A trip to Fjäderholmarna

On saturday me, Karin, my brother and parents took a boat to Fjäderholmarna. It's a small island in the Stockholm archipelago, very easily accesible by boat from Slussen or Nybrokajen. The trip takes somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes.

Once on the island we walked around for a bit and looked at the different stores and restaurants. Then we sat down in the grass and had some white wine and just soaked up the sun.

We had lunch at Rökeriet, which serves different kinds of smoked fish and shrimps. Me and Karin who had been there before went for our favorites: smoke shrimp and salmon. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this but I will make up with a couple of random pictures.

Me and Karin in front of one of the harbors.

Me and my mother at the same harbor.

Karin and my mom in line for some icecream

The island was packed with people enjoying the fantastic weather. We actually had to que to get on and off the island. But since they had put in extra boats it wasn't much of a hastle.

One of the boats ferrying people back and forth to Slussen.

After a couple of hours we decided it was time to head home for some beer and bbq. More about that in the next article.

A couple of beers at Akkurat, part 2

After a couple of beers we decided it was time to for some food. Me and my brother had the bacon and cheese burger which was very nice. My father wasn't that hungry and settled for some clams. I don't think I have ever been dissapointed of the food at Akkurat and this one wasn't an exception. The burger was very juicy and nice.

Närke Huvill 7,8% (Tap)

It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium sized foam that left a nice lacing. The aroma was filled with grassy hops. The flavor was fresh, with allot of grassy hops, a medium bitternes and some grapefruit.

Total: 3,5/5

Petrus 5,5% (Tap)

It poured a dark liquid with some reddish tones, with a small foam that left a nice lacing. The aroma was fruity, sweet and sour. The flavor was similar, sour, fruity and sweet with some red berries.

Total: 3,4/5

Nynäshamns Bedarö Bitter 4,5% (Tap)

This is a beer that I usually buy when Im at Systembolaget and don't have any particular beers to buy (read: when there are no new beers to buy). But I have never really looked at it closely. So I thought this was a good time.

It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium sized icecream foam. Which made it look very appealing. It had an aroma of malt, hops and some caramell. The flavor was very similar with just a hint of caramell. Overall I was a bit dissapointed by this beer and would have expected it to get a higher score.

Total: 2,7/5

Hopslam 10 % (Bottle)

It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium sized foam that left a nice lacing. The aroma was very strong with lots of hops, both fruity and grassy hops. Which made it smell great and almost made me drool. The first sip delivered what the smell had promised, it was filled with hops, both fruity and grassy and a high bitterness. A very nice beer and one of the best DIPAs I've had.

Total: 4/5

Hopslam was our last beer before deciding to head back to my appartment. My mother was coming by and we where going to have some grilled sandwhiches. But if it wheren't for the fact that I had a fridge full of interesting beers I might have never been able to drag us out of Akkurat ;)

Shipyard Barley Wine Style Ale (Pugsley Signature Series) 8,5% (Bottle)

It poured a dark black liquid with a small foam. It had a strong smell, spicey, sweet, burned, smoey and some alcohol. The taste was similar with some burned and smokey, toasty and spicey yet smooth with a warm alcoholic finish.

Total: 3,6/5

Rogue Chocolate Stout 6,3% (Bottle)

It poured a dark black liquid with a small foam. It smelled sweet with allot of chocolate. The flavor was similar with chocolate and some sweetness. But it was also a bit watery and short, which draws the points down a bit.

Total: 3,5/5

We decided that this was our last beer for the evening and made it an early night. Since we planned to take a boat to Fjäderholmarna the next day. More about that in a future article.

A couple of beers at Akkurat, part 1

Me, my father and brother went to Akkurat on friday to have dinner and drink a couple of beers. We started out strong with a Westvleteren testing, which I will write about in my next article. After Westvleteren we tried a bunch of interesting beers, Akkurat had a sale on bottled beer so we took advantage of that but they also had a couple of interesting beers on tap.

After a while my brothers friend Kalle showed up. I think he really enjoyed the beers.

Bière Darbyste 5,8% (Bottled)

When I arrived at Akkurat my father and brother where already seated and where bussy drinking this beer.

It poured a hazy brown-orange liquid with a small foam that stayed. It also had allot of yeast floating around. It smelled a bit like wine, with some yeast and alcohol. The flavor was similar with wine, yeast and some fruit. It also had some sourness but not that much. All in all it was bland and a bit boring.

