New years summary

Today is new years eve and it feels like it's a good time to look back on the year that has gone by. I started writing on this blog on the 21st of February and I have written 215 posts including this one. I also resurrected my unused ratebeer account and ended up rating 474 beers. I also started to take a greater interest in home brewing and joined the brew club Källarknut in Örebro. I was part of brewing 6 different beers this year. I also tried numerous home brewed beers but I never really kept count. Probably somewhere around 150-200 due to visiting home brewers festivals.

Regarding festivals I managed to visit 5 this year. I missed Belgofesten due to disease, but visited Swedish Championship (home brewing), Enköpings Open (home brewing), SBWF, SMÖF and ÖBWF. Not sure which one was my favourite, they where all good in their own way. Probably SBWF due to its high amount of great quality beers. I hope to visit 6 festivals this year starting with Belgofesten.

Here is a list of "of the year" awards:

Suprise beer of the year - Harvietoun Ola Dubh
Comment: A beer that took me completely by surprise. I tried it at ÖBWF and I now have 3 bottles (12, 18 and 30 year) in my storage that I really look forward to trying.

Ale of the year - Pizza Port Hop 15
Comment: I got lots of alternatives here but I have to admit they are all DIPA:s. Had a really hard time choosing a favourite so I ended up choosing the one that I gave the highest score.

Porter\stout of the year - Struise Black Albert
Comment: Per bought and shared this bottle with me at Monk's Café on Sveavägen. Fantastic beer that only gets beaten by Kaggen, but since I tried Kaggen over previous years I'm bypassing that beer.

Lager of the year- Mikkeller The American Dream
Comment: I could have gone with Harviestoun Schiehallion for this position, which was my nr 1 lager up until this beer. Not sure which one would win if I did a comparison test, there is almost 8 months in between the two beers.

Lambic/Gueze/fruit beers of the year - Liefmans Cuveé Brut
Comment: I haven't tried that many beers in this category this year. This one was the only new beer that stood out.

Brewery of the year - Harviestoun.
Comment: I could have gone with Mikkeller (count as a brewery?) or Närke Kulturbryggeri. But I already knew what they could do and while they have done some very solid beers Harviestoun was a new brewery for me and they have kept showing great beers in my face.

Importer of the year - Brill & Co.
Comment: When I got to Brill's at both SBWF and ÖBWF they kept serving fantastic beer after fantastic beer. They have also supplied Systembolaget with some superb beers this year. Good job!

Pub of the year - Monk's Café
Comment: They have been struggling with some problems while starting up. But I love their enthusiasm and the fact that they make their own beer. They still have some problems with low supply and a very mixed quality of products. But Monk's seems to be more about variety and I salute them for their effort. Hopefully they will keep on brewing. I should also mention Akkurrat and OT, I still consider Akkurat to be my nr. 1 pub, but Monk's has gone a long way this year.

Worst beer of the year - Any beer from Latvia.
Comment: My father brought home a couple of bags of Latvian beers this summer. Very few of them got past 1/5.

Beer of the year - Struise Black Albert

Happy new year everybody!

Ass Warmer

My father brought out two kegs of beer just as we where getting ready for the Christmas ham. It was one keg of Death By Hops 2 and another of Ass Warmer. It's a Christmas Ale that my father and Chrille brewed a while back.

Ass Warmer (tap)
It poured a very dark brown liquid with tones of red, with a big beige foam that left some lacing.

It had a very herbal spicey smell, I smelled some cinnamon and what I thought was wormwood, or cloves. But must have been something else.

The mouthfeel was quite stingy and dry. It had a medium body and a high herbal bitterness that lasted quite a while. It had a very herbal spicey taste and I found some cinnamon, but there where more spices that I couldn't quite distinguish. It didn't have any sweetness at all.

At first I was quite sceptical about the beer as I thought it was to spicey. But after a while it grew on me and got better.

I tried this both before, during and after Christmas dinner and I think it worked best with the chocolate and sweets afterwards. Since it was so herbal and dry it didn't work perfectly with the food but once you added some sweet chocolate it balanced the brew out allot better. Some sweetness added to the brew might have made it a better dinner partner. But as it is now I think it worked well as an after dinner delight ;)

Total: 3,4/5

I survived another Christmas! - part 2

Here are some more beers that we tried during our wait for Christmas:

Stone 13th Anniverary Ale (Bottle) 9,5%
It poured a very dark amber liquid with a small light brown foam that left some lacing.

It had a smell of wood, caramell, malt, hops, something sweet and an alcoholic finnish.

It had a medium smooth mouthfeel with a bit of sting to it. It had a medium body and a high bitterness. It had a sweet taste and a flavour of hops, wood, nuts and an alcoholic finnish. Quite strong and full taste, also a bit dry. Really nice, I sure enjoyed this beer.
Total: 4,1/5

Stone 09.09.09 Vertical Epic Ale (Bottle) 8,9%
It poured a very dark amber liquid with a small light brown foam that left some lacing.

