Mr and Mrs Frederiksen

Besides the beers from Southern Tier we also tried some beer from Amager Bryghus. These are the first two beers I try from this brewery. But looking at their score at ratebeer they seem to be solid around a high grade, most beers are between 3-4 average score. After browsing their website for a while I also found out that it was started by two home brewers. They brewer their beer in an air-raid sheleter not far from Copenhagen.

Amager Fru Frederiksen (bottle) 7%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a small light brown foam that left just a little bit of lacing.

I was a bit suprised to sense some grassy hops in the smell. However there where also some chocolate, and coffey. I liked the smell.

The taste was a bit watered down though, I would have liked it allot heavier, even for a stout. It had a taste of chocolate, coffey and burned toast. A decent beer.
Total: 3,1/5 Amager Hr. Frederiksen (bottle) 10,5%
It poured a pitch black liquid, with a medium sized light brown foam, that lasted a while and left some lacing.

It had a strong smell of chocolate, coffey and nuts. Very nice.

It had a heavy taste of chocolate, coffey and burned toast. Smooth mouthfeel and thick body. A very nice beer I really enjoyed it.
Total: 4/5

Southern Tier Hoppe and Un*Earthly

On saturday my parents came over for a quick visit so I took the opportunity to open a couple of the middle of the month releases from september. We started with two beers from Southern Tier. I have never tried any beers from this brewery, but looking at their ratebeer-ranks they have a bunch of beers around the 95-100 percentile. Which I actually didn't know until I just checked it up.
Southern Tier Hoppe (bottle) 8%
It poured a clear golden liquid, with a medium sized foam that dissapeared quite fast and left just a little bit of lacing.

It had a fruity smell with allot of hops. I couldn't quite pinpoint what kind of fruit, it was just a mix which I relate to hops.

It had a smooth mouthfeel and a medium bitterness. Tasted of fruity hops and lots of it, it also had something sweet. It had just a touch of acidic bitterness besides that it was quite enjoyable but not really fantastic.
Total: 3,5/5
Southern Tier Un*Earthly (bottle) 11%
It poured a slightly hazy dark golden liquid with a small white foam that lasted a long time and left a little bit of lacing.

It had a suprisingly weak smell of grassy and frutiy hops. I had expected a quite stronger smell from this beer. It was noticable but not the kind of explosion most DIPAs bring.

It was thick and left a dry sensation in my mouth. It had a strong taste of grassy and fruity hops and caramell. Medium-high bitterness with an alcoholic finish. Slightly better then Hoppe.
Total: 3,6/5

SBWF 2009, part 9 - Finishing words

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.

SBWF 2009, part 8

After a while we ended up at Brills counter and some really nice beers. Pierre Brill was there himself and suggested some really interesting beers. :)

We started out soft as I spotted a label that looked interesting:

Nögne Ö - Aku Aku Lemongrass (tap) 5,5%
Someone described this as drinking thai food as a beer. Which is a fairly good description. It had a very fresh scent and taste of lemon and lime. But it was also a bit watery and bland. Interesting but not great.
Total: 2,6/5

I think it was Per who thought it would be fun to try some other Nögne Ö beers and was suggested to try this one:

Nögne Ö Imperial Stout (tap) 9%
Lots of chocolate and coffey. Compley with lots of different tastes. Very nice.
Total: 4/5

I started asking about their american beer, what kind of Jolly Frogs they had and so on. Turned out I had tried most of them. But Brill pulled out a beer I had been wanting to try for a long time:

Pizza Port Hop 15 (bottle) 10,5%
It poured a hazy golden-orange liquid with a small white foam. It had a fresh smell and taste of grassy hops, lemon and other citrus fruit. It was very smooth with a round feeling that just hugged my tongue. Balanced and extremely good, one of the best beers I've had.
Total: 4,3/5

I got pretty excited about this beer and started pouring compliments over Brill. He then suggested I tried this beer, once again something I have been drooling over for a long while. Finally had a bottle in front of me and I could feel my mouth watering.
Beer Here Dark Hops (bottle) 8,5%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a medium sized light brown foam. It had a strong smell of both hops, citrus and chocolate and coffey. It tasted similar with a combo of hops and all the flavours I relate to a stout. Smooth, creamy and complex. This is a kind of beer Ive been talking about making. Combining lots of hops with a spicey stout. Very nice I really enjoyed it!
Total: 4,4/5

I then told him that this is probably the best line of great beers Ive ever had. He told me that I should try this beer and pulls out a beer that I once again have been pining for.

Three Floyds Behemoth Barley Wine (bottle) 12% (pink = 2005)
It poured a hazy copper golden liquid with a small white foam. It had a strong smell of grassy hops and flowers. The smell was thick and intense with some warm alcohol to build it up. It had a thick and heavy taste of caramell, hops and malt. High bitterness, very nice, a great beer!
Total: 4,2/5

After four really fantastic beers we decided to take a break and grab something to eat. After this I just enjoyed myself and to be honest I was just a bit to drunk to give the beer a fair chance.

