I had some great beer plans this weekend. My parents where coming to Stockholm for christmas dinner and of course lots of beer tasting. Unfortunately I got struck by some kind of virus earlier this week so I’ve been in a horizontal position all weekend. So instead of posting the rest of the christmas beers I got some older reviews lined up.

Oh well, guess I will just have to drink twice the amount of beer next weekend

Ever since we went to our first home brewer’s festival, me and my dad have been talking about making our own beer and participating in the competition. As you know we made our first brew from a “ready-to-go-kit” Good Friday (Långfredag) and then expand from that. We have also started planning for next year’s Swedish championship in Home Made Beer. We are currently working on the recipe and will make our two first experimental batches on the 30th of May.

Well now we are pretty much in present time and if you want the rest of this story, just keep following this blog.

I’ll see you all at the next festival. Cheers!

I wanna wish you all a happy Easter. I’m going “home” to Frövi in a few hours and got allot of fun things planned. First of all we are gonna brew our first beer today. We also plan to test allot of beer and I got a feeling we will end up in the out door jacuzzi tonight. Tomorrow we are gonna celebrate my birthday ahead of time and then have Easter dinner. What happens beyond that is up to the beer Gods to decide

The weather is also really nice in Sweden so I hope I can take a picture of me sitting in the sun drinking a beer soon. The only downside at the moment is that I got a soar throat and I really hope it won’t affect my sense of smell and taste.

Cheers!

When I turned 21 I went to my first beer festival, Stockholm Beer and Whiskey (SBWF). Me and a bunch of mates together with my dad and a couple of his friends gathered some cars plus drivers and headed off to Stockholm. This was a great evening and I found a new favorite in Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri. I also remember drinking an English beer at their stand, named Pale Rider. Haven’t found it since then, but thought it was absolutely brilliant at the time.

(Me and my mates on our way to the 2002 SBWF)
(visible in the pic from the left is Bjunge, Anton and my brother Peter, then me up front)

(Me, my dad Åke and Christer at the 2002 SBWF)

After that festival, I and my dad started trying beers together when we had a chance. Little by little we also got my kid brother interested and have successfully turned him over to the dark side of beer by now. We made visiting SBWF into a tradition, well my dad had gone there for years but it was new to me and soon also to my brother.

(Me, my dad, Mark and Dave at 2003 SBWF)

(Me, Roger and Martin at the 2004 SBWF, it’s not fun standing in line. “Where is the damn beer?!?!)

I missed the 2005 festival due to being in South East Asia at the time. Swinging back beerlao and Singha all day long

(My brother Peter, Me and Tommy at the 2006 SBWF.)

During 2003 me and my dad also went to Oxford to visit Mark and Dave. The trip started with a beer festival at the Turf. Was a really good one and our hosts Mark and Dave wouldn’t let us go dry for a second. I remember having 4 glasses at once during one part of the festival.

Me in front of the kegs.

Me, Mark and Dave in a pub some day after the festival. Thanks for the guiding guys!

I just realised I had to much text and pictures in this part so I’m splitting this one in two. Next part involves Vikings and home brewing.

People tend to get a weird look on their face when I tell them that one of my major interests is beer. Some seem fascinated and I’m sure some just assume I’m a raving alcoholic. I’ve also been asked on several occasions: Why Beer? What’s so interesting about that?

It might be a bit hard or at least vague to explain why. It would just be some general praise of beer and trying to explain the joy of trying a new beer and I don’t think anybody would find that interesting. But I can at least explain how I came to love beer so much.

Most of the time I tell them how my father took me to England when I turned 18 and that’s when it started. I do believe that I got my interest for beer from my father. However, as I think back, I believe it started sooner.

I remember when I was first starting to drink alcohol that I always tried something new if I had the option. At first I just tried different types of lagers. Tried a few different kinds of ales and stouts but remember that I thought they were a bit too much. Hobgoblin is one of the beers I remember from this time. Can’t say I enjoyed it that much.

When I turned 18 we took that trip to England I mentioned earlier. This is when I got my eyes open to other types of beers. First off was real ale. At first I thought it tasted weird, kind of fruity and bland. But I stuck in there and our friends in England took us to some amazing places. (Thanks Mark and Dave!) Once I got back home I was hooked and started trying all sorts of beer. I quickly became known as the guy who always had a bunch of weird beers

Some of you might wonder why I’m testing all these seemingly common beers instead of some of the new ones that have been released over the past couple of months. Well first of all those beers are now located in Frövi awaiting test together with my father and brother who also helped pay for it. But also I’ve always wanted to go back and do a more serious tasting of the trappists and also rate them at Ratebeer to get a better grip on them. I also try and read up a bit about each beer and so far I feel I’ve learned lots from it. I’m gonna keep testing from the normal supply at Systembolaget when I get the time to do so.

Ive done two of the seven trappists, Rochefort and Westmalle. But I got most of the others prepared in the magic beer storage.

