Today I am delighted to reveal the winners of the inaugural BeerSweden Forum Awards 2012!

More than 160 BeerSweden Forum members voted for their favourite beers, breweries, bars and beery personalities in eight categories during January. All the finalists had previously been nominated by BSF members, with those attracting the most votes advancing to the final voting round.

So without further ado let’s see who took first place in the country’s biggest online award scheme organised by beer drinkers for beer drinkers!

Best Swedish Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oppigårds Bryggeri was never in danger of losing this category. Having started out strong the Darlana brewery just got stronger, taking home first place with an impressive 70% of all the votes cast.

 

Best Swedish Beer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again it’s Oppigårds in pole position with Drakens DIPA (which was brewed to a recipe created by hardcore homebrewers Tomas Lundqvist, Rick Lindqvist and Magnus Ahlström).

 

Best International Beer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This category went down to the wire and at the last second it was one vote that meant the category was tied between Great Divide Brewing’s Yeti Imperial Stout and ‘Hello, My Name is Ingrid’ from BrewDog in Scotland. The honours are shared!

 

Best International Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know, some of you may ask how can a guy from Denmark called Mikkel Borg Bjergsø be called a brewery? Well he’s a new kind of ‘one-man’ brewery that travels to breweries around the world where he transforms his very active imagination into beer. The so-called ‘Godfather of Gypsy Brewing’ Mikkel is also one of the most prolific brewers out there and is threatening to close in on 100 different Mikkeller beers in a single year. The BSF-ers salute you!

 

Best Swedish Beer Bar/Pub/Restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beer emporium Akkurat in Stockholm once again leads the field and underlines its status as a must-visit bar whenever you’re in the capital (particularly if you like cask ales and lambics). Congratulations to Stene, Rille and the whole ‘A-Team’!

 

Best Swedish Importer/Distributor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those nice guys at Brill have really spoilt the Swedish beer community with a succession of hard-to-get craft beers from both sides of the Atlantic over the past year and their passion for what they do has clearly paid off, earning them an emphatic pat on the back from BSF members.

 

Best Swedish Beer Event

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably no surprise here. The Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival is not only the largest beer show in Sweden but it’s one of the largest in the world. Ultra-professionally run with the largest gathering of Swedish beer brands and personalities in one place the SBWF continues to set the standard for how a beer show should be run.

 

Swedish Beer Personality of The Year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to confess to feeling more than a little awkward here as I have ended up winning this category myself (I’m putting it down to home advantage). I am obviously incredibly grateful and humbled for all the nominations and votes. I’d like to give a special mention to Magnus and M2 and Magnus Bark who were both also nominated in this category and who all – in their own unique ways – do so much to contribute to the beer community in this country. The fact that three bloggers were nominated says a lot about the role beer blogs are playing right now in spreading knowledge about our favourite drink.

A huge thanks to everyone who took the time to nominate and vote. As the awesome BeerSweden Forum continues to grow (now over 20,000 posts, 575,000 post views and almost 700 members) I’m confident next year’s awards will be even bigger and better!

All winners will shortly be receiving swanky certificates as recognition of their achievement. Once I’ve made them that it…..

Cheers and Beers everyone!

Darren

 

 

 (ps: If you’re not a member of the BeerSweden Forum yet then why not sign up right now? It only takes seconds and costs nothing. That’s right – nix! Within minutes you could be chatting to other beer enthusiasts, checking out food and beer pairings, discovering the latest beer scene news and reading honest reviews of beers from fellow BSF-ers. And that’s just for starters! What are you waiting for?!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To avoid the danger of knäck poisoning from all the Christmas beers I’m tasting right now I thought I’d change lanes for a bit and bring you news of some stories that broke in the Swedish beer scene this week.

First out one of the nicest (and most tattooed?) guys in the Swedish beer industry, Jonas Danielsson from Brill & Co, took to the airwaves yesterday to tell listeners of Bandit FM why beer is rocking the drinks scene right now. Great to hear Jonas explaining why more and more people are switching on to craft beer and off from ‘McDonald’ beers!

Food and beer is one of the most exciting and simultaneously frustrating aspects of working with beer. It’s like being told the secret to clean energy but despite screaming about it to everyone you meet most of them just smile politely and continue using fossil fuels anyway.