It had a smell of nut, wood, chocolate and crackers.

It had a medium smooth mouthfeel with some stingyness. It was a bit sour but not so bad, heard there have been some complaints about the sourness but it didn't bother me much. It had a thick body and was a bit dry. Taste of wood, nuts and warm alcohol. Lots of different flavours that I couldn't quite distinguish made it feel complex and interesting.
Total: 3,9/5

After these beers my father pulled out two kegs of home made beer. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow...

I survived another Christmas! - part 1

I'm back in Stockholm again after a very hectic and eventfull Christmas weekend. It's been a rough couple of days with lots of beer tasting and partying. It started on wednesday, with me having to run to the train in less then 10 minutes, with a huge backpack filled with beer on my back. I got there late, sweating like a drunken siberian prostitute in a finnish sauna. But lucky for me the train was 15 minutes late so I could sit my sweaty ass down in a chair and wait for a while before the train left.

As I got home I was greated by my parents wearing saunta caps and singing Christmas carols. Yepp, it was as disturbing as it sounds. Shortly some friends arrived and we had our traditional Christmas wake. Where we tried some nice beers and ate the first Christmas ham... one of many. Here are some of the beers we had:

Great Divide Fresh Hop (bottle) 6,1%
It poured a clear golden liquid with a small white foam that had some craters in it. It left a small amount of lacing on the side of the glass.

It had a hoppy smell of both grassy and fruity hops, mainly passion fruit.

It had a medium smooth mouthfeel with a bit of sting and a high bitterness that lasted a long time. It also had a taste of hops, buts, grass, fruits, grapefruit and passion fruit. Tasted fresh just as the title said. I liked this one.
Total: 3,8/5
Southern Tier Oak Aged Un*Earthly (bottle) 11%
This beer was a gift from Chrille which he brought with him from Holland. I have tried the first version and gave it a 3,6/5.

It poured a hazy dark golden liquid with a small white foam that left very little lacing.

It had a smell of wood, nuts, hops, malt, dill chips and some warm alcohol.

It had a smooth mouthfeel with a thick body and a medium bitterness. The strongest flavour was wood, but also grassy hops and some honey-syrupy sweetness. Nice! I liked this one better then the original.
Total: 3,9/5

We tried a couple more beers before they brought out the ham. But more about that tomorrow...

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a merry Christmas and I hope you find some liquid drinks under the tree. I'm back in Frövi visiting friends and family. Tonight we had a beer tasting and had a Christmas ham right out of the owen. Will get back to you about the beer though ;)

Per turns 25

On Saturday Per turned 25 years old. He has been quite frequent on this blog since he tend to follow me to various beer festivals. Since he is also a beer geek we decided to meet up at Akkurat together with some friends. Actually quite allot of people came, allot more then I expected. I even bumped into Hå-Ge and Berith from Närke Kulturbryggeri. As with every other time I've visited Akkurat it was a great evening. I started out trying their supply of real ales. Since I forgot to put my memory card and can't find the cord that connects my camera with my pc I dont have pictures to show you. But here are some short reviews of the beer:

Inveralmond Homecoming (tap) 4,2%
A classic bitter with a taste of grassy hops. An easy to drink beer with a lasting bitterness.
Total: 3,6/5

Cairngorm Trade Winds (tap) 4,3%
A fresh, fruity and flowery real ale with some citrus and hops. Easy to drink and also with a lasting bitterness.
Total: 3,6/5

Cairngorm Black Gold (tap) 4,4%
A dark liquid with tastes of chocolate, coffee, dark bread and something burned. Smooth like the others and a bit stronger flavour, but still easy to drink.
Total:

Then I went for some Christmas beer:

Nögne Ö God Jul (tap) 8,5%
Nice Christmas beer with a taste of chocolate, coffee, something burned and liqourice.
Total: 3,8/5

Winterkoninkske (tap) 8,3%
It smelled like "Julmust", sweet and spicey. But it tasted more like red wine, spices and grapes. Fairly smooth mouthfeel.
Total: 4/5

N'Ice Chouffe (tap) 10%
Sweet beer with tastes of red wine, spices, yeast and grapes.
Total: 3,4/5

La Rülles Noël de Coeur (tap) 7,3%
Complex belgian Christmas ale with tastes of wood, nuts, red wine, grapes, dried fruit and yeast. Interesting and nice.
Total: 3,8/5

After these beers I wanted to finish off with something interesting. They had two bottles of St Bernadus that I always wanted to try. But more about thoose tomorrow.

Christmas Beers 2009 summary

I have to say, the variety of christmas beers this year has been great. Several countries have been represented at Systembolaget and the breweries have really outdone themselfs when it comes to trying different styles and trying to make them christmasy. Compared to the easter beers the quality has overall been very high, with several above 3,5/5.


