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.

ÖBWF 2009, part 3

Me and Per where pretty excited to finally be inside and sampling beer. Chrille took this picture of us as we had our first beer. Here are some reviews of the beer we had at Närke:

Närke The New InternationAle (Tap) 5,4%
No what did you do? I absolutely loved the original InternationAle but this one was not even close. It had both a smell and taste of caramell and something burned. But it also had a funky smell that I didnt appreciate. It also didn't have that nice bitterness that I enjoyed so much in the original.

Hmm maybe I'm being a bit to harsh now since I loved the first one. But until I try it again this will be the total score:
Total: 2,3/5
Närke Anders Göranssons Bästa Rököl (Tap) 6,1%
I'm not a huge fan of smoked beers but this one was very drinkable. It had allot of smoke flavour but it didn't feel like it had been filtered through an old hunting cabin. Felt more like it had been poured along the side of some smoked ham. Nice smokebeer, can imagine smoke-lovers would like it even more.
Total: 3,3/5
Närke Slättöl (Tap) 4,4%
A very drinkable beer that was fresh with tastes of fruity hops and malt. Can imagine drinking more of this on a hot summers day.
Total: 3,4/5

We also had some samples of Kaggen 2007 and 2008 before we decided it was time to try some of the new version: Pure Swedish Oak. They had a keg standing at Thorslundskaggen, a company that makes wodden barrels. This version of Kaggen has been stored in barrels made from swedish oak from the island Visingsö in lake Vättern.

Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter Pure Swedish Oak 2008 (tap) 9,5%
It looked the same as any other version of Kaggen. The only difference was in the smell and taste. This version was milder then the others and not as complex. Still a very nice beer with a great smooth mouthfeel. Taste and smell of chocolate, coffee and wood.
Total: 4,2/5

List of beer blogs updated

I have now updated my list of beer blogs. I currently have 31 on the list and it feels like the number of blogs has exploded this year. I really like it, more fun stuff to read about.

However I wonder if I'm missing some blogs in my list. I've been trying to find and list them all but there is always a couple that fall through the net. If you know of a blog or have one yourself and it's missing please comment on this post or send me an email and I will update the list.

I'm also curious how you make that list that updates when a blog publish something. Anybody know how to get it?

ÖBWF 2009, part 2

The festival didn't open until 13:00 which meant we could sleep a bit longer then usual before jumping on the train to Örebro. The train ride is very comfortable in fairly new trains and it only takes about 12 minutes to get there from Frövi. Unfortunately the trains don't run that often so we arrived in Örebro about an hour before the festival opened. But it was a sunny day and we took our time walking through Örebro. Eventually ending up at the pub Lilla Örebro where we had a glass of Närke Örebro Bitter. Here are some pictures from a sunny Örebro:

We came to the festival a few minutes after 13:00 and the first booth we went to was Närke Kulturbryggeri. We chatted a bit with Chrille and tried some of their beer. I had to try their Pannknektarnas Porter and I took this picture of the two brewers, or Pannknektar if you will. Can you see the resemblance from the sticker?

I thought the porter was better as a real ale but it was still pretty good. I gave the real ale version 3,4 and this one would get a 3,3. Apparently the beer got very popular and people came up and asked about the coffee porter. Good job Chrille and Pyrre! Chrille also tipped me off that they had a hop filter connected to their cAmarillo. It looked really interesting and the beer was full of fresh hoppy flavour. Here are some pictures of it...


... and a close-up of the actual filter. I really want to see more stuff like this. Please make a DIPA and connect one of these bad boys to it. :)

Närke cAmarillo (Tap) 5%
The smell was filled with very fresh hops. It had an extremly smooth mouthfeel. Tasted of fruity hops, but despite all the hops it had a fairly low bitterness.
Total: 3,5/5

Tomorrow I will post some short reviews of the beers we tried at Närkes booth.