SBWF 2009, part 7

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

SBWF 2009, part 6

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

SBWF 2009, part 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

SBWF 2009, part 4

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

SBWF 2009, part 3

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

SBWF 2009, part 2

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

SBWF 2009, part 1

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

Time for SBWF 2009

It's finally time for me to visit the Stockholm Beer and Whisky festival. Something I look forward to each year. It's like christmas, you have problem sleeping, hang out with your friends and family, eat lots of nice food and drink lots of good beer ;)

The plan is to be at Nacka strand at 11:30-11:40 to get a decent spot in the que. I will most likely be meeting up with Per at Slussen before that and we have set a plan for what we will drink. The focus is on beer we haven't tried before, but we have narrowed it down to hop juice, spicey stouts and heavy belgians. To make sure we get the focused beers first we have printed the beer list and used coloured pens to mark the more interesting beers. I know we won't get to try them all, but if we get a decent amount I will be more then happy.

It looks like we will be a big group this year, my father, Chrille and Erika are driving up from Örebro. My brother has some friends over for a visit this weekend and they are most likely joining up later on. Per also had some friends that will join us later in the evening. I also hope to spot some other beer bloggers at the festival.

Time for some breakfast...

Baladin beer

A while back, how long I don't remember, I bought three bottles of Baladin beer. They had been sitting on the news shelf for a long while at Systembolaget and I'm not sure why I hadn't bought them before. Well the price was a bit steep with above 110 sek per bottle and I had been drowning in interesting beers to try so I had just skipped them. But now news where slow so I bought the three available bottles. When we brewed Death By Hops 2 I decided it was time to give them a go.
Super Baladin (bottle) 8%
It poured a hazy, dirty golden liquid with a small foam that left no lacing. It did however leave a ton of yeast floating around in the glass. It smelled of yeast and bread. It had a smooth mouthfeel and a taste of yeast, bread, sweet, fruit and candy. Unfortunately a bit watery. A decent beer but not really worth the high price.
Total: 3,3/5
Nöel Baladin (bottle) 9%
It poured a dark liquid with a small light brown foam. Lots of yeast in the glass. It had a smell of yeast and fruit. It had a smouth mouthfeel and tasted of fruits and yeast. Very similar to Super but slightly better.
Total: 3,4/5
Elixir Baladin (bottle) 10%
It poured a hazy dark dirty golden liquid with a small foam and lots of yeast in the bottle. It smelled of yeast, bread and fruits. It tasted fruity, with yeast, bread and allot of carbonation. Very similar to the other two but it pulled ahead just slightly. Best of the three.
Total: 3,5/5

Hoppin Frog

They recently released two beers from Hoppin Frog at Systembolaget. Hoppin Frog is a small brewery in Ohio and has been very succesfull since the start in 1994.

Hoppin Frog Mean Manalishi Double IPA (bottle) 8,2%
It poured a hazy dark golden-brown liquid with a small foam that left some lacing. It had a smell of both grassy and flowery/fruity hops, grapefruit, citrus and a hint of passion fruit. It had a tate of grassy hops and grapefruit with a high bitterness. A very nice beer.
Total: 3,9/5
Hoppin Frog Boris the Crusher (bottle) 9,4%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a small brown foam that left some lacing. It had a strong smell of chocolate, something burned and some smoke. It had a strong taste of chocolate, soy sauce something burned and smokey. The flavour was fairly complex with allot of different tastes attacking from different angles. A very nice beer.
Total: 4,2/5

Oktoberfestbier, part 2

Hoffbräu München Oktoberfestbier (bottle) 6,3%
It poured a clear yellow liquid with a small foam that left no lacing. It had a weak smell of white bread. The taste was also weak with some white bread and stingy bitterness. Watery and boring.
Total: 1,3/5

Sigtuna Oktoberfest (bottle) 5,5%
It poured a cloudy golden liquid with a small foam that left no lacing. It had a smell of honey, hops and white bread. It tasted of bread, honey and butter. The mouthfeel was smooth and nice.
Total: 2,4/5
Sigtuna Black October (bottle) 5%
It poured a dark brown liquid with a small brown foam that left no lacing. It smelled of cigarrs, soy sauce, chocolate and something burned. It tasted of burned toast, chocolate and smoke. The mouthfell was dry. Best so far.
Total: 3/5

Oktoberfestbier, part 1

When we brewed Death By Hops 2 we also tried some Oktoberfestbier. Unfortunately I wasn't very impressed but I will try to summarize the score below with some short comments.

