October and ÖBWF at the end of November. Hopefully I’ll meet you there.

We had been walking around in the area between Oliwer Twist, Galatea and Wicked Wine for a while and finally got our asses moving closer to the entrance side of the room. We first went by Nils Oscar that had two new beers, I didnt rate them and I have no notes of it but I think they where named Hay Stack and God Ale. I tried the Hay Stack that was pretty nice and then forgot to try God Ale. But hopefully they both show up at Systemet sooner or later so I can do a proper testing.

Next stop was Bishops Arms. They had a bunch of Swedish Microbreweries on tap and bottle. Most noticable Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter. A beer I had tried several times before and it has the number 1 spot in my book with a whoppin 4,9 score. I had tried 05 and 06 before if my memory serves me right, but it was from bottles. They where both excellent and this time they had 07 and 08 on tap. We ordered both and they where fantastic. According to me and Per 07 had edge on 08 since 07 felt like it still wasn’t quite finished. But I’m sure it will be great if it just sits for a while. They also had a Kaggen that had been aged in old Mackmyra barrels. Unfortunately the premiere was at 20:00 and I completely forgot about it at that time.

I didn’t take any notes from the Kaggen testing as I had already rated it. But it was nice to just enjoy a beer and not having to think to much. But here is a couple of other beers I tried durin this time (not all at Bishops):

Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA (bottle) 7,2%
It poured a hazy golden-orange liquid. It had a strong sweet smell of grassy hops and caramell. It tasted of grassy hops, grapefruit and had a very high bitterness. Lacked some roundness but besides that a very nice IPA. I wanted more
Total: 4,1

Dugges Rail Ale (tap)
A fresh beer with lots of grassy hops.
Total: 3,8/5

Strömsholms Beridaren 6,2%
Interesting to see a belgian style ale by a swedish brewery. Is it just me or do most stick to english and american ales these days? Well and also the numerous varieties of lager.
Anyway, this was a nice attempt a smooth brew with some yeast and spices. Would like to see more stuff like this.
Total: 3,1/5

Bishops Arms, Vår Egen IPA (brewed by Ölands Token)
A fresh IPA with allot of grassy hops. I wonder what their plans are for this beer. If its a new house ale I approve.
Total: 3,5/5

Mora Kölner-Bier (bottle) 5%
A slightly above average lager, not really impressed.
Total: 2,4/5

After a couple of beers at Galatea we got a bit split up and started trying all kinds of beers. But the focus still lay on heavy beers such as Imperial Stouts, IPAs and Barley Wines. When we stood at the Wicked Wine booth I ran into the guys at FemKommaNoll TV. Friendly guys and I’m looking forward to watching the segment they did at the festival.

Me, Johan and Thomas from FemKommaNoll-Tv.

When we came back to Oliver Twist I also ran into Markus from Öl är gott, resor är kul. When we stood there talking I also got introduced to Hrigilzkar from this blog and Fajanen and Jöns was there as well. It was allot of fun meeting these guys and I hope to run into them again in the future.

Markus, Hrigilzkar and Fajanen.

I didn’t get to chat very long with them, before my father came running and told me had something special he wanted me to try. When I got over to Wicked wine that was only a few meters away I got handed a glass of something very black and heavy. Even though I had tried quite allot of beers at this point I could feel the spicey aroma that was drifting up from the glass. I tasted it and it was like an explosion of flavour. Very heavy and my tongue got attacked from left and right. My father just laughed and showed me the bottle, it was this beer:

BrewDog Tokyo* (bottle) 18,2%
An imperial stout at 18,2%. Well actually the label said: “intergalactic fantastic oak aged stout”. Which is actually a very good description. I look at my notes now and see that I have written: “Warm alcohol hits me in the face!”. I bet if I would have been more focused I would have written something similar about the taste. It tasted sweet with chocolate, wood, burned and lots of other spices. The alcohol was also very dominant and it might have been a bit to much. However a very nice beer, would love to re-test it in the future.
Total: 4,1/5

After our extended stay at Oliver Twist we headed over to Galatea to try some trappist. I had already seen that they had some beer from La Trappe that I hadn’t tried before. I tested a bunch of La Trappe beers in this post. While testing I had the pleasure of meeting some guys from Strömsholms Brygghus. Unfortunately I got a bit distracted so I didn’t have a chance to chat very long with them. Here’s a picture of three happy beer lovers:

La Trappe Bockbier (bottle) 7%
It poured a hazy dark brown liquid with a small light brown foam. It had a fairly weak smell of yeast and spices. It had allot of carbonation and a taste of spices, caramell and yeast. An ok beer.
Total: 3,4/5
La Trappe Witte Trappist (bottle) 5,5%
It poured a hazy pale yellow liquid with a white foam. It smelled and tasted of yeast, coriander and spices.
Total: 3,3/5

La Trappe Blond (bottle) 6,5%
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a small white foam that left some lacing. It had a spicey smell with some yeast. It had a smooth mouthfeel and had a taste of yeast and spices. Quite alright beer.
Total: 3,5/5

Liefmans Goudenband (bottle) 8%
Total: 3,4/5

Vedett Extra White (bottle) 4,7%
Total: 2,9/5

We tried a couple more beers at Oliwer Twist. Chrille and his friend Pyrre joined us at this point.

Victory Wild Devil Ale (bottle) 6,7%
It poured a hazy dark golden-orange liquid with a medium sized foam. Had a scent of caramell, hint of hops and some toilette. It had allot of carbonation, felt stingy in my mouth. Tasted sligthly sour and also had a taste of caramell and hops.
Total: 2,6/5
Tommyknocker Butt Head Bock (bottle) 8,2%
It poured a dark golden-brown liquid with a small foam. It had a scent of malt, caramell and warm alcohol. It was dry and had a taste of caramell with an alcoholic finish. An ok beer but it didn’t stick out as anything special.
Total: 3,3/5

Stone Imperial Russian Stout (bottle) 10,8%
It poured a thick and pitch black liquid. It had a strong spicey scent of chocolate, soy sauce, coffey and bread. It tasted just as it smelled, a very nice beer.
Total: 4,2/5

Maui Brewery Coconut Porter (can) 5,7%
Coconut and chocolate, yum yum.
Total: 3,5/5

Terrapin India Style Brown Ale (bottle) 6%
Total: 3,5/5

After Monks we made our way over to Oliwer Twist. They had brought a huge supply of american beer and we decided to go for some DIPAs, Barley Wines and Imperial Stouts. Just as I was about to start ordering someone tapped me on my shoulder, turned out it was Fajanen and Jöns, from another beer blog. Nice meeting a fellow beer blogger at the festival.

OT had what must have been the best deal of the festival. One 65 cl bottle of Arrogant bastard for only 60 sek. Now it’s a bit to much for sampling but still a very nice deal. Lots of good beer for your hard earned money. I ofc got my hands on a sample and since I loved the oak aged version I had high expectations.

Stone Arrogant Bastard (bottle) 7,2%
It poured a hazy golden-brown liquid with a small foam that left no lacing. It had a smell of caramell and warm alcohol. Tasted of caramell, hops with an warm alcoholic finnish. Medium-high bitterness. A very nice beer but the oak aged version is better. I gave that one 4,2/5.
Total: 3,7/5

We ended up staying at Oliver Twist for a while sampling different kinds of beers. Here’s a a few reviews and scores from the testing:

Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA (bottle) 9%
It poured a hazy dark golden liquid with a small foam with big bubbles. It had a strong smell of caramell, hops, citrus and grape. It had a very round and smooth mouthfeel. Lots of hops, high bitterness and some citrus, caramell and grape. Very nice!
Total: 4,2/5

Maui Brewing Bikini Blonde Lager (can) 4,5%
Comment: Warning this is not served by a bikini blonde!
Total: 2,4/5
North Coast Anniversary XX (bottle) 12,5% (couldn’t find it at Ratebeer)
Comment: Made from agave nectar. Interesting but also a bit watery.
Total: 3,2/5

Great Divide Hercules DIPA (bottle) 9,1%
Comment: Very nice DIPA.
Total: 3,9/5

After Hantverksbryggeriet we decided to walk to Monks Café. Last year they had a very busy booth at the end of the evening so I thought we should try them early this year. I had also heard that they had allot of their own beers that I hadn’t tried yet. Unfortunately they where on bottles and you had to purchase an entire bottle if you wanted to sample it. So we just tried two and then decided against trying any more. 33 cl is just way to much when it comes to sampling like this.