ÖBWF 2009, part 1

On friday I went to Frövi with the goal to visit ÖBWF and as usual these days I brought my beer loving sidekick Per with me. He really seems to love Frövi and my parents keep joking about when he will be moving there. Seeing what we where greeted by in the kitchen I think you understand why he keeps coming back:

The big keg has Blues Bitter and the small one is Death By Hops 2. Just look how happy he is:

My father, and Kalle 'the tractor guy' was away on a dinner with work so they didn't show up until 22:30. Me and Per spent that time trying out some of the christmas beer together with mom. I'll post some reviews later on. When my father and Kalle showed up we tried some of the news from this month. Started out with La Trappe Isid'or and then tried the two Bush beers. All three where really nice and specially Bush Prestige which I tried for the second time. I'll put some reviews up later.

After sampling these beers we filled up on some Blues Bitter and DBH2 and jumped in the jacuzzi. Since I had managed to fill my glass up with a mix of the two beers I felt it was time to call it a night fairly soon. I also felt that I needed to be fresh and ready for the festival the next day.

Trappist summary

I have now tried beers from all of the trappist breweries. I'm still missing a few beers but so far this is a summary of my scores:

Achel 8 Blonde - 3,9/5
Achel 8 Bruine - 4,2/5

Chimay White - 4,1/5
Chimay Red - 3,4/5
Chimay Blue 2008 - 3,9/5
Chimay Blue 2009 - 4,4/5 (Best in test)

La Trappe Blond - 3,5/5
La Trappe Bockbier - 3,4/5
La Trappe Dubbel - 4/5
La Trappe Trippel - 3,5/5
La Trappe Quadrupel - 3,7/5
La Trappe Witte Trappist - 3,6/5

Orval - 4,2/5 (Personal favorite, keeps getting re-rated as I try more of it)

Rochefort 6 - 4,1/5
Rochefort 8 - 4,2/5
Rochefort 10 - 4,4/5 (Best in test)

Westmalle Dubbel - 4,1/5
Westmalle Trippel - 3,7/5

Westvleteren 6/Blond - 3,5/5
Westvleteren Extra 8 - 4,3/5
Westvleteren 12 - 4,2/5

Rochefort 10 and Chimay Blue 1999 are the best beers in this test and now that I think back that feels just right. Both of them gave me one of thoose 'WOW!" feelings.

Now lets see which has been my favorite trappist brewery. A bit unfair since I have tried allot more of some breweries. But here is the average score for each brewery:

Rochefort 4,23/5
Orval 4,2/5
Achel 4,05/5
Westvleteren 4/5
Chimay 3,95/5
Westmalle 3,9/5
La Trappe 3,62/5

Looks almost like I would put it. But I think I would switch place with Westvleteren and Achel. Rochefort and Orval are two beers that I tend to buy at Systembolaget when I got nothing else to buy (news for instance). They are my go-to beers when all else fails. La Trappe gets a slightly unfair low average score due to having more beers represented.

I decided to not include the Urthel beers even though they are brewed at the same brewery as the La Trappe beers. However I wasn't very impressed by thoose beers anyway. I also have a bottle of La Trappe Isid'or in storage but I will have to wait with reviewing that beer for now.

Chimay, part 2

Chimay Blue 2008 (Bottle) 9%
It poured a very dark red hazy liquid with a medium sized light brown foam.

It had a smell of yeast, ripe fruit, apples, oranges and nuts.

The mouthfeel was smooth with a thick body and a medium amount of carbonation. It had a taste of caramell, ripe fruit, plums, yeast and something sweet. Complex and nice beer.
Total: 3,9/5Chimay Blue 1999 (Bottle) 9%
It looked almost exactly the same as the 2008 version the biggest differenc was the foam. 1999 had a nicer looking foam with some craters and big bubbles.

It had a stronger smell compared to the 2008, fruity with red berries.

