This just in from the Systembolaget – the first press release (that I know of) since the ‘less-than-perfect’ roll-out of its system to make locally produced beer available nationally.

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Systembolaget fortsätter utveckla servicen för lokala drycker

Från och med nu utökar Systembolaget servicen och gör det möjligt att beställa lokala och småskaliga drycker till valfri butik utan extra kostnad.

– Vi har de senaste åren sett en ökning av intresset och efterfrågan av lokala och småskaliga alkoholdrycker. För att möta det ökade intresset är det naturligt att erbjuda kunder i hela landet möjligheten att beställa dessa drycker till sin butik, säger Systembolagets vd Magdalena Gerger.

Den utökade servicen gäller lokala och småskaliga drycker, det vill säga drycker i Systembolagets beställningssortiment som finns på hyllan i någon butik och säljs i viss begränsad volym i ett begränsat antal butiker. I dagsläget innebär det att ytterligare 162 lokala och småskaliga drycker är tillgängliga utan extra kostnad för kunder i hela landet.   

Det är nu också enklare att hitta och beställa lokala drycker i butikerna och via systembolaget.se. Följande förbättringar har Systembolaget gjort:
• Möjlighet att beställa på tillverkningsstället via funktionen Dryckeslistan som kan länkas från tillverkarens webbplats till beställningsfunktionen på systembolaget.se
• Förbättrad och förenklad sökbarhet på systembolaget.se
• Förbättrad rådgivning om lokalt producerade drycker
• Enklare att hitta lokalt producerade drycker i butiken

För frågor kontakta gärna:
Lennart Agén, presschef, Systembolaget AB, press@systembolaget.se eller 070-564 17 10.

An English translation to follow…….

Celebrated Swedish craft brewery Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri from Gothenburg has been accepted as the latest member of Sveriges Bryggerier almost a year after leaving Föreningen Sveriges Småbryggerier in protest to it’s transformation into Sveriges Oberoende Småbryggerier.

Dugges becomes Sveriges Bryggerier’s 13th member (hope that’s not significant!). The organisation, which was founded in 1885, represents some of the smallest and the absolute largest players in the Sweden beer scene. Combined its members produce 97% of all the beer brewed in Sweden each year.

”For us it is fantastic that we’ve welcomed another member”, said Sveriges Bryggerier’s Managing Director Cecilia Giertta. ”Our goal is to represent the entire branch, both small and large breweries, and with Dugges joining it is further proof we are on the right path”.

Mikael Dugge Engström, founder and head brewer at Dugges, said ”This year we have installed our new brewery equipment and also built an entirely new brewery. It’s fun to join Sveriges Bryggerier where I hope to be able to learn a lot from my fellow members. Maybe we can inspire them too!”

Yesterday was supposed to be a memorable day in the history of the Swedish craft beer industry. Instead it ended in confusion, frustration and anger at a system that is incomprehensible and a monopoly that promised much but delivered little.

After more than three months of delay due to unexplained ‘technical issues’ the Systembolaget yesterday finally rolled out its new system that would supposedly allow us to be able to buy locally produced beers from craft breweries all over Sweden.

This is what you promised us Systembolaget. It's not what we got.

It was a move that, when announced, saw the monopoly showered with praise for its forward-thinking and swiftness in reacting to the upsurge in consumer demand for Swedish craft beers.

I was among those quick to heap compliments on the Systembolaget, describing the move as having the potential to have “significant implications on the pace of growth in Sweden’s craft beer industry”.

After yesterday’s debacle I want to take all that back.

A little over 24 hours into the new ‘system’ I am still at a complete loss as to how it works. The only thing I do know with any certainty is that it doesn’t.

Here’s what we were told to expect by the monopoly in a press release issued by its Press Officer Lennart Agén at the end of last year:

“Det ska bli lättare att hitta, få råd om och beställa dessa drycker, både i Systembolagets butiker, på webbplatsen samt på tillverkningsstället. Det innebär att samtliga drycker i beställningssortimentet med en lokal tillverkning kan beställas utan extra kostnad för vare sig kunden eller tillverkaren. Den förbättrade servicen gäller även produkter som har en tydlig lokal efterfrågan, oavsett ursprung.”*

What we got served up to us yesterday was as watered down as industrial lager and left an equally unpalatable taste in my mouth.

Because it turns out not every local brewery is allowed to be a part of the new system. Several breweries found out only last week (as did we via ‘unofficial’ sources on Facebook) that their beers won’t be qualifying for national distribution because – and this would be funny if it wasn’t so silly – their beers are already too popular.