Great Divide Hibernation Ale - 4/5 - Systembolaget
Winterkoninkske - 4/5
Sigtuna Snowblind Strong Ale - 3,8/5 - Systembolaget
Nögne Ö God Jul - 3,8/5
La Rulles Noël du Coeur - 3,8/5
St. Peters Winter Ale - 3,8/5 - Systembolaget
Monks Café Saffron Ale - 3,7/5
Harviestoun Mr. Sno'Balls - 3,6/5 - Systembolaget
Nögne Ö - Underlig Jul - 3,6/5 - Systembolaget
Oppigårds Winter Ale - 3,6/5 - Systembolaget
Anchor Our Special Ale 2009 3,6/5 - Systembolaget
Ayinger Winter-Bock - 3,5/5 - Systembolaget
Strömsholms Gråskägg - 3,5/5
Nils Oscar Julöl 2009 - 3,5/5 - Systembolaget
N'Ice Chouffe - 3,4/5 - Systembolaget
Corsendonk Christmas Ale - 3,3/5 - Systembolaget
Jämtlands Julöl - 3,3/5 - Systembolaget
Slottskällans Tomte - 3/5 - Systembolaget
Stockeboda Vinternattens Mörker - 2,9/5
Skebo Vinteröl - 2,7/5
Fullers Old Winter Ale - 2,5/5 - Systembolaget
La Caracole Nostradamus - 2,4/5 - Systembolaget
Sheperd Neame Christmas Ale - 2,2/5 - Systembolaget
Sigtuna Midvinternattens Mörker - 1,9/5 - Systembolaget
Slottskällans Nisse 0,9/5 - Systembolaget

If I had to choose a beer with my Christmas dinner I would choose Hibernation or Ayinger. My choice for drinking with the nuts and chocolate after dinner would be Monks Saffron Ale (if it was available), Corsendonk or Nögne Ö Underlig Jul. For the Christmas party with my friends I would go for Snowblind or Mr Sno'balls.

Now when I'm done trying the Christmas beers I can finally start working on all the fantastic new releases lately. My beer storage is packed to rim with great beer and my fridge is full as well.

Christmas Beer 2009, part 9

St. Peters Winter Ale (bottle) 6,3%
I tried this beer during the summer, it was a bottle that I had lying around since the christmas of 2005. It was 2 years past it's expiration date. I have it written down in a post I haven't published yet, but I gave that beer a 3,1.

It poured a very dark liquid with a big light brown foam that left lots of lacing.

Weak smell of malt and red wine. Also was a bit sweet.

Very smooth mouthfeel with a roung and thick body and low bitterness. It tasted dry with primarily malt, something burned, hint of red wine and something sweet. Not a very intense beer but it still took me some time to drink the whole bottle.

Quite enjoyable and I can imagine it working well with some chocolate.
Total: 3,8/5

Christmas Beer 2009, part 8

Oppigårds Winterale (bottle) 5,3%
It poured a slightly hazy dark amber liquid with a medium sized beige foam, that left lots of lacing.

It had a fresh smell of grass, hops and caramell.

Smooth mouthfeel with a medium body and medium bitterness. Nice to drink, not very intense flavour and a bit sweet. Tasted of grassy hops, caramell and a hint of some spices.

This beer worked well with chocolate but not sure how it would work with the salty christmas food. I heard the hoppy flavour didn't work so well. But I haven't tried myself.
Total: 3.6/5
Anchor Our Special Ale 2009 (bottle) 5,5%
It poured a clear very dark amber liquid with a big light brown foam that left lots of lacing.

Smell of malt, dark bread, hops and spices.

Medium smooth mouthfeel with just a bit of sting, also medium body. Taste of malt, dark bread, hops and something burned. Pretty decent beer.

I had this with some greek food and it didn't work at all. A bit unsure how it would work with the salty christmas food. Might be a better match afterwards.
Total: 3,6/5

New beer forum

Magnus Bark at Ofiltrerat wrote about a new beer forum recently: http://kanpai.forum24.se/ It's starting to get a bit more active now and reached 18 members in 2 days. Hopefully it will be popular, Im writing under the name Ölsvamlarn. However it's written in Swedish so some of you won't have much use of it.

Christmas Beer 2009, part 7

Corsendonk Christmas Ale (Bottle) 8,5%
It poured a very dark liquid that was a bit red if you held it up towards the light. It had a medium sized dirty beige foam that left a nice lacing.

The smell was a bit weak. The mouthfeel was stingy at first and got better as the carbonation was released. Tasted sweet with dried fruit, yeast and spices. But the spices felt more belgian rather the spices that are common in swedish christmas beers. This beer worked well with the chocolate and nuts after christmas dinner.
Total: 3,3/5
La Caracole Nostradamus (Bottle) 9%
It poured a dark hazy amber liquid with a medium sized light brown foam that left a nice lacing.