Löwenbräu Oktoberfestbier (bottle) 6,1%
It poured a clear pale yellow liquid without a foam. Looked very boring. IT had a weak smell of yeast and bread. It had some acidic stingy bitterness. Not very nice or easy to drink.
Total: 1,2/5
Spaten Oktoberfestbier (bottle) 5,9%
It poured a clear pale yellow liquid with a small foam that dissapeared fast and left no lacing. The smell was weak with some white bread. Smooth and watery with some malt and bread. It wasn't bad, just very boring.
Last time I tried this beer it had some honey in it, it also had an odd aftertaste and small bits floating around. I thought it had gone bad.
Total: 1,5/5
Oktober Chest (bottle) 7%
It poured a hazy brown-golden liquid with a small foam that left a little lacing. It had a dry smell of bread and nuts. It also had a taste of bread and nuts. It also had some sourness with some carbonation, It felt stingy and dry in my mouth.
Total: 2,3/5
Weltenburger (bottle) 5,3%
It poured a clear dark golden liquid with a very small foam. It had a weak smell of white bread. The taste was also weak and had some white bread. It wasn't very smooth and had a stingy bitterness to it. Overall boring and not very good.
Total: 1,3/5

Struise Black Albert

Before leaving Monks on saturday Per suprised me with an excellent beer.

Struise Black Albert (bottle) 13%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a small brown foam that left a little bit of brown lacing on the side of the glass.

It had a very strong and complex smell. Lots of different flavours where tugging at my nose. I found some chocolate, nuts, wood, yeast, soy sauce and something burned. It also had a spiceness to it that I couldn't quite put into place. Very nice so far and I have to admit my expectations where rising.

I tasted it and it was smooth and dry, it also had the complex taste similar to the smell. A mix of chocolate, smoke, nuts, wood, something burned and some liqourice fudge at the end. It also had this spiceness which I couldn't quite put words into. It had a long aftertaste and I could feel it even as I was sitting on the subway home. The alcohol was very well hidden and I almost choked on some beer when Per told me it had an alc of 13%. A very complex, well balanced and interesting beer.
Total: 4,4/5

Street market and beer, part 3

After visiting the street market me and Per went to Monks to grab a few beers. They had a german festival and an american wheat beer on sale so we started out with a german lager and the wheat beer.

Irseer Kloster-Urtrunk (bottle) 5,6%
It poured a slightly hazy golden liquid with a small white foam that left very little lacing. It had a very weak smell of bread and a hint of bathroom. It was fairly smooth with a little bit of acidic bitterness and some sweetness, honey mostly. An average lager but a bad beer.
Total: 1,9/5

Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale (bottle) 4,2%
It poured a clear pale yellow liquid with a very small foam that left very little lacing. It had a weak smell of bread and just the slightest hint of yeast. It was smooth and very watery with just a hint of yeast. Very bad wheat beer, a big dissapointment.
Total: 1,4/5

Riegele Augustus Weizendoppelbock (tap) 8,5%
It poured a hazy brown-golden liquid with a small white foam that quickly dissapeared. It had a scent of butter scotch, banana and a hint of yeast. It tasted of foam banana, butter scotch with a hint of candy. However the butter scotch ruins it a bit, it doesn't really fit very well with the beer.
Total: 2,8/5

Street market and beer, part 2

We tried a couple of more beers before leaving Oliwer Twist that day.

Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale (bottle) 7,2%
It poured a very dark brown (close to black) liquid with small light brown foam that left little to no lacing. It had a scent of sweet chocolate and lots of it, also some soy sauce. It also had a strong taste of chocolate, smooth and very nice. But it didn't feel very complex and I would have loved some more different tastes in the beer. But overall a very nice beer.
Total: 3,6/5

Strömsholms Husaren (tap) 5%
It poured a pale yellow watered out liquid without a foam. It had a fresh scent of citrus and yeast. It had a similar taste of citrus and yeast. Very fresh and thirstquenching, a summer beer.
Total: 3/5

Cape Ann Fishermans Tea Party (tap) 9%
It poured a dark golden liquid with a small foam that left some lacing. It had an odd smokey smell, it actually smelled a bit like an old fishermans cottage. Old, woody and smokey all combined into something that was hard to distinguish. It had a smooth taste with honey, wood, tea and sugar. A very odd beer indeed. Someone said it tasted like a boat builders beer, I will just have to quote him on that.
Total: 3,1/5

Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale (bottle) 7,2%
I tried this at Bishops the other weekend and yesterday I had the opportunity to try it again. It poured a dark hazy mahogony liquid with a big foam that left allot of lacing. It had a smell of grassy hops and oak. It had a taste of grassy hops, grapefruit, citrus, hay, oak and wood. It had a high bitterness and a nice feel in my mouth. Felt very well balanced. A very nice beer!
Total: 4,2/5

I also had the opportunity to try Brooklyn Scheneider Hopfen Weissen on tap. It was milder and sweeter then the bottled version. Hard to say which one where better though.