Total: 2,5/5

(I forgot to take a picture)

Beck-Bräu Zoigl 5,8% (Tap)

It poured a hazy golden liquid with a medium sized icecream looking foam that left some lacing. At first I thought this beer smelled like some kind of cleaning liquid. But after a while the chemical parts dissapeared and left a more hoppy presence. It also smelled fresh with citrus. It also tasted very fresh with citrus, but also malt and hops. It worked great in the warm weather.

Total: 3,1/5

Bink Blond 5,5% (Tap)

It poured a hazy dark golden liquid with an icecream foam that left allot of lacing. It smelled of yeast, wine, dried orange peels and some other spices which I could define. I really enjoyed the smell. The flavor was similar, very fresh with citrus, some wine and yeast, but also spicey. It was smooth in my mouth but the body was a bit weak which made it seem a bit to bland. It smelled better then it tasted, but still a nice beer.

Total: 3,4/5

Pizza Port Shark Attack Double/Triple Red Ale 9,2% (Bottle)

It said Double Red Ale on the bottle but at ratebeer it seems like it's also named Triple.

It pured a hazy brown with reddish tones, with a small foam. It had a strong scent with allot of caramell and warm alcohol. The aroma was also very strong with caramell and a warm alcoholic finnish. After a while some hops came through, but the caramell was very dominant. Was this a barley wine? It sure reminded me of one. The beer got smoother at the end but overall it was a bit to 1-dimensional for me.

Total: 3,1/5

Ocean Single Hop Amber 4,8% (Tap)

This is one of the real ales Akkurat had this evening.

It was filled to the brim with a clear golden liquid with a very small foam that left a nice lacing. The aroma had a hint of something burned, reminding me of toast. It had a flavor of hops and some burned toast. Very easy to drink but a bit watery. Nice in the hot weather though a real thirst quencher.

Total: 2,4

Parental visit

My parents are coming over for a visit this weekend. My dad is already in town on some business meeting and my mother is coming by car tonight. As usual when my dad is involved we plan to try allot of nice beers this weekend.

After work Im gonna meet my brother and father at Akkurat for some food and a couple of beers. We plan to try Westlveteren 12, which is quite expensive, but a beer I've been wanting to try for a long time. Also we can make up the high price with taking advantage of the sale Akkurat has on bottled beer at the moment. They have lowered prices from 110 to 30 sek per bottle. Which sounds fanatstic. They also have a bunch of interesting beers on tap.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the archipelago outside of Stocholm. Which are always nice and then head back to our appartment for some BBQ and beer testing.

Testing Hoegaarden Rosée

I'm honestly not sure how to grade this beer. Well for starters it doesn't feel like a beer. I love different styles of lambics, but this one feels very close to a soda of some sort and the weird can choice doesn't make it any easier. Well I will give it a shot.

Hoegarden Rosée 4,5%
It poured a hazy orange-red liquid with a small white foam that left some lacing. The colour actually appealed to me and could have been a nice lambic. However the can is a big minus.

The aroma was sweet and also had some sourness. It also had a strong fruity scent where rasberries where very dominant but also some strawberries. I also got a scent of milk, but might be some kind of bacteria.

It tasted sweet and artificial like a soda. The fruitiness was there just as in the smell, lots of rasberries and some strawberries. The taste dissapeared very fast and made it feel watery and bland.

The beer wasn't unpleasent but it also wasn't very good.

Total: 2,2/5

Midsummer, part 2

Once we got home I saw Sweden get beaten by Italy in the U21 game. I figured it was a good time to try some of the less exciting beers I've bought over the last couple of weeks. So I opened two summer lagers.

Eriksberg Sommarbrygd 5,3%

It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium foam that quickly dissapeared and left some lacing on the side of the glass.

The aroma was very weak but had the faintest smell of metall and bread.

The flavor was slightly better, smoth and malty with some tastes of bread. It didn't have that horrible metallic taste that I don't like about this kind of beer. It also lacked that acidic bitterness, so I would say this is an above average pale lager.

Total: 1,9/5

Åbro Sommaröl 4,7%

It poured a clear yellow liquid with a medium foam that quickly dissapeared and left some lacing.

The aroma was very weak with just the slightest hint of white bread and malt. I could however have been smelling water.

The flavor was also very weak, very close to drinking sparkled water. It did have a taste of metall and a hint of nuts and dirt. Thankfully it didn't have any acidic bitterness. Not a very good beer.