It had a smell of cognac, booze and wood. Very alcoholic smell.

It had a smooth mouthfeel with a medium body and low bitterness. It tasted of cognac, booze, sugar and with a very strong alcoholic finish. For me the alcohol was a bit to overpowering.

I'm not sure when this would work during Christmas, maybe after trying 30 other christmas beer and you need something with a bit of sting to it ;)
Total: 2,4/5

Christmas Beer 2009, part 6

Slottskällans Nisse (Bottle) 5,3%
When I poured this beer I was quite suprised to be meet with a very fizzy head, it looked more like soda then a beer. If you pour a julmust or a coke you know what kind of foam I'm talking about. I leaned over and smelled it and it smelled like a soda as well. Tasting it I got the same thing, this "beer" tasted like a soda but flavours similar to a beer. It has some malt and spices but it's also watery and sweet just like a soda. Not sure if I can rate this as it is. Was this some kind of misstake in production? I couldn't drink more then a couple of mouthfulls before I felt the need to pour it out.

Looking at Ratebeer it looks like nobody else has had this experience and I don't recognize the other comments at all. The bottle was bought at Regeringsgatan, anybody got a similar bottle?

Assuming this was the way the beer was meant to be my score would be:
Total: 0,9/5

Slottskällans Tomte (Bottle) 6,4%
It poured a dark amber liquid with a big dirty white foam that left a nice lacing.

Smell of caramell and spices.

Fairly smooth mouthfeel with just a bit sting on the tongue. It had a medium body and bitterness. Taste of spices, dark bread, some hops and an alcoholic finish. The spices felt a bit unbalanced. A drinkable beer that worked with the salty christmas food. However it wasn't a good match with the chocolate and nuts afterwards.
Total: 3/5

Little Christmas

Every year me and Karin celebrate our own Christmas, or Little Christmas if you want. Mainly because we tend to travel around allot visiting relatives during the actual Christmas that we felt that we wanted some traditions of our own.

I started out with chasing down a christmas tree, feels like they are getting more expensive each year and this year the half-decent trees where up to 300 SEK. The better looking trees cost 400 and upwards. After getting home and dressing it I started in on Christmas dinner.


We lacked some classics but all the favorites where there except for the ham which we made two weeks ago. This years seasoning of the ribs was saffron and honey. I just made a marinade of oil, saffron, honey, salt, pepper and thyme and let the ribs lay in it for a couple of hours. Another thing I made was meatballs spiced with christmas beer, in this case Jämtlands Julöl. Since there was so much left (I only used a few cl) I figured it was a good time to try it out.

Jämtlands Julöl (Bottle) 6,5%
It poured a very dark, clear, red liquid with a large beige foam that left a nice lacing.

Weak smell of bread and spices. A hint of ginger, but it was hard to pinpoint the different spices as they where quite subtile. My guess is it was a mix of dried orange peels, ginger and cloves.

Fairly smooth mouthfeel with a medium body. Taste of caramell, dark bread and spices. Once again I'm leaning towards cloves and ginger. Not a bad beer but it gets a bit lost in the competition at the moment.

Since I had it with the salty christmas food I can say that it worked well but it's not an exceptional match. It also tasted nice in the meatballs.
Total: 3,3/5

In Flames and Death By Hops

On friday I had some Death By Hops and went to an In Flames concert. It was great, allot of metal for my money. There where some band playing when we got there and before In Flames came on we saw Dead By April and Killswitch Engage. Great performance once again by In Flames, saw them in Annexet last year and they where great then as well. Think they actually spent some more money on effects this time.

Since they only served undrinkable sludge at the concert I didn't try any new and exciting beers this evening. But I did notice that the quality of DBH differs allot. A few bottles are a bit stale and lacks taste, these bottles have a fairly clear liquid and a smaller foam. While some have a bit to much with a very raw hops flavour, these bottles are almost brown with a thick hazy liquid. However most bottles are just right with a hazy orange liquid and a better balance on the hops. Since I haven't noticed a similar problems from the kegs it feels like the problem arrise when we bottle the beer. Not sure what we could do better but I do know we fucked up a bit on the first couple of bottles. We filled them a bit to much causing an over-preasure and some beer got wasted as it exploded out of the bottle like a volcano. I wonder if it's these bottles that lost flavour. Anybody have any experience of this?

Yesterday we had a christmas dinner and I took the opportunity to try some beer with the food, but more about that tomorrow.

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel

This beer was released in the beginning of November at Systembolaget. It is an imperial oatmeal stout that was brewed at Nögne Ö in Norway. The special thing about this beer is that they used a luxury coffee from Vietnam called kopi luwak (or ca phe chon). A civetcat, which is a weasel-like animal, eats only the best and most ripe coffee berries. It is then digested and broken down in their stomach. Workers then collect the droppings and extract the coffee beans.

