Laughstock

First of all, the weather is fantastic at the moment. Clear blue skies and around 30 degrees C.

Yesterday me and the missus went to Laughstock (Skrattstock). It's a stand-up comedy festival on Långholmen in southern Stockholm. There where lots of people and we had a fun time. After a couple of hours we went to watch the runners at Stockholm Marathon. It sounds insane to run that long, but it would be fun to try sometime. However I have a feeling Im a bit to heavy and my joints would probably kick me in the nuts for weeks afterwards ;)

We had lunch at Lasse i Parken. A cozy little place in southern Stockholm, located in an old house in a garden. The food was nice but they have really taken the whole 'less is more' to a new level. Last time I was here it was allot better, maybe they have changed owners? However they did have some beer from Belhaven so I had their Twisted Thistle IPA.

Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA 5,3%

It poured a clear golden liquid with a big foam that left allot of lacing. The aroma was filled with metall, grass, hops and flowers. It had a medium bitterness with grassy hops. Fresh and nice and worked great in the sunny weather. Easy to drink.

Total: 3,2/5

When we got home we had our first fresh potatoes of the season. Served with some herring, sourcream, onions, eggs and chives. Really nice!

Smokediving

After having some wine I felt in the mood for some beer. After scanning the fridge I decided it was time to re-test a smoke beer.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen 5,1%

It poured a dark liquid with some brown and reddish tones and a big foam that left a nice lacing on the side of the glass. The first sniff was heavy with smoke, burned wood, smoked ham and oil. The flavor was similar but weaker, although it lasted longer then the aroma. It tasted if smoke, smoked ham, meat broth and wood. If you want a smoked beer this is something to go for, but I felt it tasted a bit like a very old hunting cabin, dank and impregnated with smoke after years of use.
Total: 3,3/5

Wine lottery

We had a wine lottery at work and I won second price, which was 5 bottles of wine. I'm not a great wine drinker but I was very happy with my winnings. Really looking forward to trying them all out. I just finished the bottle on the right which was a very pleasent red wine. Some fruity flavors with hints of red berries, cherries and black currant.

When I got home I was greated by my lovely girlfriend with this feast. A nacho meal and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. So this has been a very good day so far. TGI Friday :)

The experiment

We had been planning for months and the day finally came. I was on edge and couldn't sleep. But after 2 hours of waiting it was finally 09:00 and my father and Chrille finally moved out of their lairs.

Since this was an experimental brew I won't go into detail on how we made the beer. The plan is to make a recipe that is good enough to enter the Swedish Championship with and I have a feeling it will change allot from today and onwards. I can tell you that we made a stout and a porter, but I will keep the exact type of the beer as a suprise for later ;)

Some roasted barley had to be crushed and then cooked on the side.

My father made a fake bottom in one of the buckets. Which we later used to filter the brew.

We boiled water and then poured the malt into it.

It had to be properly stired to avoid lumps.

We covered the bucket with hot water and malt with a blanket to keep the warmth.

I poured the wort into the bucket with the fake buttom and we had another bucket underneath to capture the liquid that passed through.

We then circulated the wort through the malt to filter it and extract as much of the good stuff as possible. We filtered some newly cooked water to get the right concentration in the wort.

We used a strainer to avoid making rivers in the malt. The liquid is supposed to pass evenly through the bed of malt which acts as a filter.

Chrille measured so that we had the right amount of concentration in the wort. We used Platon to measure but OG is also common.

After reaching the right level of Platon we started boiling the brew. Which we did for 1 hour. After 15 minutes we added the super secret ingredients ;)

As I mentioned earlier the first batch which was the stout turned out very promising. But the porter didn't look as promising. Both brews started fermenting very fast though. I can't wait to try these out and evaluate for the next brewing. It's gonna be allot of fun :)

Brewing preparations

I'm in Frövi this weekend experimenting with the brew we are gonna participate with in the next Swedish Championship. Me, my father and Chrille has been discussing and planning for this day for a couple of months. But before we started brewing we had to prepare ourself for the task at hand.