Total: 1/5
After the football me and Karin had midsummers dinner. Different styles of pickled herring, potatoes, sourcream, onions, smoked salmon, makrill, eggs and shrimp. All very tasty and I served a bottle of white wine (Ruppertsberger Nussbien 2007 Riesling) that worked great with the food.

Midsummer, part 1

It's midsummers today so me and Karin went to Smedby in Upplands-Väsby to watch the traditional celebration. We came just in time to see them raise the pole and dance around it. Quite interesting to watch. We also visited the viking village nearby, which was buzzing with acitivity.

A folk dance organisation organised the event.

And they brought some music as well. It wasn't Metal town, but it fit very well with the event. ;)

Lots of people joined in on the dance, about double the amount ended up dancing. I tried to push Karin into it, but she said something about forgetting here dance shoes.

At the viking village there was a market.

The blacksmiths where hard at work.

You could also bake your own viking bread and then cook it over an open fire.

You then got some butter and honey to use with the bread. It tasted really nice.

Now I'm gonna crack open a beer. Later on we plan to eat midsumers dinner containing different kinds of fish and shrimps. But more about the food and drink in the next one.

Testing Duvel

I've tried Duvel several times before but never really graded it. Since I got an original Duvel glas from my parents last weekend I figured it was time to give Duvel another try.

Duvel 8,5%
It poured a cloudy yellow liquid with a huge foam with lots of big bubbles. As the foam receded it left big chunks of foam on the side of the glass. Despite the boring yellow colour it looked very appealing.

My first thought when I smelled the beer was that it had a spicey scent, might be coriander and pepper. A couple of tries later I get a hint of white whine and some yeast. Not bad even though quite faint.

The first mouthfull was smooth although fizzy. I remember it to have allot more carbon but maybe it dissapeared while I was taking pictures, sniffing and writing. Might be a good tip for the future to let it rest for a minute before drinking. Anyway, back to the tasting. Just as with the aroma it also had a spicey flavour with some pepper and coriander. It also had some yeast, hints of white whine and hops even though it has a mild bitterness. It finishes up and leaves a trace of warm alcohol at the back of my mouth.

A pretty decent beer although it got kind of boring after a couple of sips.

Total: 3,5/5

Busbelgo and Death By Hops

Last weekend we didn't just run and drink canned beer. We also had the joy of trying out the magic beer tap. My father had installed a keg each of Busbelgo and Death By Hops IPA.

Busbelgo
My father and Chrille brewed this belgian abbey style ale (Quadrupel?), with the intention of making a complex brew with allot of spices creating a wide pallete. I have to admit that they did succeded, it is a very good beer and you really have to work to find all of the different flavors. However I have a couple of pointers in case they brew it again.

It poured a hazy dark liquid with tones of red and a very small foam. I would love to see this one with a bigger foam.

I didn't have to get my nose to close to the glass to get a sniff of the spicey brew. It smelled of cinnamon and ginger, very christmasy.

With great anticipation I tasted it and was greated by allot of cinnamon but also some ginger and vanilla. But the cinnamon was very dominant and hid some of the other flavors. The liquid was very smooth and pleasent in my mouth, however it had little to no fizzyness which I expected.

If you ever do this beer again I would suggest to cut back slightly on the cinnamon and add some more fizzyness. All in all a very nice beer. Good job guys! Can't wait to try your next brew.

Total: 3,7/5

(Need a pic here. For some odd reason I forgot to take one.)

Death By Hops IPA
This is a Double IPA that my father and Chrille brewed together with some other people at Källarknuten as an introduction to the brewclub. This beer was fantastic, one of the best DIPAs I have ever tried.

It poured a hazy golden liquid with a medium foam that left a nice lacing. Looked very appealing but the get full score I would like to see an even more appealing foam.

The first sniff revealed a fruity smell of peaches and passion fruit. Which was very similar to a Mikkeller beer I had the day before: Single Hop Simcoe IPA. Very pleasent but the fruity smell was only there for a few seconds until it dissapeared and left a scent of flowery hops.

Since it smelled so nice my mouth started watering and the first moutfull delivered what my nose had promised. It tasted fruity with flowery hops and a high bitterness. The liquid was very smooth and pleasent and it was really hard to stop drinking.