I don't drink coffee but I hear this one is quite tastey. Närke also made a small joke about this coffee on their sticker for Pannknektarnas porter "Inget skitkaffe! - No crap coffee!".

Mikkeller Beergeek Brunch Weasel (Bottle) 10,9%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a huge brown foam. The liquid was quite thich and it looked really appealing.

The smell was quite intence and it had some noticable flavours: coffee, chocolate and soy sauce.

The mouthfeel was smooth and it had a thick body and medium bitterness. It had an intence taste of chocolate, coffey, spices and "julmust". It was also a bit salty and dry. A very complex beer with lots of different flavours. A very nice beer!
Total: 4,2/5

La Trappe Isid'or

This beer was part of the beginning of the month release at Systembolaget in November.

La Trappe Isid'or (Bottle) 7,5%
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a big white foam that left very little lacing.

It had a smell of yeast, fruits and caramell. The smell was quite sweet and sticky.

The mouthfeel was medium smooth with some stingyness. It had a light body and low bitterness. It tasted mostly of yeast and fruit. Felt a bit watery for a trappist. The alcohol was well hidden though.
Total: 3,1/5

Bush Prestige and de Nuits

Both these beers where released as a middle of the month release at Systembolaget in November. I have tried the Prestige one before. I have also had a clone called Bluff Prestige at this years SC in Homemade Beer. Both where really nice so I have been looking forward to trying these bottles.

Bush Prestige (Scaldis Prestige) (Bottle) 13%
It poured a slightly amber liquid with a small dirty white foam.

It had a smell of ripe fruit, vanilla, spices, fruit candy and peaches. It was quite a sweet smell with an alcoholic finish.

The mouthfeel was smooth with a light body and low bitterness. It had a taste of ripe fruit, dried fruit, well it was quite fruity and sweet in general. I also sensed some dragon fruit and raisin.

Just as with last time I really enjoyed this beer. It has a nice mouthfeel and a nice balance and variety of tastes that I enjoyed.
Total: 4,2/5
Bush de Nuits (Bottle) 13%
It poured a hazy amber liquid with a small dirty white foam.

The smell was quite sour with fruit, cognac, wood and vanilla being the most noticable flavours. It also had some alcoholic warmth to it.

The mouthfeel was quite fizzy and stingy with allot of carbonation. It had a taste of ripe fruit, wood and wine. The taste of wine was quite strong.

Nice beer but Prestige was better.
Total: 3,5/5

Both of these beers are quite good specially Prestige, however the prices are quite steep at 179 for Prestige and 199 for de Nuits.

Avery Hog Heaven

Avery Brewing is a fairly new brewery for me, but they have been brewing since 1993 in Boulder, Colorado. I tried their Maharaja DIPA (4,1/5) at SMÖF and I tried a couple of their brews at ÖBWF. So far I haven't been dissapointed and they generally get very nice scores at Ratebeer. Most of their beers end up above the 90th percentile. The beer I'm going to review today is a barley wine that was released at Systembolaget in November.

Avery Hog Heaven (Bottle) 9,2%
It poured a slightly hazy dark golden liquid with a medium sized dirty white foam that left allot of lacing. Quite a nice look actually.

It had a smell of sweet malt, caramell and wood. There where more smells but I couldn't quite put my finger on what they where.

The mouthfeel was smooth with a thich body. It had a sweet taste of caramell and malt with an alcoholic finish. The flavour was a bit intence just the way I like it. A very nice beer again from Avery, definitely something I want to drink again.
Total: 4/5

Sick

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 ;)

Christmas Beer 2009, part 5

Nögne Ö - Underlig Jul (Bottle) 6,5%
It poured a dark liquid with a medium sized beige foam that left a nice lacing.

As I poured the beer the smell of spices filled the room, very christmasy. I noticed pors and/or woodworm (malört), cinnamon and cloves. But there where more smells that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Smooth mouthfeel with a medium body, dry and medium bitterness. Very herby and spicey taste with cinammon, woodworm and/or pors, vanilla and liqourice. However it wasn't as herby as MNM that was way to herby. This one had a better balance and it was allot more enjoyable.
Total: 3,6/5
Great Divide Hibernation Ale (Bottle) 8,7%
It poured a very dark golden liquid with a small beige foam that left a nice lacing.

It had a very malty smell, similar to how it smells when you open a bag of freshly ground malts just before a brewing.

It had a smooth mouthfeel with a thick body. It had a very malty taste, just like voert before you boil it. Very sweet rich malty flavour. It had some alcoholic warmth but no real alcohol taste.

