Zlatopramen Half n' half

Zlatopramen Half n' half (Bottle) 4,8%
This is a beer I picked up at Systembolaget a couple of days ago. I can't remember seeing it before, but considering how common it is at Systembolaget I'm not sure how I could have missed it.

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body
□■□□□□□□----□□□□□□■□-----■□□□□□□□--□□□■□□□□----□□□□□■□□

Apperance: 4/5
Hazy amber liquid with a big dirty white foam that left a nice lacing with lots of foam.

Smell: 5/10
Malt, caramel and something sweet.

Taste: 5/10
Malt, caramel, lots of sweetness and sugar.

Mouthfeel: 5/5
Very smooth and pleasant mouthfeel. Creamy thick body that went down easily

Comment:
Actually a surprisingly nice beer. It's not very complex but a malty and sweet beer, with a pleasant mouthfeel. I think this beer would work very well with some heavy salty food, like a Weiner schnitzel or some meaty sausages. It didn't work very good with spicy food. It's biggest problem is the very high sweetness, at first it didn't bother me but after a while it got too heavy.

Total: 2,9/5

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

Back to Svejk

We finished off our beers at Bishops Arms and it was soon 17:00 so we walked over to Soldaten Svejk to have a meal. We got their just as they where about to open and a fairly long line had already formed. But we where lucky enough to get the last table. This was my second visit in just a few weeks and I'm starting to see why it's such a popular place. The service is great, food arrive shortly after you order it and as when you got about 3 mouthfulls of beer left in your glass the waiter shows up and asks if you want another one. The food is nothing special, standard greasy pub food, but the servings are big and for a fairly cheap price. I did however realise I'm not a big fan of sauerkraut. The beer selection is far from exciting but it does the trick. Here are the ones we tried:
Bernard Světlý ležák 12° (tap) 4,7%
This one is labeled as Bernard Ljus (light) at Soldaten Svejk.

It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium sized creamy white foam. Weak smell of malt and bread. Taste of sweet malt, metall, hint of hops and a low bitterness. Fairly smooth mouthfeel. Nice lager but the metall taste and lack of hops lowers the points a bit.
Total: 2,6/5
Bernard Speciální černé pivo 13° (tap) 5,1%
This one is labeled as Bernard Mörk (dark) at Soldaten Svejk.

It poured an almost pitch black liquid with a medium sized light brown foam. Sweet smell of caramell and malt. Smooth mouthfeel. Taste of caramell, something burned and malt. Pretty nice and best beer I've had at Svejk, but the caremell took over a bit.
Total: 2,8/5

Primátor Polotmavý ležák 13° (tap) 5,5%
It is labeled as Primator halvmörk (semi-dark) at Soldaten Svejk.

It poured a clear dark golden liquid with a medium sized light brown foam that left a nice lacing. Weak smell of caramell and amalt. Smooth mouthfeel. Taste of malt, burned toast and lots of caramell. I didn't enjoy this beer very much, way to much caramell and it had another taste that didn't fit me.
Total: 2/5

Bottling Death By Hops 2, part 2

We tried some of the new beers that where released at Systembolaget at the beginning of October. They are now part of the ordinary supply.

Comenius (bottle) 6%

It poured a clear golden liquid with a big white foam that quickly dissapeared and left no lacing. It had a weak smell of malt and honey. It tasted of honey, malt, a hint of puke and also a very odd taste. Very watery and a light body. Stingy mouthfeel. No this definitely wasn’t a beer for me. I ended up pouring it down the sink and that is quite unnusual for me.

Total: 1.1/5

Wisby Klosteröl (bottle) 5%

This is an old beer in a new design and size (down from 50 cl). It poured a hazy brown-orange-golden liquid with a big white foam that left allot of lacing. It had a weak smell of yeast, malt and some fruit. It had allot of carbonation and was a bit watery. Not my kind of beer, there are better choices out there.

Total: 2,4/5

I also tried a bottle of Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA which I have already rated and then gave a 3,2/5. The only difference was that it was in a smaller bottle (33 cl down from 50 cl).

Museums and beer, part 2

So we finally reached Medborgarplatsen and we where both pretty hungry, wet and tired at this point. The rain had been pooring down on us all day and the bursts of wind made it feel like it was coming in sideways. When we reached the pub there was already a line forming outside, but thankfully it was opening in 3 minutes. I've heard allot of good things about this place so I was pretty excited to finally set foot in this place. It also felt nice to finally get some warmth and remove the cold and damp jacket.

The place was really cosy with old sturdy wooden tables and chairs. The service was fast and attentive, as soon as I was cloose to running out of beer I got asked if I wanted another one. The food was fairly cheap compared to similar pubs with prices ranging from 100-125. There where also some smaller dishes that you could order with your beer. I was so damn hungry that I decided to start with such a small dish. Turns out they aren't that small, I choose the bread and beer-cheese, which was a big pile of toasted bread served with some soft cheese mixed with chopped up goat cheese (I think) and olives. Very nice but I almost got full on just that dish. After a short while the waiter showed up with our scnitzel. I got one filled with ham and cheese served with fried potatoes and Karin had a plain one served with potato sallad. The one with ham and cheese was really nice and juicy, but the plain one was a bit dry and boring. The potato sallad didn't taste much at all.

Now to the beer, I heard that they had an unpasterourised (spelling?) Pilsner Urquell so I started out with that:
Pilsner Urquell (tap) 4,4%
It poured a clear golden liquid with a big white foam that left big chunks on the side of the glass. It had a very weak smell of sweet malt and some grass. It had a fresh and crisp taste of sweet malt and bread. Watery with a light body. Smooth and nice mouthfeel. It was fresh and had no bad tastes but I would have loved just a hint of hops, now I couldn't feel any at all. All in all a slightly above average lager. It worked well with the food though.
Total: 2,6/5

As I was getting close to the bottom of the glass the waiter came up and asked if I wanted another one. I quickly glanced at the short beer list and ordered the only one I hadn't tried before:
Skalak (tap) 5%
It poured a clear golden liquid with a big creamy white foam, that left big chunks on the side of the glass. It had a weak smell of malt and bread. It had a fresh taste of malt, bread and some sweetness. A bit stingy mouthfeel. No bad tastes but it lacked hops altogether. A bit boring. An average lager.
Total: 2,1/5

All in all my visit at Soldaten Svejk was a good one. The food was good and very affordable, service was great. It's not a place I personally would go back to just for the beer, unless they get some of the better micro beers from the Czech Rep. But I will surely come back for the atmosphere and food.

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.....