Street market and beer, part 1

Yesterday I took the subway to central Stockholm to visit a street market at Sergels Torg. It wasn't very big but at least they had an interesting diversity of stuff for sale. I did manage to get a decent paella, a huge sausage in a baguette and some italian cockies that looked interesting. But before I went to the market I did some other stuff.

Earlier during the day I met up with Per, his brother and room mate at Oliwer Twist where we sampled some interesting beer. Unfortunately I forgot to put a memory card in my camera so I don't have any pictures of it. After finishing of an oak aged Arrogant bastard ale from Stone we decided to go watch Liverpool beat Burnley by 4-0. After the game, I and Per went to the street market and then finished off with a couple of beers at Monks. The last beer we tried was a Struise Black Albert which will get its own post later on, fantastic beer.

Ruddgate Battle Axe (tap) 4,2%
It poured a clear dark golden liquid with a very small foam that left a small but very nice lacing. It didnt have much of a smell, nothing I could distinguish anyway. It was smooth, very mild and easy to drink, a thirstquencher that left a slightly dry sensation. It had some taste of bread and toast with a low bitterness.
Total: 2,7/5

Anderson Valley Hop Ottin IPA (tap) 7%
It poured a hazy dark golden liwuid with a small white foam. It had a strong scent of grassy hops, grapefruit and citrus. It also had a taste with allot of grassy hops, citrus and grapefruit, yet the bitterness wasn't as insane as I expected. Great thirst quencher, very enjoyable beer.
Total: 3,9/5

Victory HopDevil (bottle) 6,7%

It poured a clear dark golen liquid with a small foam that lasted a long time. It had a strong scent of grassy hops, grapefruit and also some sweetness. The taste was similar with grassy hops, grapefruit and citrus. Very smooth and nice, better then Hop Ottin.
Total: 4/5

Black Face

When I got home to Frövi last saturday I found out that Chrille and my father had brewed a new beer. Apparently Chrille had been to Scottland and had gotten inspired. When he got back they brewed a Scottish ale. The name of the beer has been taken from the sheep that is very common in the part of Scottland where Chrille was.

Black Sheep (Tap) 6,3%
It poured a dark hazy brown liquid with a medium sized creamy foam that left some lazing. It looked pretty appealing actually.

When I smelled it the first thing I noticed was a distinct metallic smell. After a while I also smelled some malt and sweetness. But the metallic taste took over.

The metal was dominant when I tasted it as well. But it also had some malt and was smooth yet a bit dry.

If it wouldn't have been for the metall this would have been a nice beer. Not sure where the metall comes from though, would be interesting to see how the other barells taste.
Total: 2,6/5

The truth shall set me free

There are allot of hazards with brewing beer. Allot of them are unknown to the public. The governement are trying to keep a lid on it and the breweries keep their brewmasters locked up in caves in-between brews. According to authorities the public can't handle the knowledge of these horrible inflictions and spreading it would cause mass panic and all sorts of chaos. But I think differently. We need to spread the news so that we can learn from it, understand it and hopefully one day cure it.

On the below picture you can see one sideeffect from the hideous decease called fantasy-beard-comlex:

Doctors of the world please help me!

Death By Hops 2 - Return of the Hops

On saturday it was time to brew the sequel to Death By Hops, a wonderfull double IPA that I reviewed here and gave the high score of 4,2/5. Chrille made the recipe for this new version and please correct me if I got this wrong. This new version has a different kind of malt, wiener malt (don't remember the original), it also had some darker caramell malt and some wheat malt just as the original. He also made some changes to the hops, he added Simcoe instead of Target and I think there where some additional changes. I think I should have taken notes instead of relying on my poor memory.

Anyway, me, Per, Chrille, Åke and Peter the Chef met up to brew some beer and of course to drink some beer. I will get back to the drinking part in later posts.

Here are some pictures from the brewing:

Here is a comparison between the front that Chrille made and the original one. I finally got to be Han Solo! ;)

Chrille explained about the brewery and how it works.

And the crowd listened with great interest....

33 kg of malt had to be poured into what seemed to be a to small barrel of hot water.

Smiling like the bunch of morons we are.

It almost poured over but after a while it shrank down.

Chrille checked so that the temperature was correct.

An insane amount of hops, I think it was 1,3 kg in total for 110 litres of beer.

The hops was poured into the boiling vort at specific times.

After cooling the beer down it was poured into large barrels for fermentation.

This is what the hops look like after we where done.

The only boring part of brewing is the cleaning, but with a healthy amount of beer in our bodies we where happy to do even the most gruesome work.

Now we have to wait about 1 month before we can try the beer. I can't wait.....