It isn't very christmasy but I really enjoyed it. I've never actually tried a beer that was this malty before.
Total: 4/5

Christmas Beer 2009, part 4

Sigtuna Midvinternattens Mörker (Bottle) 6,2%
It poured an almost pitch black liquid with a medium-small light brown foam that left no lacing.

The smell is very spicey and it smells like christmas. I have a hard time distinguish all of the different flavours, but there is oranges, cinnamon, licorice, some kind of nut and a bunch of other flavours that I relate to christmas.

The mouthfeel is very stingy and dry. It has a very herbal and spicey taste and they spices are very bitter. It's not the kind of bitterness you would find in a DIPA for instance, it's more of a spicey bitterness. Most likely coming from wormwood (malört) or pors (not sure about translation). If you have ever tried Fernet Branca (see pic below) or Beska Droppar, then you know what I'm talking about.

It said on the bottle that it works well with chocolate and hard cheese, like blue cheese. So I started out trying this with a truffel. I have to admit that it got better, but mostly because the chocolate hid the bitterness. I then tried the beer with some blue cheese spread on a gingerbread cockie. Which was nice, but the bitterness came through. It matched, but it wasn't a great match.

I'm having a hard time grading this beer. It's interesting but I personally believe that it was way to spicey and that the bitterness got to strong. However if you are one of thoose persons that love Fernet Branca or Beska Droppar. Then this is the beer for you. For me, I would rather drink something else.
Total: 1,9/5
Sigtuna Snowblind Strong Ale (Bottle) 7,5%
It poured a very dark hazy red liquid with a medium sized beige foam that left a nice lacing.

The smell was filled with fresh hops.

Smooth mouthfeel with a medium-high bitterness and med-high thick body. Tasted of lots of hops, both grassy and fruity. After a while I noticed some herbs and spices hidden behind all the hops.

A very nice beer, but it didn't really feel like a christmas beer. But for all the hop heads this might be the beer for you this christmas.
Total: 3,8/5

Christmas Beer 2009, part 3

Nils Oscar Julöl 2009 (Bottle) 7,7%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a light brown foam that left very little lacing.

It had a smell of chocolate, spices, burned malt and a hint of plastic. That plastic smell wasn't very pleasent.

Smooth mouthfeel with a thick body and low bitterness. Taste of chocolate, burned toast, malt and nuts.

A nice beer but the plastic smell draws down the points. Looking at other reviews not everybody seems to have had this problem, so might be worth trying another bottle.
Total: 3,5/5

Harviestoun Mr. Sno'Balls (Bottle) 4,5%
It poured a hazy dark golden-caramell liquid with a medium sized white foam that left a nice lacing.

It had a very fresh smell of hops, citrus, malt and caramell.

Smooth mouthfeel with a medium body and light-medium bitterness. Tasted fresh off grassy hops, citrus and malt.

Nice beer but not really a Christmas beer, I think this one would work allot better during the summer. It was so fresh and crisp that I think it would be a great thirstquencher during a hot summers day. Not sure how it would work with the salty and fat christmas food.
Total: 3,6/5

Christmas Beer 2009, part 2

A couple more Christmas Beers I tried before ÖBWF.

Oppigårds Winter Ale (Bottle) 5,3%
It poured a dark red liquid with a medium sized dirty white foam that left a nice lacing.

It had a spicey smell with some fruity hops.

Semi-smooth mouthfeel, with a medium body, low bitterness and dry. Tasted of spices, caramell, malt and hops. Hops was the most noticable flavour. An alright christmas beer.
Total: 2,9/5
Ayinger Winter-Bock (Bottle) 6,7%
It poured a very dark liquid with some red notes, medium light brown foam that left some lacing.

It had a malty smell with some caramell.

The mouthfeel was smooth and it had a medium body and low bitterness. It tasted of chocolate, malt, caramell and also sweet with some sugar. This was pretty nice, I can definitely imagine drinking several of theese with my christmas dinner.
Total: 3,5/5

Christmas Beer 2009, part 1

I've started to try this years batch of christmas beers. I will try and try as many as possible before christmas. I tried these the friday before ÖBWF.

Fullers Old Winter Ale (Bottle) 5,3%
It poured an amber liquid with a medium sized dirty white foam with some nice craters that left allot of lacing.

It had a weak smell of caramell, malt, booze and arrack. Medium smooth mouthfeel with a bit stingy feeling. Medium body and medium bitterness. It didn't have a nice hoppy bitterness, a less enjoyable bitterness with a bite to it. It was also dry and taste of malt and had a buttery taste and feeling.

The butter took over more and more as I drank it. Not my choice for this years Christmas celebration.
Total: 2,5/5
Sheperd Neame Christmas Ale (Bottle) 7%
It poured a dark golden liquid with a medium sized white foam.

It had an odd smell of sawdust, wood, nuts and what I think is nutmeg.

