Om Ölsvammel

I should probably start by giving you some basic facts about me. I’m a 29 year old guy that lives in Stockholm, however I was born and raised in Frövi outside of Örebro. I have also lived in Enköping in Uppsala. I live with my girlfriend Karin and two cats, Atlas and Herkules. Now onwards to the more interesting part which is beer, this text will be quite long and have been posted under ‘Why Beer?’

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 at the time.

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

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!

Top: Hairy Lard Belly (my dad), Little Down Belly (Me), No Hair and Small Club (Roger). Bottom: Ugly Bastard (Martin) and Drunken Beard (Gabriel).

Since I lived in Uppsala our first festival was Belgofesten, a small festival with homebrewed Belgian style beers. It was (and still is) the best festival I have ever visited. Great beers, great people and it was allot of fun talking to all the brewers.

Belgofesten in Uppsala 2007 (Home made belgian style beers). On the picture: Karsten, Martin, Peter (my brother) and me.

Belgofesten 2008. The whole Eriksson family gathered for this one. It looks like I have tried all of the beers already on this picture hehe

We decided we had to go to more of this and two months later we went to the Swedish Championship in home brewing. After that we kept adding more festivals to our yearly calendar. Micro Brewery Festival in Söderbärke. Whiskey festival in Linköping. Wine and cheese festival in Örebro…. and so on… So far we haven’t started brewing ourselves yet but the plans are there as you will soon notice.

Me and my dad at the whisky festival in Linköping 2007. The picture was taken at a Macallan testing. There was some crazy scottish guy on the stage weilding a knife and talking about Macallan. Very interesting

Ever since we went to our first home brewer’s festival, me and my dad had been talking about making our own beer and participating in the competition. We started brewing in 2009 and my dad found a homebrew club in Örebro called Källarknut. At the newbie brewing he attended he met Chrille and my dad introduced me to him. We ended up brewing beers together and having allot of fun. In 2010 we all participated in the Swedish Championship and managed to get a gold medal in the Peoples Choice Competition. It was with a Double IPA called Death By Hops 3. We also got a 4th place with our honey porter called Nalle Puh Porter. Chrille also participated together with Erika with a Mild named Gullefjun, they managed to get 6th place in a different class. The next year we participated in both class 2 and 3. Death By Hops was back again, however this time I made the recipe and it was quite different from the previous year. Despite the big changes we won the peoples choice awards again. We also participated with a hoppy hefe-weizen named Spanked Virgin Wheat, which in it’s original version was my first own recipe, so thats where the virgin part of the name came from. We managed to win both the peoples choice class 2 and a silver in the judges competition with that beer. The brewclub I’m in managed to win a total of 7 medals of which 6 where gold.

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!