That’s right – because their beers sell too well in their local market! A much cited example is Helsingborgs Bryggeri which was among those breweries who found out a few days ago it wasn’t going to benefit from the new system as the only one of its beers that is doing badly enough (and therefore qualifies) is its liquorice stout. This is hardly surprising really when you discover the reason for the low sales figures is that the beer doesn’t actually go on sale until May!

In short this ridiculous arrangement discriminates against craft breweries for their success and discriminates against me and you as consumers for living in the wrong place.  Read the last sentence of your own statement quoted above Systembolaget. What happened?

But this, unbelievably, is not the worst of it. Confused by the conflicting comments on Facebook and blogs (turns out for instance that Eskiltstuna Ölkultur had a great day yesterday) I clicked into the Systembolaget’s own site to find out what the hell was going on.

I think I’d have had more success walking into a freemasonry lodge to ask its Worshipful Master to reveal the identity of the Supreme Being.

Now I’m really dedicated to finding out about beer, as are my fellow beer writers Johan at Portersteken, Joel at Allt om Mat and Robert from Helbergs Humle. But between the four of us we still couldn’t figure out how the system works.  Because there’s ABSOLUTLELY NO INFORMATION ABOUT IT on the monopoly’s website.

If we, who have spent hours trying to unravel this mess, can’t get to the bottom of how it works then how the hell is the average consumer going to figure it out? I’ve been left with many more questions than answers.

If the Systembolaget had been a privately-owned company operating in a free market this would have been an epic customer service blunder. As a monopoly it will naturally be largely shielded from the effects of this gaffe but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t complain bitterly for being so rudely let down.

You have done many things right in the past few years Systembolaget. Your recent attention to beer has converted me from a strict non-believer to a part-time evangelist.

But as much as I’m prepared as a customer to praise you when you do things right I’ll be quick to tell you when I think you’ve done something wrong.

This system is wrong and the way you’ve implemented it is wrong too. You need to fix this Systembolaget. We deserve better from you.**

*Sorry for the Swedish to all you non-Swedish readers. Please just Google Translate it. It won’t make much sense anyway

**If I’ve made any factual errors or assumptions in this post then I apologise. However this is what happens when you don’t have sufficient information. If the monopoly would like to publish an article explaining exactly how the new system is supposed to work I for one would be extremely happy to publish it right here on BeerSweden.

In the past you couldn’t really earn your serious beer geek stripes until you started importing boxes of rare beers from obscure online beer merchants like Cracked Kettle and the Belgian Shop.

The problem was it always felt kind of ‘’dirty’ and ‘clandestine’ – as though you were engaged in a plot to smuggle contraband into the country, sneaking your way around the monopoly, even though your biggest crime was desperately wanting to get hold of a bottle of Westvleteren 12.

If you were a wine buff the story has been very different. The wine industry was very quick to spot a gap in the market delivering wines not available at the monopoly directly to the homes of Swedish consumers. Some of these wines are high-end bottles but I’d wager the majority is cheapo plonko. Stor stark wine if you will.

Wine clubs such as The Australian Wine Club (the country’s largest) are extremely well organised businesses, and despite recent attention from the authorities wine clubs continue to service an increasingly thirsty market.

But for us beer buffs in Sweden it has been largely been a case of doing it yourself – until now.

If you were at the Linköping Beer Expo last weekend you would have seen a new stand squeezed between the familiar breweries and distributors – Doorstep Brew, a fresh business concept that promises to deliver high quality beers directly to your front door.

Doorstep Brew is a family-run business started by Swede Carl Klimsfors and his wife Tereza. The company is registered in Denmark and located in Brøndby, just outside Copenhagen.

The idea of starting a home order beer service was, as many good ideas are, born out of frustration. I’ll let Carl explain:

“We were frustrated with the available choice, prices and the complicated process we were subjected to in order to enjoy the beers we wanted when we wanted”.

So how does it work? In 2007 the EU passed a law (Rosengrendomen) making it possible for Swedish citizens to privately import alcoholic drinks from other EU countries. This on the basis that the buyer pays Swedish tax on all items imported.

Doorstep Brew aims to make the process of privately importing beer simple by paying all the necessary taxes so that customers get boxes of beer delivered to their house complete with an invoice declaring the Swedish tax paid. No fuss and no feelings of guilt!

The business is built largely around the concept of subscribing to a regular delivery of selected beers – either 6 or 10 deliveries per year.