We started with warming our über-mensch looking bodies with a couple of excersises.

We also had to please the beer good and pray at his altar... the magic fridge. The fridge that never runs out of beer.

Then we meditated on the difficult task at hand. Trying to figure out the questions to all the hard decisions we have to make during the day.

The beer God seems pleased. The first batch is finished and looks very promising. We are now cooking the second batch and it smells great.

Beers in the sun

During saturday me and Karin started with a trip to Barkarby. She went to IKEA and I went on my jacket search in the outlet stores at Barkarby. Afterwards I visited a couple of supermarkets looking for ingredients for our beer we are gonna make next weekend.

We are planning to enter the next SC in Home Made Beer and the planning has been going on for a while. The type of beer has been made before but none of us has actually tried it. So we are gonna start with a couple of smaller experimental batches and see how it goes. You probably wonder what we are making and I would tell you, but I'm not sure where we are gonna land yet. Also, I wanna make it a suprise for later ;)

Despite running through stores we also had great weather yesterday so we spent half the day in the sun drinking beer and relaxing. I started with this beer:

Arboga Vårlager 5%

I got a bit suprised when I poured this beer. I suspected the usual clear golden or yellow coloured liquid. But it poured a hazy golden liquid with a big ice cream looking foam. It smelled of burned toast, bread and malt. It had a fresh taste of malt and bread with a low bitterness. I thought this beer was gonna be crap but it was suprisingly decent. An easy to drink lager that worked very well in the sunny weather.

Total: 2,4/5

Arboga Majbock 7%

After trying their Vårlager (Spring Lager) I was eager to try their Majbock since I supposed it would probably be better. But sadly I was misstaken. As you can see from the picture it had the same boring look which I expected from the Vårlager. It also didn't have much aroma and it tasted smooth and sweet taste with a distinct warm alcoholic finish. Not really my kind of beer.

Total 1,8/5

Shipyard Summer Ale 4,8%

It poured a clear golden liquid with a small foam that left no lacing. Smelled of honey and a hint of hops. Tasted of malt, bread and a hint of hops and citrus. It also had an acidic stingy bitterness that wasn’t to pleasent.

Total: 2,2/5

After these beers I felt I deserved something I knew I would like so I popped open a bottle of Orval. Damn that is a good beer. The difference to the three above is huge, it's like comparing getting punched by a 5-year old or a heavy weight boxer. Luckily I bought a couple of bottles last time I visited Systembolaget. So Im gonna get my head smashed in several times :)

Friday night Bock

I've had a fairly calm weekend, specially compared to last weekend. However I did manage to sort out some stuff at home and finally bought myself a spring/autumn jacket. I guess it's not a big suprise that I also tried a couple of beers.

When I got home from work on friday my throat was as dry as a summer desert. I was greeted with a plate of home made hamburgers. Which jumpstarted my mouth and I thought these burgers deserves to be accompanied by some nice beer.

Einbecker Ur-Bock 6,5%

It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium foam that left no lacing. The brew had a weak smell with hints of bread and malt. It tasted of bread, malt and a hint of caramell. Nice medium bitterness with a sweet and slitghtly burned finish. Easy to drink and quit pleasent, but lacks some taste to get a better score.

2,6/5

North Coast Brother Theloious 9%

I've had this one a couple of times but never rated it before.

It poured a dark reddish liquid with a medium foam that quickly dissapeared. Smelled of bread and raisin. It tasted of ripe fruit, raisin, bread, red berries, yeast and a hint of red wine.

Total 3,3/5

Schneider-Brooklyn Hopfen Weisse

Hopfen Weisse 8,2%
This beer is a result of friendship between the two brewmasters Gareth Oliver at Brooklyn Brewery and Hans-Peter Drexler at Schneider. I think it's best to describe it as a mix between a German wheat beer and an American pale ale. It combines the thick fruity quality of the wheat beer with the distinct grassy hops of the APA. Both brewers brewed the same kind of beer at their respective breweries, this is the Schneider version.

