A couple of english beers, part 1

I've been trying out some of the more common beers at Systembolaget and now I've started working on the different kind of english ales that are supplied at Regeringsgatan.

Adnams The Bitter (Can) 4,5%
It poured a dark sligthly foggy golden copper liquid with a medium sized foam that left allot of lacing. IT had a scent of grassy hops (dry hopped?), flowers and fresh cut grass. It was smooth and tasted watery with a light body. But it also had a taste of flowers, caramell, fudge. Very easy to drink.
Total: 3,3/5

Boddingtons Pub Ale (can) 4,7%
It poured a clear dark golden liquid with a small creamy head. The liquid was very white and bubbly at first before it settled. It left a very thick and creamy lacing on the side of the glass. It had a weak scent of caramell, bread and a hint of grassy hops. It felt nice in my mouth, thich creamy, smooth and easy to drink. However it was also quite bland and watery with very little taste, just a hint of bread and a weird alcoholic finish.
Total: 2,6/5

Greene King - Abbot Ale (bottle) 5%
It poured a dark golden liquid with a medium sized dirty white foam that left a little bit of lacing. It had a smell and taste of malt, caramell, some grassy hops and something sweet. The mouthfeel was a bit stingy, specially at the back of my mouth. It also had an alcohlic finish, not to strong though. I'm not sure what it is but I didn't really enjoy this beer that much.
Total: 2,5/5

Time for SMÖF

Saturday the 24th of October it's finally time for Söderbärke Mikroölsfestival. It's one of my favorite festivals and what I like about it is mostly the smaller size and that it doesn't get to crowded. It's easy and fast to order and you don't have to cuddle the guy next to you to get to the bar. Another plus is the great selection of swedish micro brewed beer and at a very nice price.

So far a fairly large chunk of my family and friends are coming. As usual me and my dad are going, but also my grandfather, uncle and I hope to get my mom and brother to go as well. Also Per and Nicklas are coming with me from Stockholm and I heard that Alfie the pop-up-man and Tommy Tommy is coming.

There is a bus leaving Frövi at 10:30 on saturday and it returns from Söderbärke at 22:00. It makes stops along the way and picks people up. The trip + entrance costs 350 sek. If anybody is interested in going on this trip contact me or my father and we'll make sure that you are signed.

Edit: Just saw that Bark from Ofiltrerat posted a beer list for SMÖF. Lots of interesting beer and at excellent prices. 80 SEK for a bottle of Kaggen is an amazing price.

Flying Dogs, part 2

A couple of more Flying Dogs we tried before calling it a night.

Flying Dog Dogtoberfest Märzen (bottle) 5,2%
It poured a dark golden-caramell liquid with a small dirty white foam. It had a smell of caramell and sweet malt. It had a taste of sweet malt, caramell, tea and sugar. Fairly smooth with no bad tastes. Felt like a slightly above average lager.
Total: 2,4/5

(Forgot to take a picture of this one)

Flying Dog Double Dog Double Pale Ale (bottle) 11,5%
It poured a hazy dark golden-caramell liquid with a small white foam. It had a smell of caramell, malt, grassy hops, grapefruit and citrus. It tasted of caramell, malt, grapefruit and grassy hops. High bitterness and a thick and semi-smooth mouthfeel. Very nice!
Total: 3,9/5

Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine (bottle) 10,2%
It poured a hazy brown-amber liquid with a medium sized dirty white foam. It had a strong smell of caramell, malt, whine and an alcoholic finish. It tasted the same way with a thich and heavy taste of caramell, malt and a warm alcoholic finish. A well done barley wine that I really enjoyed.
Total: 4/5
Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Lager (bottle) 5,3%
It poured a clear dark golden-caramell liquid with a small white foam. It had a smell of sweet butter scotch, caramell, malt and rosehip (nypon). It had a medium-high carbonation, and tasted of caramell, malt and some grassy hops. Mild bitterness. Decent beer.
Total: 3/5

Flying Dogs, part 1

The other beer I brought along to my brother was Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter.

Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter (bottle) 9,5%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a small light brown foam that left a thin layer on the side of the glass.

It had a strong boozey smell of chocolate, wood, coffey and soy sauce.

It had a strong taste of chocolate, coffey, nuts and a hint of cognac. Felt very complex and interesting. It had a bitey, dry mouthfeel and a long lasting taste. Very nice and perfect with the chocolate my brother served.
Total: 4/5

Aftertrying out Urthel, WD Gonzo and then DBH2 we decided to take a walk along Riddarfjärden and then visit a restaurant. We initially intended to visit an austrian restaurant but they where fully booked when we got there so walked around the corner to Texas Long Horn. I was hoping for a couple of american beers but was still pleasently suprised to find a nice selection of Wild Dog and Sierra Nevada beers. Since I had already tried everything from Sierra Nevada I focused on the Wild Dog beers I hadn't rated yet. Unfortunately they served all their beer in frosted glasses so the beer got way to cold. We had to heat them up with our hands before they got a decent temperature.

Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat Hefe-Weizen (bottle) 4,7%
It poured a slightly hazy golden liquid with a medium sized white foam that left big chunks of lacing.

It had a smell of foam banana and yeast.

It had a taste of foam banana, yeast and something sweet. Smooth mouthfeel, but a bit to cold. Decent wheat beer but far from one of the better ones.
Total: 2,8/5

Urthel Hop-It

The first beer we tried while visiting my brother was Urthel Hop-It. I have recenlty tried a couple of their beers and reviewed them in this post. I was a bit dissapointed with their Quadrupel so I didn't have very high expectations on this beer. But a hoppy belgian ale sounded very interesting.

Urthel Hop-It (Bottle) 9,5%
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a big white foam that lasted a long time. It left a thin layer of foam on the side of the glass and the final part of the liquid contained allot of yeast.

It had a fairly strong smell of yeast and fruits, mainly apples and other similar fruits.

It had a taste of yeast and fruit, the hops that I expected wasn't very strong. I just felt a hint of hops but the bitterness was fairly high. It wasn't very smooth and it didn't have a very nice reaction in my mouth. Felt a bit like eating caviar and then brushing my teeth, however not that intense. Slightly below average belgian ale in my opinion.
Total: 2,9/5

Celebrating birthdays

Yesterday me, Karin, my parents and grand parents visited my brother and his girlfriend, Lina. The reason was that my brother recently had his birthday. While we where at it we also celebrated my grandmothers and fathers birthday since they also got one year older very recently.

I gave my brother two bags of beer, some of them where: Left Hand Milky Stout (one of his favorites and I got the last two bottles from Regeringsgatan), Rocherfort 10 (great beer), Orval (my favorite) and Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA. My brother hadn't tried the last three so I hope he likes them.

I gave my father a book about brewing, The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. I honestly don't know if it's good or not since I haven't read a book about brewing before. But I hope it will do the trick. I know that he wanted a book about how you design recipes. I also gave him a copy of Brew Your Own - 150 Classic Clone recipes, hopefully he can get some ideas from that magazine. Here's a picture of him holding a bag of assorted chocolates and coffey that my brother gave him:

My grand mother, Sonja, who recently turned 70 got a hat that me and my brother bought together. I hope she liked it, I think it looks good on her at least. Here's a picture of her and my grand father in the background. Below them is a picture of my mother trying out the hat.

My grandmother had also brought some cockies and other goodies and Lina had made some cheese cake that was absolutely amazing. I guess nobody is suprised if I tell you that I brought some beer along. I will post reviews of thoose later on. My father brought two bottles of Death By Hops 2 - Return of the Hops. He said it was better when it was straight from the tap so I won't post my review just yet. But I can tell you as much that it was pure hop juice. Lots of fruity hops with a high bitterness. This is just the way I love my DIPAs and the initial grades where very high, maybe even higher then Death By Hops 1. Can't wait to try it again. Here is a preview of how it looked:

Nynäshamn Lagrad Smörpundet Porter 2007

I've had this bottle lying around for quite some time now. I keept coming up with reasons not to drink it, "you have already had to much to drink tonight" "save if for a better occasion". Well fuckit, why wait? Last night I finally cracked this bottle and I wasn't dissapointed.

Nynäshamn used to be my favorite swedish brewery, a position now held by Närke Kulturbryggeri and after that Dugges. I have allot of good memories from standing at Nynäs booth at SBWF and always have enjoyed their beer. The below beer wasn't an exception. It was brewed with two different kinds of chocolate malt and stored for a year on big steel tanks. The bottle I had was from 2007 and according to the note hanging from the neck of the bottle it gets better over the years. To bad I didn't buy a couple more bottles to see if that was true. Anyway lets see what I thought of it.

Nynäshamns Lagrad Smörpundet Porter 2007 (bottle) 6%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a medium sized light brown foam, that left a nice thick layer of lacing on the side of the glass.

It had a deep smell of rich dark chocolate, nuts and a hint of coffey. I also sensed some milk, I wonder if they put some lactos in this brew?

It had a very smooth mouthfeel, thick liquid that left a buttery and oily feeling in my mouth. It was semi-dry and felt really good in my mouth. Once again I got this milky feeling. It tasted of chocolate, some coffey and a hint of something burned.

It didn't have a very heavy flavour or smell and if I have to give any critique it would be that I would have wanted some more flavour, or at least a bit more intense. It also felt like there was something missing, maybe a bit more coffey or a different kind of chocolate. Just something that would attack my tounge in a different way. But besides that a very enjoyable beer, not fantastic but still very well brewed.
Total: 3,8/5