Nobody mention the spot, OK?

As you will notice arounf halfway through this video something goes wrong with the sound and it decides to go a fraction of a second out of sync. Just why this has happened is a mystery and despite Trev’s best efforts we’ve not been able to fix it.

Personally I think it’s all Trev’s fault for messing around with the space/time continuum here, so just imagine you’re watching one of those horribly dubbed Japanese films and you should be OK.

Remember that the new Coopers DIY Beer Kit will be available to order from this website by the end of this month. If you mention BeerSweden at the time of ordering you will receive one packet of Light Dry Malt (which further  improves the flavour of the beer) worth 50SEK absolutely free!

I could tell by the Tiger suits, the jewellery and the manicures that I was deep into wine territory.

To the table on my left was old money – a middle-aged man with a plain but superbly fitted pink shirt and cuffs hiding a gold Rolex. His female guest was younger, pretty but not beautiful, with sunglasses perched on top of immaculately dragged back blonde hair.

To my right the business brigade – more flashy, expensive but ill-fitting suits, iPhones on the table and gold company credit cards at the ready.

I'll have a Carlsberg Hof with that mate. Don't worry about a glass. I'll drink it straight out of the bottle.

As I sat down with my guests for lunch at Villa Källhagen in Stockholm’s swanky Djurgården district I spied the crisp linen napkins, the swirls of handmade butter, the freshly baked bread rolls and the oversized wine glasses. Such attention to detail boded well for a good meal, I thought to myself.

After some polite conversation with my guests while perusing the menu I opted for the grilled steak with green beans and a herb-infused baked tomato. I had seen one being brought out to the table beside me. It looked perfectly cooked, shining with glaze and utterly delicious.

“And would you like some wine with your meal?” asked the charming waitress, pen eagerly poised on paper to record my reply.

I sighed inwardly. Was it really worth it, I said to myself? I mean, what’s the point in asking when I already know the answer? I took a deep mental breath anyway.

“No, but I’d love to see your beer list please”.

I watched her face, waiting for the inevitable reaction. First came confusion, followed quickly by a nervous smile and then a look I swore bordered on mild pity. Wait just a few more seconds, I thought to myself. Here it comes.

“We don’t actually have a beer list I’m afraid. But we do have a selection of beers from Spendrups. They are a Swedish brewery. They are very nice”.

Nice they may be, but Spendrups’ Lättöl, Mellanöl or Premium Lager Ekologisk will never, ever be the right drink to pair with grilled steak. In my world it’s a culinary blunder on a par with serving tinned mushrooms with truffles or squeezing tomato ketchup on foie gras.

What makes this incident all the more distressing is that not a single person sitting at my table rolled their eyes, threw their napkins on the table in disgust or burst into contemptuous laughter.

Why? Because the same thing is happening right this second in the most exclusive, impossible-to-get-a-table restaurants in Sweden.  It’s so routine it’s become expected and accepted.

Nor does it seem to matter how expensive the menu, how many White Guide listings or the number of Michelin stars awarded. Quite the opposite in fact.

The shocking truth is that with frighteningly few exceptions Sweden’s finest eateries are serving us exactly the same beers as the pizza restaurant around the corner.

In the next post: I take a closer look at the menus of five of Sweden’s most celebrated restaurants, see what beers they’re serving, ask why beer seems to be a such a culinary afterthought and whether we beer drinkers can do more to get our favourite drink back into fine dining.

I got a little ‘hop-headed’ in this episode and neglected to mention that Mr Mohawk Stefan Gustavsson brewed both these beers at Sigtuna Brygghus. If you really want to know the levels of Alpha Acid in each hop variety (the stuff that makes hops bitter) in Goldings it is typically around 4-6% while in US Amarillo hops it is up around 8-11%.