It poured a hazy copper liquid with a medium foam. The aroma has tones of grassy hops. First taste is kinda weird, with different flavours stretching all over the place. My first thought was: "What the hell have they done to the beer!!" It both has some sweetness and a distinct bitterness. The finish has some warm alcohol and something chemical to it.

Im not entirely sure what to think of this beer. It feels very unbalanced with different tastes tugging in different directions. On the other hand it is a very interesting beer that got me thinking. I really like these kinds of experiments and hope I get to try some more beers. I also believe I need to try this again to give it a fair shoot. For now I guess the grade is a compromise ;)

Total: 3,4/5

Beers on the train

When we took the train to Enköping last saturday I brought two bottles of beer with me and Per brought some sandwhiches. The sandwhich was really nice with some nice high quality blue cheese and beer sausage.

The sandwhich.

Estrella Damm Inedit 4,8%

It poured a hazy golden liquid with a big foam that left allot of lacing. The smell was fresh with a hint of citrus. It tasted sweet and malty. Very fresh and easy to drink but a bit to bland to get a better score. I can definitely see myself drinking this on a spanish beach though.

Total: 2,9/5

Biere Nouvelle 8%

It poured a clear golden liquid with a nice big bubbly foam, which left big chunks of foam on the side of the glass. The smell was very weak. The taste was maly with a dry bitterness and a warm alcoholic finnish. At the end it had a hint of sour apples which tickled the top of my mouth.

Total: 3,2/5

Enköpings Open Championship, part 2

When we got to the festival I was suprised that it was so big, I expected about 50-100 visitors but my guess is it was closer to 300, but Im probably way of on that one. 41 beers had entered the competition and they where divided into three classes just as at the Swedish Championship: Bottom fermented (class 1), top fermented (class 2) and special beer (class 3).

Lots of people.....

...in all directions.

Finally enjoying the first beer at the festival. We started on class 1 and worked our way up.

They guys that brewed Karlssons Klister had put some time into marketing their beer. Everybody that tried their beer got a sticker on their glass. I suggested some bikini girls for next years competition.

This time I managed to try all of the classes and vote in good time. It might be because they had different deadlines for each class. The first class had a deadline at 15:30, then class 2 at 16:00 and class 3 at 16:30. This is definitely a system that is worth testing at the next SC.

Alfie and his nicer "twin".

The guy in the blue shirt had his son with him who had entered the competition with his first ever brew. I hope to see him again at the next SC.

They had a barbeque going outside and you could get some hot dogs and beer sausage. Which was really nice and I hope to see in some more festivals. Looks like the hot dogs where really popular as they ran out of them at the end.

The quality of the beers where good and very even. I graded them all around 2,6-3,4 which I think is a very good result. However I didn't find any favorites this time.

After a couple of beers some people where getting a bit to "friendly".

After 4 hours of drinking beer it was time to take the train home. Felt nice to get home to some barbeque.

This was a really nice festival with lots of friendly people. It's so much fun to talk to both the brewers and the visitors. I hope to see all of them next year.

Enköpings Open Championship part 1

Yesterday me, Per, Nicklas, Åke (my father) and Alfie the pop-up-man went to Enköping to attend the Open Championship. Me, Nicklas and Per took the train from Stockholm and Alfie and Åke took the train from Arboga. During the train ride we tried two different beers which I will grade later on.

Nicklas and Per on the train from Stockholm to Enköping.

Since we arrived about an hour before the festival started we decided to hunt for some beer. I hoped we could visit the Corner Inn but it was closed. So instead we ended up at Masouds and had a Mariestads. To bad we didn't know they have an O'Learys in Enköping now.

Apparently Massouds also lets anybody into their restaurant. Took the old guys some time to find us, but they where rewarded with some beer when they did.