Fairly smooth mouthfeel with just a bit of stingyness. Dry with a ligth body and low bitterness. Watery taste of caramell, malt and butter with an alcoholic finnish. Just as with Fullers this one had to much butter. I ended up pouring it out.
Total: 2,2/5

A Christmasy Weekend

We started our christmas celebration this weekend. On friday I made some christmas ham, oven baked just as it should be.

On Saturday we went to Stockholm to look at some christmas markets. We started at Sergels torg where they had a nice variety of food stalls. I personally tried a couple of churros but I could have had more.
I had heard from other beer blogs that Monks had an interesting christmas beer this year. Since we where close I quickly jogged over and tried it.

Monks Saffron Ale (tap) 7,1%
It poured a hazy dark orange liquid with a medium sized dirty yellow foam.

The most noticeable smell was saffron, I could feel it as I got served. There where also some oranges and sweetness. A very intriguing smell.

The mouthfeel was smooth with just a little bit of sting from carbonation. After swirling it around for a bit it got allot better. I also held it in my hands to warm it a bit since it was to cold to start off. It had a medium thick body with a low bitterness.

It tasted of saffron as well, but not as strong as the smell. Also oranges, yeast and dried fruit.

A very nice christmas beer, felt complex and interesting. I also noticed that it was very popular among the other customers. The majority was drinking it and there where people coming up and asking for it, including myself. A final question, was this beer based on their orange ale?
Total: 3,7/5

After visiting Monks we walked past the window decorations at NK. But the place was so crowded it was hard to see anything.

We walked through the market at Kungsträdgården and then continued to Skansen. It feels like I should buy a season card at Skansen since I tend to go there so often. But the christmas market is starting to become a tradition and the most important part of this market is eating a kolbulle. It's like a thick panncake made with pork on an open fire.

After finishing off our kolbulle we walked around and looked at the stalls.

Just as last year the home brewing club was there showing people how to brew beer and sharing some 2% christmas beer. It was smooth and nice, a bit thin but very good for this kind of beer. Here you can see the bottle they poured from and the kettle being cold off after brewing.

At 16:00 the market closed and we headed on home for some christmas beer, which I will post about later on. I have about 6 posts of christmas beers lined up and will try to try most of them before christmas.

Angusa Swedish Pale Ale

This is one of the beers that I exchanged with JoeG from Good Morning Beer Lovers, he got a bottle of DBH2 in exchange. It's a Swedish Pale Ale or SPA. Now to start of I don't have allot of experience with this type, I've only tried it once at the Swedish Championship in Homemade Beer.


Angusa SIPA (Bottle)
It poured a hazy amber liquid with a medium sized white foam (small bubbles) that left very little lacing.

It had a weak but fresh smell of hops, malt, fruits and citrus.

The mouthfeel was a mix of both smooth and stingy, but mostly smooth. The body was light and it had a medium bitterness. The most noticeable taste was yeast, but also malt, white bread and a hint of hops and banana.
Total: 2,9/5

Now lets see if I can come with something constructive:
I think this beer could benefit from some more aroma hops. The bitterness feels just right it's just the taste of hops that feels a bit low. It might just be a result of the hops, but a possible solution could be to switch some hops from the start to the end of the boiling.

Another thing would be to get a slightly thicker body, possibly by switching malt. We did this when changing the recipe from DBH1 to DBH2 to get a thicker body.

Thoose are the only things I can come up with at this point. Good job on the brew Joe, looking forward to trying your belgian ale.

ÖBWF 2009, part 6

This is the final part about my visit to the Örebro Beer and Whisky festival. As I mentioned yesterday we came back to Brill. This time Marc introduced us to Michael Dugge from Dugges Bryggeri.

Out of the swedish breweries I would say he is my second favorite after Närke. It's a brewery that always deliver nice quality beers. This time Dugge was primarily promoting their Celebration Ale. But they also had allot of interesting beers on bottle which we tried. But the beer that stood out the most was this one:

Southern Tier Pumking (Bottle) 9%
It tasted very sweet like liquid cockies and spounge cake, lots of sugar and sweets. Very odd but also very interesting. Not sure how I would have liked this in a full glass but as a sample it was quite nice. To bad we missed out on the Creme Brulé beer they had from the same brewery.

Total: 3,6/5

All of a sudden Marc told us that there where more beer bloggers at the booth and he pointed us towards David and Fredrik from Ölkultur med David och Fredrik. There was another beer blogger there but I'm not 100% sure who it was. Might have been Markus from Amatörens tankar om öl. You can see the top of his head on this picture:

It was allot of fun to finally meet up but I don't have much recollection of what we talked about. I blame the beer for this. DAMN YOU BEER! Anyway shortly after meeting David and Fredrik we decided to call it a night.

During the festival me and Per tried 50 different beers. Most of which I had never tried before. I'm not sure why we tried so few, we usually end up closer to 90 beers during an evening. But it might have to do with the amount of beer you where served, which felt more like 20 cl+ rather then 15. But I'm not complaining, I tried less beer but I got more of the good stuff.