The mouthfeel was smoother with just the slightest sting from the low carbonation. It had a medium body and a low bitterness. It tasted sweet and fruity with red berries, ripe fruit, wood, nuts, vanilla and other spices. A very nice beer, complex and great smell and taste. Best of the four bottles I tried.
Total: 4,4/5

The 1999 version was allot better then the 2008 one, I wonder if it is just through maturing in the bottle or if there is something else. If it has been stored in any special way or anything done to the recipe. If it's just about storing I'm going to buy a couple of bottles and store for 10 years. Anybody got any more info on this?

Chimay, part 1

Chimay is the last of the trappist breweries for me to rate. I will post a summary in a few days. I managed to get 4 bottles of their beer, the white, red and blue bottles including one from 1999.

The monks at Abbaye de Scourmount has been brewing beer and making cheeses since 1862. I've tried one of their cheeses and it was amazing. Apparently they wash it in Chimay beer. It smells a bit like sweaty feet but the taste was extraordinary. To bad I couldn't get any before this tasting, but if I'm lucky there will be some at next years Belgofest in Uppsala.

Chimay Triple/White (Bottle) 8%
It poured hazy orange liquid with a huge icecream looking foam that rose like a mountain above the rim of the glass. As it receded it left little craters and lots of lacing along the side of the glass. This is a great look for a beer, very appealing.

It had a fairly strong smell of yeast, oranges, other citrus fruits, malt and a hint of hops. There where some more smells which I couldn't quite place.

The mouthfeel was smooth, despite a medium amount of carbonation. It had a medium body and medium bitterness. It tasted similar to what it smelled, yeast, oranges, citrus and a hint of hops. Not very sweet, a bit dry and felt complex. There where more tastes that I couldn't put my finger on. I really enjoyed this beer. Great looks, great smell and great taste, a very nice beer.
Total: 4,1/5
Chimay Red (Rouge) (Bottle) 7%
It poured a dark hazy reddish liquid wiht a medium sized dirty white foam that dissapeared very fast. So fast it dissapeared before I had a chance to take a picture of it.

It had a sweet smell of caramell, spices and wood.

The mouthfeel was fairly smooth with a medium amount of carbonation. It had a medium body and a low bitterness. It had a sweet taste of caramell, vanilla, tea, sugar and wood. Not as complex and interesting as the white one.
Total: 3,4/5

I have one Red bottle left that I will save for a few years and try later. Unfortunately it's not part of the standard suppy at Systembolaget anymore. Tomorrow I will review the two Blue bottles.

Testing Achel

Achel is the last trappist brewery for me to taste but the second last for me to rate. During SBWF 2009 I managed to get my hands on their Bruin. But they where all out of their other beers.

Achel 8 Bruin (bottle) 8%
It poured a dark hazy brown liquid with a white foam that lasted a long while.

The smell was srong with yeast, pepper and other spices.

It had a smooth mouthfeel, and tasted of yeast, caramell and spices. It felt round and very well balanced. A very nice beer.
Total: 4,2/5

Last saturday when I visited Bishops Arms I managed to get my hands on their Blonde.
Achel 8 Blonde (bottle) 8%
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a big white foam that left allot of lacing. Also some yeast in the bottle that dissapeared when I poured it.

It had a fruity smell of oranges, apples and yeast.

The mouthfeel was stingy with a high carbonation, which hid the flavours at first. But after swirling it around a bit it got better and the beer started to blossom. The fruits where the first come out and I noticed some citrus, oranges in particular and apples. It also had a yeast taste.

Once again a nice beer but the Bruin was better, would have been fun to try them side by side though.
Total: 3,9/5

Now I have rated beers from all the trappist breweries except for Chimay. But I got four bottles waiting in storage. I just need the right opportunity to try them.

Närke release new beer at ÖBWF 2009

I got an email from Chrille at Närke Kulturbryggeri. They are releasing a new beer at Örebro Beer and Whisky festival this weekend:
Pannknektarnas Kaffeporter
It's Chrille and Pyrres first commercial brew where they both made the recipe and brewed the beer.

It's a porter at 6% ABV where they added coffee to the storage tank. The coffe was first cold brewed, which means they added ground coffee beans to cold water and let it sit in room temperature over night. They then strained it and added it to the beer in the storage tank. They used a coffee from Nicaragua named La Cumplida.