"Stayin' alive, stayin' alive ha ha ha ha stayin' aaaaalaaaaaaive". Yepp, looking good on our way to the festival.

The walk to the festival was a nice one with the sun warming us as we walked in the otherwise windy and cool weather.

I will publish a report on the festival and some more pictures shortly.

Enköpings Open on saturday

On saturday it's time for Enköpings Open Championship, a homebrewing festival. It's gonna be my first visit to the festival and it looks like I will be joined by the same guys as the Swedish Championship, my father, Pop-up man and Nicklas.

For thoose of you who don't live in Sweden, Enköping is a town located about 50-60 kilometres north west of Stockholm. I think it has a population around 40 000.

Enköping actually has a place in my background. I lived there, with Karin, for 2 years after finishing my military service. It was our first appartment and the reason we ended up there was that I studied in Uppsala but couldn't find an appartment in town. We even lived 2 weeks in a caravan in Uppsala before we got the appartment in Enköping.

I'll post a report and some pictures when I get back.

Butterflies and lager, part 2

We tried some more beers during saturday.

Engel Gold 5,4%

This was the last bottle I had out of 12 I got from my father a while back. All of them had been better then I expected.

The taste was sweet and alcoholic with some weird tone which didn't feel right. Had it gone bad? However once I tried it, it wasn't to bad. It had a lean taste of bread and malt with an alcoholic finish. The weird smell draws down the point a bit but I have feeling this would have tested better a couple of months ago.

Total: 1,7/5

Grebbestads Lager 5%

It had a strong (compared to other lagers during the test) smell of malt and hops. It had a smooth taste with a low-medium bitterness. Noticable hops and malt taste with some bread in the background. Very nice lager, best of the day.

Total: 2,4/5

Spaten Oktoberfestbier 5,9%

It poured a yellow liquid with small bits floating around in it. Had a small foam that dissapeared fast and left no lacing. The smell was sweet with hints of honey. The taste was malty and sweet with an odd aftertaste. Had this gone bad?

Total: 1,7/5

Paulaner Oktoberfestbier 6%

As with Spaten this also had small bits floating around in it. It had a weak smell with a hint towards something sweet. It tasted watery and bland with an odd aftertaste. Had this gone bad? It sure didn't taste right.

Total: 1,6/5

My personal lesson of the day: Don't let lagers hang around to long. In the future I will drink them as soon as I get home from Systembolaget.

Butterflies and lager, part 1

Eva (Karins mother) and Bertil has been visiting us over the weekend. We went to the Butterfly House (Fjärilshuset) in Haga park (Hagaparken), it's a green house that hosts a rainforest like area. Which contained both exotic plants, fish, birds and butterflies.

It was hot, moist and yeah well they had a plant or two.

The branches where filled with these coocons. We might have been there before the season starts since there where only a few butterflies flying around.

I did manage to find one though. Yeah I might have looked like a moron running after butterflies... and no I wasn't drunk. ;)

Me at Hagaparken. You can't really see it on this picture but the field behind me was huge and packed with people.

After walking around in the park for a while we went home to have some beer and bbq. I decided this was a good time to try all thoose lagers I've had sitting around for a while.

Saku Kuld 5,2%
The smell was slightly sweet and had hints of malt and bread. The taste was fizzy with some malt and a low bitterness. It lacks allot of the bad tastes I relate to lager, but it's a bit weak in taste and smell to reach a higher score. Pretty decent lager though.

Total: 1,9/5

Zlaty Bazant 5%

It had a weak smell with a slightest hint of malt and bread. It tasted bland and watery, had some fizzyness and a hint of metall. A pretty boring lager.

Total: 1,6/5

Gambrinus 5%

Had a malty smell. The taste was lean with not to much fizzyness. However the taste was a bit weak. Better taste then Zlaty though.

Total: 1,8/5

More beers in part 2.....