I really enjoyed ÖBWF. They had done a good job of decorating the place and it felt very fresh and new. Most of the light came from candles or the booths and it felt spaceous. It was a bit cramped close to the more popular booths at the end, but you could always choose something else. Getting from one booth to the next was very fast since there was allot of space between the booths.

I heard some people say the supply was low but I felt that there where more then enough beers to try. I would have been able to walk around there for 2-3 more days and still have beers to try. All in all another great beer festival, I'm definitely coming back next year. The festival year is now over for me and I will have to wait until 31st January to visit Belgofesten. But having visited 5 festivals this year, 3 of which happened over the last 2 months, it actually feels nice with a little break.

ÖBWF 2009, part 5

We didn't walk very far before me and Per bumped into my father. He was pretty excited and said he had found a new brewery that I had to test. He dragged me over to Benny Sundberg who started Stockeboda Bryggeri just a month ago down in Österlen. His goal was to make good beers that where easy to drink. So the customer group he aimed for didn't really include beer geeks. He talked about selling to conference centers and hotels. But I got a feeling it will be more then that. I also found this blog that says he has some more interesting projects planned. So maybe I just missunderstood his goals. Well I have to admit I get a bit thirsty when I read about that Barley Wine he has planned.

However I still wanted to try his beers so me and Per ordered one of each:

Stockeboda Ljus Ale (Tap) 5,2%
This is a pale ale that was very easy to drink, smooth mouthfeel and light body. Some taste of malt and hops with a low bitterness. Not that exciting but it will probably work on the masses.
Total: 2,8/5
Stockeboda Vinternattens Mörker (Tap) 5%
As far as I could see this beer was pitch black. Also smooth like it's pale little brother but with the difference that this one was more spicey with some caramell. I think this one was a bit better then the Pale Ale. But they where both a bit to light for my taste. Might be better to try them under better conditions.
Total: 2,9/5

After saying goodbye to Benny we walked around for a bit and sampled various beers. Then landed at Great Brands where they had several interesting beers. The one that stood out the most was a beer from Harviestoun, a brewery that keeps on delivering good beers. I didn't think much of them when I first tried them on a cruiser to Åland. But that's all water under the boat now.
Ola Dubh 12 years (Bottle) 8%
This is really Black Oil (3,4/5) that has been stored on a 12 year old Highland Park cask. This is a smooth beer with lots of taste of chocolate, coffee, whisky, nuts and wood. A very nice beer and I think it was second best after Kaggen.

This one will also be released at Systembolaget on the 1st of December. With the price of 50 sek per bottle it's an absolute steal. A little bird also told me that they are releasing the 18 and 30 year old versions later on that month.
Total: 4,3/5

We also had some beers from Anderson Valley, Rogue and Avery. The best of them was this beer:
Avery IPA (Bottle) 6%
This beer had a distinct taste and smell of fruity hops. High bitterness and medium body. Top that with a smooth mouthfeel and you got yourself a very tastey brew.
Total: 3,7/5

After a couple more Avery beers (all nice) we ended up back at Brill where we met some interesting people...

ÖBWF 2009, part 4

We walked around for a while and sampled some lighter beers. But it didn't take long until we ended up at Brill & Co. Our expectations where very high considering how many fantastic beers we tried at their booth at SBWF. When we got their we where greeted by Marc Schuterman, a really friendly guy who served us some really interesting beers and also gave us a couple of tips for testing later on. They had an barrel aged Mikkeller Black that sounded really tastey. But trying something that heavy would completely ruin our palletes for the evening. So we decided to try some lighter stuff first:

Mikkeller The American Dream (bottle) 4,6%
This one was brewed at de Proefbrouwerij in Belgium. We got recomended to try this one first and I understand why. A hopped up lager that was really nice. Smells and taste of fruity hops, peaches and passion fruit. I could definitely imagine drinking more of this and I don't say that very often about lagers.
Total: 3,4/5

Beer Here Hopfix (Bottle) 6,5%
Now this was allot better. Lots of fruity hops just the way I like it. Also a nice smooth mouthfeel. Beer Here delivers again.
Total: 3,9/5
AleSmith IPA (Bottle) 7,25%
This is a beer I've been wanting to try for a while. It's ranked as the nr 1 IPA at Ratebeer and our expectations where quite high. It had allot of fruity hops flavours but also some dried fruit. However I felt a bit like I wanted more everything from this beer. It did deliver but I think our expectations where a bit to high. I would love to try this again under better conditions though.
Total: 3,8/5

We still had allot more beers that we wanted to try at Brills but we felt that it was time to move on and see what the other booths had to offer. We did find what must be one of the newest breweries in Europe and some other interesting beers. But more about that tomorrow.