Monks Café Asterix & Obelix (bottle) 5%
This one was brewed by Charles Casino and Menno Olivier from De Molen. It’s a dutch medieval beer without hops, instead they used a large amount of dried herbs.
It poured a haxy yellow liquid with a big white foam that left no lacing. It had a spicey smell of citrus, herbs, orange soda and lemon-lime. First taste had lots of carbonation in it, way to much if you ask me and it hid all the other flavours. I had to whirl it around a bit to let some carbo out and then it got better. An interesting beer but one of Monks better brews.
Total: 2,6/5

Monks Café Patagonian IPA (bottle) 6,9%
An IPA brewed with only cascade hops from Argentina.
It poured a dark golden orange liquid with a small white foam that left a little lacing. It had a fresh smell of grassy hops, citrus and grape. Same with the taste. It had a high bitterness with a stingy mouthfeel and left an acidic feeling in the back of my throuth.
Total: 2,5/5

We also tried these at Monks before deciding to move to another spot:

Ellezelloise Hercule Stout (tap) 9%
It poured a pitch black liquid with no foam. It was completely odorless or it was just to weak to sense. It tasted watery and boring, very bland. Smooth mouthfeel though. A big dissapointment.
Total: 2,2/5

De Molen Amarillo (tap) 9,2%
It poured a hazy golden orange liquid with a small foam with big bubbles. Had a round smell of hops but it felt old and not fresh at all. Also felt a hint of toilette, maybe it had started to go bad? It tasted of grassy hops with a low-medium bitterness. Ok beer but a bit boring, I expected some more freshness and taste.
Total: 2,8/5

I’m finally vertical again after yesterdays visit at Stockholm Beer and Whisky festival. It was a great festival and I got to experience allot of interesting beers.

I meet up with Per and his brother Henning at Slussen to take the buss to Nacka Strand. Unfortunately we wheren’t the only ones that was going the same way and the platform was packed with people lining up to get on the buss. After 25 minutes the buss finally showed up and it’s a small one. SL should really get some critique here, it’s the same way each year. They should really use some extra busses on days like this. However we managed to squeeze ourselfs in on the first buss that came. Once we got to Nacka we joined up with my father and Erika who had taken the car from Örebro/Frövi. The line was long but it was decimated very fast and before we knew it we where rushing for the first pitstop.

We started with Hantverksbryggeriet from Västerås. Last year they had a blueberry lambic that got allot of attention and they ran out of it very fast. So this year I wanted to start here to have a chance at testing it. We all choose different beers, I took Alkemisten (blueberry lambic). The others took Julnarren, Baronen and Bödeln.

Here’s some short reviews:
Hantverksbryggeriet Alkemisten (bottle) 5%
It poured a hazy red liquid with a very small reddish foam. It had a strong sweet and sour smell of gruits and berries. It tasted fruity and yeasty. But I couldn’t really feel the blueberries, tasted more like black currant and other red berries. It was also a bit watery and lacked some depth and roundness in the mouthfeel. Sorry to say that it didn’t live up to my expectations, not one of the better lambics I’ve had.
Total: 2,9/5
Hantverksbryggeriet Julnarren (tap) 7%
It poured a hazy dark brown-golden liquid with a small foam. Smelled of dark bread and spices. Tasted similar but also dry and it felt like it was missing something. Decent christmas beer though.
Total: 3,2/5

Hantverksbryggeriet Baronen (tap) 11,3%
It poured a hazy dark golden liquid with a light brown foam that left some lacing. It had a strong smell with some warm alcohol. It felt round, thick and smooth in my mouth. Had a warm alcoholic finnish. Tasted of caramell, malt and fruity. Very nice.
Total: 4/5

Hantverksbryggeriet Bödeln (tap) 5,6%
It poured a hazy orange liquid with a light orange foam. Strong smell of grassy hops, pine, citrus and grape. High bitterness, grape, citrus, grassy hops. Fresh and lots of hops, I liked it.
Total: 3,8/5