I realised I have to many friends that doesn’t understand swedish. So I’m currently in the process of translating the blog to english. All future articles will be published in english. I’m also working on translating the header and other stuff as well.

What do you think. Should I call it Beer Gibberish, or Beer Drivel, or maybe Beer Dribbel? Or does anybody have a better suggestion?

Cheers!

Jag var på jobbet och blev avtackad igår. Det var trevligare än jag väntat mig och jag fick först en flaska Nils Oscar India Ale som ett internt skämt. Sen fick jag en flaska whisky: Glen Elgin, lagrad i 16 år.

Efter ölen korkade jag upp whiskyn och den smakade riktigt bra. Toner av mörk choklad och en aningen vanlij. Inte så rökig som vissa andra sorter jag provat. Tyckte den var len och fin och den slank ned alldeles utmärkt i strupen

Tack till alla på Neonet för den fina avtackningen. Kommer att sakna att jobba med er.

Ikväll blir det provning av Westmalle, Dubbel och Trippel. Har en låda tryfflar att kombinera med också. Återkommer med resultat.

Ps. Ni missade inte den sunkiga t-shirten va?

Jag får snart besök av ett gäng ölsugna gubbar så jag har gjort lite förberedelser på morgonen. Eftersom jag bor i Stockholm och farsan i Örebro (Frövi) så får jag köpa alla mitt-i-veckan-släpp. Problemet är att nästan alla våra provningar sker i Frövi och jag tar tåget hem ibland vilket är lite bökigt med en stor mängd öl. Så jag tänkte passa på och lämpa av ett gäng öl på farsan idag så provar vi dom framöver.

1. Goose Island – Bourbon County Stout

2. North Coast Brewing Company – La Merle (Saison)

3. Sierra Nevada – Harvest, Wet Hop Ale

4. Left Hand Brewing Co. – Smoke Jumper

5. Left Hand Brewing Co. – Rye Bock Lager

6. Left Hand Brewing Co. – Double IPA Ale

7. XS Rogue – Imperial Younger’s Special Bitter

8. Flying Dog – Dog Scwarz, Smoked Double Lager

Sen hade jag en blandad kompott med några öl från olika länder.

1. Grebbestads Bryggeri – Lunator 08 (Sverige)

2. Sigtuna Brygghus – Unicum veritum (Sverige)

3. Slottskällans – Kloster 2007 (Sverige)

4. Slottskällans – Strong Ale 2007 (Sverige)

5. Nögne Ö – Klin Kokos (Norge)

6. Nögne Ö – Dobbel IPA (Norge)

7. Herslev Bryghus – Gorm’s Brygg (Danmark)

8. Daleside – Monkey Wrench (England)

9. Castle Brewery Eggenberg – Samichlaus Helles (Österrike)

10. Birrificio del Ducato – Ale For Obsessed (Italien)

Måste säga att det var roligare att hålla på med det här bloggandet än jag först trodde. Eftersom det varit vardag ett tag så har det inte blivit så mycket ölprovande. Men på fredag har jag intressanta planer. Då kommer farsan, morfar och några andra gubbar upp till Stockholm. På schemat står bland annat besök på Humlegården, bastu, samt en sväng till Monks Café.

På Monks ska vi “prova” den öl vi bryggde på en kurs på farsdag förra året. Jag, farsan, brorsan och Erkki marscherade dit för att brygga en mörk stark belgisk ale. Som bryggledare hade vi den oerhört duktige bryggaren Jessica Heidrich, som vunnit flera guld i SM i hembryggning. Efter kursen så delar deltagarna på ölen och får därför 9 liter var, allt för ca 1000 spänn vilket känns väldigt överkomligt. Det är ju i princip priset för ölen. Fast så här i efterhand så hade det nog varit intressantare att gå på en av hembryggarföreningens kurser eftersom det mer efterliknar det vi själva kommer göra i framtiden. Det lär ju inte bli tal om att köpa in Österrikiska bryggverk alla möjliga pumpar och egen maltkross.

Jag gillar vart Monks är på väg med sin pub. Dom har så vitt jag vet det enda bryggeriet i Stockholm och anställt Charles Cassino som bryggmästare. Även han kommer från hembryggarvärlden och har minst en guldmedalj från SM i kistan. Dom tar även in kändis-bryggare som Struise och De Molen för att göra gästbrygder. Dom lider fortfarande av lite “barnsjukdomar” med viss personal som inte är så intresserad eller kunnig om öl. Men varje nytt besök blir bättre och det är alltid kul att se vad dom kokat ihop denna gång. Förhoppningsvis smittar idéen av sig så att fler pubar börjar brygga egen öl.

Nå åter till fredagens planer. Jag har redan provat min tunna och om jag minns rätt så påminde den om Leffe Dark. Nu är det dags att prova farsans tunna och det ska bli intressant att se om jag minns rätt. Var nog inte helt i stånd att göra en bra bedömning förra gången eftersom det blev en och annan öl innan

Får återkomma med en rapport när vi provat tunna 2 av Sugar Daddy Double.