Hi! I'll be your deliverer today. Here's your box of beer. Oh and have you seen how white my teeth are?

Initially there will be four different beery ‘themes’ you can choose from; ‘Journey of Discovery’, ‘Drink Local’, ‘The Complete Beer Tasting’ and ‘Stick to Your Style’.

After that you select one of two price levels; finsmakeren (a rather posh sounding budget option) and connoisseur (which kind of speaks for itself).

And that’s it. Within a few weeks you’ll get a knock at your door and someone will thrust a box of quality beers into your hands. Ah but what beers you ask? The list of breweries whose beers are currently offered by Doorstep Brew can be found here. Not surprisingly there’s a clear emphasis on Danish craft breweries but I understand it is Doorstep Brew’s ambition to constantly expand and rotate the portfolio to provide exciting beers from many other countries.

I think Doorstep Brew was a company just waiting to happen. In fact I myself actually seriously looked at this idea over a year ago (the problem was I’m closer to Haparanda than Copenhagen).

I should point out here that monopoly does have a perfectly workable system for people wanting to import specific beers into the country called ‘Privatimport’. The problem with it is that you often have to order an entire case of a certain beer, which for some can be both overkill and extremely expensive.

Which is why companies like Doorstep Brew,  by offering a relatively simple way of getting quality mixed boxes to your door, bring something new to the beer scene here. Doorstep Brew may be the first to niche itself towards the serious Swedish craft beer enthusiast but with the way things are going I doubt they’ll be the last.

I have never been more nervous writing a post than I was writing this one.

And I’ve never been more excited either.

I’ve tried formulating the words I want to tell you a hundred times over but even now the implication of what they mean makes them difficult to type. But here goes anyway.

I’m going to start a craft brewery.

There. Finally I’ve said it and the agonizing weight of carrying this secret around for so many months is finally lifted!

I’m going to start a craft brewery. Holy crap!

The 'drop-leaf' symbolizes the pure water from Umeå and an abstract form of a birch leaf to represent the brewery's roots in the 'City of Birches'.

It’s probably more accurate to say I’m going to try to start a craft brewery, because in reality buying Sigtuna’s former brewery equipment was probably the easy bit (although it really wasn’t and the Sigtuna team are diamonds for being so patient). For this to really work there are still so many bits of the puzzle that need to fall into place over the coming months that if I think too hard about them my eyes glaze over and I start to mumble to myself.

So I don’t think too hard.

Instead I prefer to believe; believe that the beer drinkers of Umeå are ready to go to their favourite pubs and bars and order locally produced beer. Beer brewed with the city’s pure water. Beer made with the finest ingredients to deliver real taste. Beer brewed with integrity and passion.

I believe that other beer drinkers in Sweden will also want to try these beers from Umeå and watch as this brewery grows, takes risks, innovates, makes mistakes, learns and produces beers it truly believes in.

My brewery is going to be called Beer Studio and it’s going to be unlike any other brewery I’ve ever been to. It’s going to be a creative place where beer, art and music collide. It’s going to be a place where I can invite people in and show them just how beer is made. It’s going to be a place where works from aspiring local artists cover the walls and where we will play music very, very loud.

I’m not exactly sure what Beer Studio’s mission statement will be but I do know you’re going to help me write it and that I’m then going to paint it in huge letters on the brewery walls for everyone to see. I am certain however it’s going to contain two words that have always meant a lot to me  – passion and respect.

Passion for the craft of brewing, for finding new flavours and new ways of blending them. Respect for the people who work at Beer Studio, for fellow brewers, for the heritage of beer and for the people that love to drink it.

I’ve got so much more I want to tell you and I’m sure some of you have got questions you’d like me to answer. Over the coming days I hope to share everything I know with you, because after all it’s really you lot that got me into all this in the first place.

It’s you that helped BeerSweden grow to become what it is today and you that motivated me to take this leap of faith. That’s why I promise Beer Studio will be the most open source brewery this country has ever seen and that you will have a very direct say in how we brew our beers and evolve as a company.

I’ve always said that together we could change the beer scene in Sweden for the better. I believe in that statement more strongly than ever today.

I’m going to start a brewery!

Now if you’d excuse me I think I need to sit down.

You can download the press release I’ve just sent out to the media here.

I did something at the Linköping Beer Expo this weekend that I don’t normally do. I lost weight.

It was standing room only at Linköping Beer Expo this year.

This is not normal. I normally plan on gaining at least a couple of kilos as I circle beer halls sampling deliciously calorific creations. Add to that some bad food choices and very little sleep and it’s often the reason I start searching for my gym membership card the minute I get back home to Umeå.