They had a sneak preview a couple of weeks ago at Bishops Arms in Örebro and I rated it here. But that time it was a real ale, and this time it will have a lighter coffe taste.

Haandbryggeriet Norwegian Wood

This beer was part of the november news release at Systembolaget:

Haandbryggeriet Norwegian Wood (Bottle) 6,5%
It poured a hazy dark golden-red liquid with a medium sized dirty white foam.

Smell of smoke, wood and nuts. Almost like your clothes smell after sitting next to an open fire.

Fairly smooth with just a bit of stingy carbonation. Thick body and not very watery, allot of taste without being to much. It had a medium to high bitterness and tasted of smoke, wood, bacon and some burned toast. Same with the smell it tasted like a campfire.

I’m not a huge fan of smoked beers but this was pretty nice. It doesn't go as far as some of the more extreme smoked beers and the amount of smokieness feels well balanced. It also lacks the sourness that I've encountered in other beers from this brewery.
Total: 3,5/5

Breznak Svetly Lezak 12

I tried another one of the new beers that where released into the standard supply at Systembolaget during october. This one is a Czech pilsner and the other Czech, Comenius, they released that month was horrible so I didnt have very high expectations.


Breznak Svetly Lezak 12 (bottle) 5,1%
It poured a clear pale yellow-golden liquid with a minimal white foam.

It had a very weak smell of sweet malt.

It was very watery and I could only sense the slightest hint of maltyness. Couldn't find any hops at all and had a very low bitterness. Fairly smooth with a light body. This felt like drinking one of thoose watery american lagers.

It wasn't as bad as Comenius but still not good and I won't drink it again. I wonder what role it's meant to fill at Systembolaget?
Total: 1,8/5

Stockholm Wine and Spirits Historical Museum

Last sunday we made a visit to the Stockholm Wine and Spirits Historical Museum. I've been wanting to go there for a long time but haven't gotten around to until now. It was actually better then I first thought. It only costs 50 SEK and an audio guide is included in the price. It's a headset connected to a small cylindric device. At one end of the devide there is a laser pointer which you use to shoot at small circular targets close to exhibitons. You then hear a recording regarding the object in question. A smooth system I've encountered in some other museums.

The different exhibitions where also well presented and it was allot of un to walk around and look at everything. It's definitely worth a visit if you haven't been there. However a warning is in order, there is nothing about beer. ;)

Here are some pictures from the museum:

Beer switch

Yesterday I meet up with Jocke from Good Morning Beer Lovers and exchanged some homemade beer. He got two bottles of Death By Hops 2 and I got one bottle of Angusa Grumpy Lion Belgian Ale and a bottle of an unnamed Swedish Pale Ale. Here is a picture of the bottles:

I got to say that sticker looks pretty damn good.

By the way I still have some Death By Hops 2 if anybody is interested in a switch. Would be fun to get more people tasting it so we can make improvements for the next time we brew it.

While waiting (waiting might be the wrong word, I went straight for the taps) for Jocke I tried one of Monks newer brews:

Monks Café Angie Brown (Tap) 5%
The beertap sticker said it was a brown ale and I was quite suprised when I got a beer that looked more like a pale ale. I was expecting something allot darker, but I might have missunderstood the type.

Anyway, it poured a hazy dark golden-orange liquid with a medium sized foam that had allot of craters in it. Looked pretty nice, like an american pale ale.

It had a fresh smell of citrus, oranges, peaches, passion fruit and hops. Very fruity and when I check the sticker I see they have Simcoe in it so that explains several of the flavours.

It had a light body which made it feel a bit watery. The mouthfeel was smooth with just a little bit of carbonation. The taste wasn't as strong as the smell but there where fruity hops.

A pretty decent beer but I'm still suprised by the looks and the smell. Was expecting something different. Something darker and maybe with tastes that drew more towards caramell and chocolate.
Total: 3,3/5