So that’s why this week’s announcement that Swedish Michelin-starred chef Mathias Dahlgren is teaming up with the Queen of flying brewers Jessica Heidrich to produce a series of new beers is so significant. Dahlgren has long been an advocate of pairing beer with food and as one of this country’s leading culinary figures could really help turn the tide in beer’s favour at long last. Details of the two beers (which will be available from next year exclusively at Dahlgren’s restaurant in Stockholm) can be found here.

Most of us already knew Akkurat in Stockholm was a great place to drink suds and this week they had it confirmed (again) in writing by scooping the ‘Best Beer Bar 2011’ award at the Bartender’s Choice Awards. Congratulations to Stene, Rille and the rest of the crew. Worth mentioning that Oliver Twist and Black & Brown were also nominated in the same category.

And lastly this was the week that the BeerSweden Forum galloped past the 15,000 post mark! That’s 15,000 posts that the irritatingly friendly BSF community have made about beer since the end of the summer. If there’s a more active and generally awesome online beery hang-out for the likes of people like us then I haven’t seen it. Great work all you BSF-ers!

That’s it for now gang. Looking out of the window looking at the sideways snow I’m suddenly feeling the urge for a stout. Perhaps this one?

Have a great Friday and I hope you drift happily into a brilliant weekend!

Cheers and beers!

Darren

 

 

In today’s fast-moving beer world the recent Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival already feels like something of a distant memory to me.

At this year’s show I confess I got things a bit wrong, electing to come down for just one week in an attempt to combine my blogging with my BrewDog activities. I totally underestimated how crazy things would get with James and Co in town, with Master Classes every day and after-show events every night, leaving me practically no time at all to record any coherent thoughts about the festival itself.

However there was a stand-out highlight of this year’s show that I simply refuse to let slip through my hippocampus without taking the trouble to record it. It’s something that didn’t even happen at the show itself, but rather over a couple of hours at the Bishops Arms in Stockholm’s Folkungagatan.

The event was called Beer Geek Brunch and was organised by those extremely nice chaps from Swedish drinks importer Brill. In what turned out to be a sort of brunchy brewer speed dating session I sat down and recorded interviews with several of the most visionary, fearless (and in some cases slightly mad) brewing minds on the planet.

What I learnt was enlightening, entertaining and inspirational and I want to share it with you. Which is why, starting next week, I’m going to be posting a complete series of Beer Geek Brunch Interviews in which I share beers, laughs and ask questions to:

Scott Williams from Williams Brothers

Henok Fentie från Omnipollo

Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø från Evil Twin Brewing

Mikkel Borg Bjergsø from Mikkeller

Christian Skovdal Andersen from Beer Here

Tore Gynther och Tobias Jensen from To Øl

I’m sorry if this all seems a bit ‘after the event’ but with more than two hours of conversation to transcribe it’s turned into something of a monumental task but one I ultimately think will be worth it and hope you’re going to enjoy.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers and beers!

Darren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever heard of a supermarket trolley dash prize? You’re given a few minutes and an empty trolley which you can fill with whatever you can grab from the shelves before your time is up.

Sometimes beer festivals can feel like that.

With so many beers, so many happenings and so little time it’s sometimes difficult to know where to begin.

I’m not a huge fan of lists (I am, after all, the World’s Worst Ticker) but I do have a personal checklist of things I want to try at this year’s show and thought I would share it with you:

Eskilstuna Ölkultur, Pang Pang Brewery, Södra Maltfabriken and World’s Smallest Brewery (world’s coolest brewery name?) are among those making their first appearances at the festival this year so go along and give them all a big hug (and try their beers).

Oppigårds’ stand is always a must-visit, not just because of the Klassisk IPA they’re serving up (Ed note: this is not the only ‘old-world’ IPA coming to the show this year. Do I detect the start of a new beery trend?) but because they’ll actually be brewing beer on their stand on the first Thursday of the show. Cool initiative!

Who can forget Sigtuna’s Ace of Spades when it was released to huge critical acclaim last year? Well this year’s version promises to be different but equally outrageous and you’ll be able to try it first at Sigtuna’s stand.

Pilsner Urquell are rolling out their 2,700 litre barrel once again offering you a rare chance to try the original golden beer in all its unpasteurised and unfiltered glory.