I think the cause of it was the new location of this year’s Beer Expo, which had upped sticks and moved from ‘Cupolen’ to Tornet. Although the building itself is quite charming (exposed brickwork and beer shows are always a winning combination in my book) the shape of the building’s layout made this weekend’s festival extremely ‘intimate’.

Entering it felt a bit like being squeezed into a tube of toothpaste. Although I tried to hang out in the first room I walked into it was difficult to resist the wave of people behind me that eventually swept me into the main brick-lined festival hall.

Here I spent most of my 9-hour stint at the show. Me and around 800-900 other people packed as tightly together as commuters on a rush-hour train. The fact that one of the draws of the show, the magnificently moustached Kristian Strunge from Stronzo Brewing Co pouring out samples of the only keg of Ca$h Cow Imperial Stout in existence was located at the far end of the rectangular-shaped hall aggravated matters as people got funneled and then stuck in the dead-end.

Now Google tells me the heat generated by the average person is 116 watts an hour. That’s 104.4 kilowatts of heat generated by 900 people in that building every 60 minutes. No wonder I was so hot all the time and didn’t put on a single gram in weight (although I really, really tried).

But what the heck. I’d rather see a hall packed to the rafters with people drinking beer than the alternative and once again the ever-so-friendly Beer Expo team admirably marshaled by Richard Lindblad put on a show the beer scene in Sweden could be proud of.

A cask-conditioned US Pale Ale. It's not every day you get to try one of those!

Highlights? Trying two samples of cask Storastörst from Närke Kulturbryggeri, one of which had been fed through a hop rocket stuffed with Citra. This was an American Pale Ale with bags of freshly squeezed red grapefruit juice and the velvet mouth-feel only a cask can give a beer. I would consider moving to Örebro this summer just to drink it.

The aforementioned Ca$h Cow from Stronzo Brewing was an intriguing experiment in which head brewer Kristian had used a lager yeast to remove most of the fruit esters, thus amplifying the roasted expresso coffee and bitter chocolate characteristics of this 11% Imperial Stout. Add in loads of roasted malts, bourbon and vanilla beans and there was a lot going on here. Perhaps a little too much. It was intensely dry, sucking out the saliva in my mouth almost instantly, making it difficult to have a conversation for several minutes afterwards. Cool to try nonetheless!

Then there was Hair of the Dog Adam from the Wood that I was treated to by BSF stalwart (and right proper geezer) Blafa in a private tasting later. It was like chewing on an entire tub of Sun-Maid Raisins. Sensational! Oh and I shouldn’t forget the smell of the 1.4% ABV East Kent Goldings tribute Sopranen from the World’s Smallest Brewery in Malmö. The best floral nose on a low alcohol beer I’ve ever sniffed?

There were a lot more happy memories but I’ll leave them for now to become just that. The Beer Expo has proven once again that it deserves its place on the annual beer circuit.

Maybe though a bigger location or a couple of these wouldn’t go amiss next time?

This news is a bit ‘bloggy’ but I feel it’s important you get to see what’s happening ‘behind the scenes’ to help raise the quality of beer writing in Scandinavia as it will ultimately benefit all of us.

Here’s the first ever press release from the newly founded Skandinaviska Ölskribenters Förening:

The new formed Skandinaviska Ölskribenters Förening (Scandinavian Beer Writers Association) has been quick off the mark with news it will be sending five representatives to the European Beer Bloggers Conference being held in the UK this May.

The group will be the largest single body of beer communicators from outside Britain attending the event, underlining how fast beer writing as a genre has developed in Scandinavia in recent years

Skandinaviska Ölskribenters Förening (SÖF) – which was only formally established last month – is linking up with the internationally respected Czech beer brand Pilsner Urquell to organise the trip, which takes place between 18-20^th May in Leeds.

SÖF’s Chairman Pelle Stridh says attending the UK event sends a clear signal about the new association’s commitment to raising the quality and quantity of beer coverage in the Scandinavian media.

“The European Beer Bloggers Conference is only in its second year but it already attracts some of the absolute best beer communicators in Europe. It is an invaluable forum in which to discuss ways we can become more effective in spreading the message about the drink we love”.

“It is one of SÖF’s core ambitions to enable our members to become better beer communicators so we are absolutely delighted that this cooperation with Pilsner Urquell will allow us to do just that.

