.

Hello,

You won’t have heard about me. I’m just a guy that’s really interested in craft beer but I thought I’d drop you a letter anyway to tell you a little bit about it.

I’ve decided to take the initiative because to be honest I’ve got a bit bored of waiting around for you to reach out to me. I suppose you’re all rather busy flitting around the Napa Valley taking film footage of grape vines or researching feature articles about the chateaux of the Medoc region.

The reason I’m writing is because over the past few years something quite amazing has happened here in Sweden to our beers and I really think you, and more importantly, your audience, should get to know about it.

Now before I go on I will concede that the reputation of Swedish beers in the past hasn’t been that great. Most of them were (and some still are) fizzy, pale, chemical and altogether rather nasty, so I understand the idea of giving them airtime or column inches has been about as appealing as a pint of warm Falcon Export.

But that was way back in the 90s. Since then a new generation of Swedish microbreweries has grown up, inspired by thousands of years of brewing culture and energized by the radical new-thinking of brewers from the US.

These breweries, with a mixture of creativity, vision and sheer stubbornness have started brewing beers that consign the tired old concept of a stor stark to the last millennium; beers that break a few rules and that challenge our understanding of what beer should be and more importantly what it can become.

In Sweden right now, this very second, these brewers are busy creating beers that this country can once again be proud of.

But of course you probably haven’t heard about this revolution have you? I’ve been scanning the pages, tuning in and flipping channels for years now hoping to hear and see some serious, consistent coverage in amongst the thousands of “10 best wines to have at Easter/Crayfish parties/Christmas/bar mitzvah” articles published by you lot every year.

But other than a few lack-lustre write-ups from a wine journalist on a bad news day there’s been practically nothing.  It’s as though you’ve all let one of the single most significant developments in Sweden’s food and drink culture in modern times simply pass you by.

The good news is that it’s not too late. You may have missed the start but the party’s only just begun. Craft beer from Sweden and around the world is rapidly winning back ‘share of throat’ among drinkers who realise great beer is every bit as complex and interesting as wine and just as worthy of a place at the dinner table.

These same drinkers are increasingly curious to know about the people and the stories behind their beers and the quality and origin of the ingredients used to make them.

And that’s where you come in. If you could devote a little more time and coverage to the craft beer movement here in Sweden you’d help fan the flames of its development, motivate the craft brewing industry and broadcast an appreciation of what great beer is to a wider audience.

Remember you have a responsiblity to beer drinkers as well as wine drinkers to report what’s going on out there today. I’d say we fans of craft beer  have waited long enough. It’s your round now.

Best regards

.

.

.

.

Darren Packman

A beer lover.