“Oh dear Tom” I imagine some of you have said, “looks like you’re going to struggle to reach your target with Christmas so fast approaching”. “Bam!” I say in return, before going on to qualify that outburst by explaining that I’ve managed to pack in no less than twenty beers while on my holidays, with a further five beers still to be written up from the week before! “Well then”, you say in reply, somewhat snootily, “you’ve been doing a shit job of writing them up.” On this point, I am forced to concede. Anyway, enough imagined conversations with imagined readers.
Sweden, or more specifically Göteborg, is a beautiful place, with many pretty and impressive buildings, including a lovely opera house right next to a massive tall ship that doubles as a conference centre. I could go on to describe the wonderful parks and interesting cultural quirks, but this is a beer blog, not a travel site, and there are far better places you can go for that sort of stuff (such as the excellent abitofculture.net)
The Swedes like their beers, and there’s a wide selection of weird and wonderful beverages on offer, as well as a fair choice of crap and boring ones. Many are on sale at surprisingly reasonable prices (this is Scandinavia remember) from the government owned Systembolaget shops. These are the only places permitted to sell booze for home consumption stronger than 3.5%, and have all sorts of rules about how alcohol is displayed and advertised. It really is a mad system, and they use something similar in Canada, some US states, Norway and Iceland.
Beer is of course also available in restaurants and bars for much higher, more Scandinavian prices.
Indeed my first beer, Åbro lager, was enjoyed in a lovely little veggie restaurant in the Haga district. A crisp and zingy beverage, fruity in flavour, this is a nice refreshing tipple. Their advertising line is great: “It has never been agreed that this is the perfect beer, Nor has it ever been disagreed.” Indeed.
Not Swedish, but supposedly a Swedish exclusive, is Brooklyn’s Founders Choice, which can only be found in the popular O’Leary’s sports bars. Like a fruitier version of their tasty lager, this has a real thick fizz and a crisp hoppy aftertaste.
Another type of bar which was weirdly prevalent are British style pubs – they haven’t got them quite right and to be honest I had difficulty explaining to a Swedish companion the difference from an Irish bar. In a rather over the top establishment called the Queen’s Head, I sampled Bee 17, a honey flavoured amber beer with a fairly hoppy but otherwise quite bland taste. Created by Backyard Brewing (not the one in Walsall), this was well suited for the surroundings I suppose!
Like everywhere in Europe, there are of course lots of pale ales on offer, and Oppigårds single hop ale is a decent enough drink, clean and dry, plenty of hoppy bitterness but a fairly short, dry finish. Unremarkable.
Better is the Calypso Pale, created by the fantastically named Beerbliotek brewery, which is based in Göteborg under its famous harbour bridge. Mild and a little flavourless to start, there’s a nicer, fruitier middle with plenty of dry hops in the end which while potent are actually quite moreish.
The Swedes also do a decent line in darker beers, and Brutal Brewing, who have featured on this blog before, are rather good at it. Hale to Winter is actually described as an English Strong ale, but is probably a bit browner than that, with a rich dark frutiness, burnt sugar sweetness and perhaps a cocoa tang. Finishes nicely with a mild hop taste.
Stark Porter is brewed by Carnegie from Falkenberg, a brewery founded by a Scot (Scots have many links to the Göteborg area). Inky, thick and darkly sweet, this is a full bodied beer, smooth with a smoky finish. Decent stuff.
Pripps is, I’m told, a bit of a Swedish classic, and certainly looks very attractive in its pretty bottle, but in reality is a fairly bog standard golden lager, dry and clean cut. Nothing to shout home about.
In fact I sampled the full gamut of Swedish cheap(ish) lagers, including the bitter and slightly tinny Fagerhult, which has a long lasting and not entirely pleasant aftertaste. Norrlands Guld is a much nicer drop, lemony and bitter, reminiscent of old school lemonade. Spendrups is a strong but surprisingly bland and unexciting offer while Elk Brew, at 7.5%, is a boozy affair, with some sickly sweetness but mostly a citrus rind bitterness. Perfect for getting you drunk very quickly.
Elk Brew, Fagerhult:
Pripps, Spendrups, Oppigårds, Bee 17:
Norrlands, Stark, Calypso, Founders, Abro: 
Hale: 
365daysofales 
I didn’t ealise sweden had such a brewing culture. I’d only had stuff from IKEA before and the fruit ciders.
I think it might be something that has grown recently