Cask Sweden are letting the dogs out this year with a huge selection of BrewDog beers, including the läskigt and läskande Ghost Deer, which at 28% is the world’s strongest (non freeze distilled) beer. Oh. I should also mention for those of you brave enough to try it that it is poured from the mouth of a deer. BrewDog James will be at the festival during all days of the second week of the show and will be giving Master Classes every day (together with yours truly).

 

Brill’s stand is one of the first you encounter when you enter the hall and one of the hardest to leave, with the beery pulling power of a black hole (rather appropriate really).  It’s also the place to go and pick up your free and exclusive BSF badge if you’re a BeerSweden Forum member. That way you can not only walk around the festival knowing you’re cooler than a polar bear’s toenails but fellow BSF-ers will be able to pick you out among the crowd. Who knows, it may be the start of an amazing beer friendship!

The Oliver Twist/Brewers Association stand is another place I guarantee you will happily lose a few hours. THE place to try your way through some of the very best US beers out there today in friendly sample measures, including, I note, some of the increasingly hard-to-get Dogfish Head beers. Go there. Nuff said.

One of my highlights of last year’s show was the Danish section and this year the invasion continues with Elixir Wines once again bringing over no fewer than 7 Danish breweries (and this one from Norway), including Amager, Raasted and Djævlebryg.

Carnegie Porter is an underestimated Swedish beer classic in my book (I’ve been lucky to taste delicious vintages as far back as 1988) but if you ever needed an excuse to discover it again this is the year to do it with the special limited release of Carnegie Porter Jubileumsbryggd brewed together with Brooklyn Brewery to celebrate the beer’s 175^th anniversary. Grab a sample from Carlsberg’s stand at the show.

Lastly if a day at the beer festival isn’t quite enough there’s the ‘efterfest’ every night after the show at the Bishops Arms in Vasagatan. Here you’re pretty likely to bump into some of your favourite brewers and can grab a midnight snack with the kitchen staying open extra late and the bar serving some pretty amazing beers until 3am.

I realise I’ve missed out a lot of great stuff trying to keep this list ‘short’ (like these ones, or the Black IPA from this lot) but I hope you get a sense of how epic this show promises to be. So dive in, ask questions, explore beer styles you’ve never tried before and most of all have loads of fun. 

And if you see a guy in glasses wearing a BeerSweden T-shirt and a thirsty look on his face come up and say hi. It might just be me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you prefer the grape to the grain? Are you bowled over by Bordeaux but pass when it comes to pilsner?

Then write this date down in your diary – Saturday, September 18^th – the day when I’ll attempt to change the way you think about the worlds two favourite alcoholic drinks forever.

Now I know it’s a big ask but having recently tried the five beers I’m going to be serving up at the first ever Beer Club at Duå Delikatessbutik in Umeå I honestly believe I can do it!

I’m not going to give away too many details of the beers we’re going to try (I want you all to turn up with minds wide open!) but this much I can now reveal:

One of these beers is as shockingly pink as a fruity Rosé, another gives off delicate smells of lavender and honey reminiscent of a fine desert wine while another is aged for months in red wine Bourgogne barrels and is so wine-like to sniff I’d challenge anyone to pick it out as a beer with their eyes shut!

All the five exclusive beers we’ll be trying have some connection to wine, either in the way they are made or in their flavours and aromas.

I’ll also be taking the opportunity during the evening to bust a few common myths about beer and wine, particularly when it comes to pairing them with food.

Demand for this “Beer for Wine Lovers’ tasting has been so great we’re actually going to hold two tastings back-to-back so that as many people as possible can get the opportunity to try these hard-to-get beers.

The first tasting will start at 17:00 and the second one kicks off at 19:30. After that everyone is invited for a spot of ‘ölmingel’ where as an added bonus there will be a selection of great beers from Swedish beer importer Brill & Co available to try!

If you want to join me and the Duå boys for a night of beery revelations then here’s all the contact details you need:

090-7800303

www.duaumea.se

info@duaumea.se

duaumea.blogspot.com

I hope to see some of you at Umeå’s trendiest Beer Club (Ed note: actually it’s Umeå’s only beer club) soon!

Until then…..Cheers and Beers!

Darren

* Couldn’t resist getting my own back Bengt Frithiofsson.