“We’re confident that this is just the start of a series of exciting initiatives from SÖF that will lead to better coverage of beer in the Scandinavian media”, concluded Pelle.

ENDS

For further information please contact SÖF’s Chairman Pelle Stridh pelle.stridh@skandinaviskaolskribenter.com

Footnote: Members interested in applying for one of the available places should send an email to the association before March 31st. Full details are on the SÖF website.

According to a number of unofficial sources today the much anticipated move by the Systembolaget to allow customers to order in locally produced beers to any store throughout the country will finally be introduced on March 26th.

The news, which I have not yet had formally confirmed by the monopoly, is a huge step forward for Sweden’s growing legion of small local breweries, who until now have been restricted to selling their beers in their three geographically closest Systembolaget stores.

It means that from the end of this month local breweries will effectively have access to a national sales network, which could have significant implications on the pace of growth in Sweden’s craft beer industry.

Despite the stop-start introduction of this policy (it was initially supposed to be introduced in January) I have to give big cred to the monopoly for effectively ‘opening up’ the Swedish beer scene for all us beer enthusiasts. Finally (sitting here in Umeå – a city not exactly drowning in craft breweries) I will be able to order bottles of beer from the likes of Skebo, Stockeboda, Ängö Kvartersbryggeri, Eskilstuna Ölkultur and many more. If anyone from my local Systembolaget store at Ersboda is reading this – expect to be kept very busy over the next few months as I drink my way around the country

Now if we can just sort out the little matter of gårdsförsäljning I’ll be REALLY happy……

Easter beers. If I’m being honest I used to look forward to the Easter beer release about as much as filling in a tax return. Only a few years ago most of them were just a couple of EBC shades away from a Christmas beer, with the jolly looking Santa conveniently replaced with a yellow chick or bunny rabbits.

Fortunately no cute bunny rabbits were harmed in the making of this year's Easter Beer release.

And then something happened and breweries started to submit interesting beers for the Easter release. Some of them, it could be argued, have about as much to do with Easter as Björn Ranelid has to do with singing (several Easter beers in the past have been nothing more than a re-branding exercise) but still, great beer is great beer however and whenever it is released, right?

I’ve also got to confess a little soft spot of affection for this time of the beer year because it was on a sunny Easter day back in 2010 that a rather fresher looking me posted the first ever episode of BSTV in which I tasted two Easter beers from breweries that both feature in tomorrow’s release. 

So let’s kick things off by taking a look at the 14 Easter beers going on sale across the country in the morning (and which you can order into your local store should they have decided not to stock it).

SB Art No 1301 Saint Landelin Bière de Pâques Frankrike 750 46,90SEK
SB Art No 1302 Dugges Easy Easter Sverige 330 17,90 (has been withdrawn due to quality issues)
SB Art No 1306 Sigtuna Easter IPA 2012 Sverige 500 31,50SEK
SB Art No 1315 Sigtuna Easter Ale Sverige 500 24,90SEK
SB Art No 1327 Mohawk Oxymoron Black IPA 2012 Sverige 330 25,80SEK
SB Art No 1328 S:t Eriks Påsk Ale Sverige 330 17,90SEK
SB Art No 1330 Pumpviken Påsköl Sverige 500 29,80SEK
SB Art No 1338 Bryggmästarens Påsköl Sverige 500 14,00SEK
SB Art No 1345 Oppigårds Easter Ale 2012 Sverige 500 26,50SEK
SB Art No 1375 Three Hearts Påskebrygd Sverige 500 16,00SEK
SB Art No 1385 Mariestads Påskbrygd Sverige 500 17,00SEK
SB Art No 1390 Raasted Forår Danmark 330 23,90SEK
SB Art No 1393 Nils Oscar Kalaspåsköl Sverige 330 19,50SEK
SB Art No 1395 Blåkulla Påsköl Sverige 500 24,40SEK
SB Art No 1399 Jämtlands Påsköl Sverige 500 25,30SEK

Rather than write about every beer (for a change) I’m only going to concentrate on the one’s I’ll be taking home with me. Sigtuna Easter IPA is another US-inspired hop-bomb with the same ABV as Sigtuna’s recently launched East Coast IPA and holds the promise of lots of grapefruit, tangy mango and lemon flavours. I’m a sucker for IPAs whatever the time of year so Recommended!

Sigtuna Easter Ale is an altogether more British affair, with a far more sessionable 4.5% of ABV and a distinctly more coppery red malt body and refined bitterness. Only British ingredients have been used and the Sigtuna team recommend pairing it with nothing less than steak and kidney pie and Yorkshire puddings. I’m not sure if we really eat all that at Easter in the UK – it’s mostly lamb – but I’ll buy it anyway. Recommended!