The total score is very high and the highest I have ever given to a DIPA. Rogue DIPA comes in a close second at 4,1. Excellent beer!
Total: 4,2/5

The Frövi Race

Me and my brother brought 3 friends with us to Frövi, Nicklas, Micke and Per. The main goal was to run the Frövi race (Fröviloppet, 10 km), but we also planned to drink allot of beer. The race was 10 km long and Micke, Per and my brother also entered the 3-man team competition under the name Sniglarna. They managed to get second place.... but there where only one more team competing.

The race wasn't due until saturday so we made good use of friday and had ourselfs a couple of beers and also spent some time in the jacuzzi. Is there a better way to prepare yourself for a big race?

We managed to squeze 9 guys into the jacuzzi (one of the guys are missing in this pic). But I got to admit that it was a tight fit.

A couple of happy and energetic guys just before the start of the race.

The race is on! You can see all four on the left side of the pic.

My brother is looking very energetic at about 5,5 km.




Micke pushed himself to the limit in this race and looked pretty tired as he reached 5,5 km.

A couple of minutes later me and Per showed up. Bjunge greeted us with some Powerade.

Allot less energetic after the race. But happy that it's now beer time.

I didn't do a very good race and reached the finish after about 53-56 minutes (Im still looking for the results online). Per came in a minute or so before me, he managed to outrun me around the 8,5 km mark. Micke at 44.20 and my brother around 41 minutes.

After the race we went back home to my parents porch for a relaxing dip in the jacuzzi, we where only 4 this time though. We also barbecued and tried some nice beers. My father had sorted the magic beer tap out and served Death By Hops IPA and Busbelgo. I will write more about thoose in my next article.

The easter brews

During easter me and my father brewed two beers from ready kits, our very first brews actually. It was a trippel and a wheat beer. I have to admit I didn't expect much from the kits. But I was pleasently suprised by the result.

White Easter - Wheat Beer

It poured a hazy golden brown liquid with a huge foam that left lots of lacing. It had a sweet smell with some bread. The flavor was spicey, sweet and fruity. Not like a classic wheat beer but still very nice. The 9 litre keg dissapeared like butter under a hot summer sun. Suprisingly good beer.

Total: 3,3/5

Easter Trippel

It poured a hazy amber liquid with a medium foam that left a nice lacing. The aroma was sweet and spicey. Same with the flavor that was also sweet, spicey with a hint of bread. It tasted very similar to the wheat beer, not a classic trippel but still very nice.

Total: 3,3/5

Both of them had to much sweetness and I have feeling they would improve over time. So this is definitely something I would consider making again.

Visiting Birka

Me and Karin went to Birka yesterday. It's an old viking town located on an island in Mälaren. During it's time it was strategically placed to controll the trading routes and had a population of 1000 habitants. Today the only thing that is left of the town is findings in the ground.

We joined a tour and below us is where the town used to be. The start of the two main landing stages are visible in this pic as clusters of rocks.

Karin is standing on top of the hill where the castle yard was once. From this point the kings soldiers had a great view in all directions. Below is an area that was once under water and now houses a museum, restaurant and a jetty for the ferries.

They have started to re-build a couple of buildings to show visitors how it once looked at Birka. At the moment there are only 4 houses but more are to come.

Once we got home I felt I deserved a beer or two.


Rhenania Alt 4,8%
It poured a dark copper-amber liquid with a big foam that left a nice lacing. It had a weak smell of metall, bread and a hint of something sweet. The flavor was sweet with malt, bread, metall and a low bitterness. The liquid was fairly thick,. An ok beer.
Total: 2,4/5

La Meule 6%
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a big foam that dissapeared fast and left a nice lacing. It also had some yeast in the liquid. Looked like a wheat beer, very appealing. It smelled sweet, spicey with peppers and some other spices. The first taste was smooth and it had a spicey peppery flavor with some honey and yeast. A bit to weak in the flavor to get a higher score, would have love some more of that spicey aroma to break thorugh in the flavor. Good beer though.
Total: 3,7/5

New beers at Systembolaget - June 2009

I swung by Systembolaget and picked up this weeks news. I managed to get all I intended to buy except for Hoegaarden - Rossé. You might also notice that Nils Oscar - Saison and Double Dead Guy Ale are missing. That is because my father was faster and managed to buy two bottles. They are waiting for a mutual testing later on.


Here is the full list:
Atlas the cat (not a beer but damn he got some bite)
Eriksberg - Sommarbrygd
Three Towns - Sommarlager
Mikkeller - Simcoe Single Hop IPA
Oppigårds - Summer Ale
Goldings - Summer Hop Ale
Sierra Nevada - ESB
La Meule
Åbro - Sommaröl