One of the most intriguing beers from tomorrow’s release has to be Oxymoron Black IPA (cool name there Stefan!), a rather trendy beer style that Mr Mohawk has once again given his own touch too this Easter by attempting this time to hold back on some of the more extreme roasted and burnt flavours darker specialty malts tend to lend beer to allow this IPA’s more fruity hop character to shine through.  Haven’t tried it but word is it’s worth it. Recommended!

You can see what I thought about S.t Erik’s Påsk Ale here and an older review of Pumpviken Påsköl here. Oppigårds Easter Ale is as obligatory as painting eggs and dressing up as a chicken (you do all do that, right?)

I don’t not what Raasted’s former head brewer Martin Jensen will be doing this Easter but I do know he will be smiling as he does it. His snappy Forår American pale ale might make you smile too. Recommended!

And lastly Nils Oscar’s Kalaspåsköl, a beer that has undergone many changes in recent years but with only a very minor tweak remains the same American brown ale of last year. Then it was richly malty with some earthy spice and flowery notes. If this year’s beer is the same I’ll be happy. Recommended!

Happy hunting tomorrow everyone!

The azure blue sky of the past few days has suddenly turned grey and the whipped cream-covered mountaintops of Åre have morphed into grimy building sites and lifeless looking birch trees.

That can only mean one thing – I’m back in Umeå and it’s time to retire the skis for another year and snowplough my way through all the beery stuff I’ve fallen behind on during the past week.

Let’s start by making a date. What are you doing next Saturday afternoon? Nothing much? Good – then why not hang out with me at the Beer Expo in Linköping for an hour or so and drink some amazing beers? Just you, me and 40 fellow beer enthusiasts. You can still book one of the last few places at my ‘Lost Dog – Big Reward’ BrewDog tasting which starts at 15.15.

Even if you can’t make the tasting it would be great to see you at the festival, which this year has upped sticks and moved  to Tornet Konferens & Restaurang. By some cosmic beery coincidence it also falls on St Patrik’s Day this year so if you see leprechauns during the day it might not just be because you overdid the imperials again.

This is a dream come true! (or a nightmare....I'm not sure which yet)

It was with a measure of excitement and the sort of blind terror I experienced when I looked down the World Cup FreeStyle slope in Åre a few days ago (I didn’t actually go down it. I’m not that stupid) that I saw a picture of myself posted on the Craft Brewers Conference website this week announcing I am to be a guest speaker at America’s premier trade beer event in San Diego in May.

The fact I’m hovering only inches away from Charlie Papazian – the current President of the Brewers Association – only heightens the enormity of the task ahead. I’m sure Charlie would just shrug, smile and say “Relax. Don’t Worry. Have a home brew”.  I may just take his advice before starting to write my speech…..

Word is I might also have something to say at the Copenhagen Beer Celebration too, but more on that a little later.

The Scandinavian Beer Writers Association (Skandinaviska Ölskribenters Förening) is only officially a few weeks but it already has its own website which got a ‘soft launch’ this week.  At the moment the site mainly contains details of the association’s aims and ambitions but during the coming weeks and months will be filled with details of activities and a membership roster. What’s particularly exciting to see is the range of applications we’ve received from writers from all kinds of media backgrounds in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. If you meet the membership criteria and want to join SÖF then let us know!

Jessica's coming to town!

It’s not every day the Queen of Swedish brewing pays a flying visit (see what I did there?) to Umeå but Jessica Heidrich is doing just that in April when she’s scheduled to give a lecture on beer to students at the city’s restauranghögskolan. I’ll be going back to school to listen to her. I wonder if I should bring an apple?

Sveriges Oberoende Småbryggerier (Sweden’s Independent Small Breweries) has announced its first beer festival taking place on April 20-21^st at Malmö Brygghus. Over 20 Swedish breweries will be participating, providing a unique opportunity to experience ‘grassroots’ brewing in this country.

And finally news that the nicest gentlemen in world brewing is coming back to Sweden. I’ve been lucky enough to spend several hours in the company of Garrett Oliver over the past few years and his reputation as one of the world’s leading beer figures is utterly deserved. Which is why you should move mountains to meet him when he comes to Akkurat in Stockholm on April 27^th, bringing with him a line-up of draft beers that have never passed through a Swedish beer tap before, including Blast, The Companion, Mary’s Maple Porter and Radius.