Sometime things just kind of happen. Call it fate, timing or just plain luck but the highlight of my Örebro Beer and Whisky Festival 2011 happened the moment a man called Menno Olivier stepped into the Bloggers’ Corner.

Menno is the maestro behind Brouwerij De Molen, which is that rarest of things – a Dutch craft brewery. And not just any craft brewery at that but the 5^th best brewery in the world this year according to the Ratebeer community.

In my experience brewers tend to fall into two broad categories; those with a strong technical aptitude that apply the science of beer and those that take a more creative, instinctive approach to the art of brewing. Menno seems to be a man with one foot in each camp – a brewer who mixes pragmatism with passion. What he said during the twenty minutes he visited the Bloggers’ Corner deserves to be lifted out of this roundup and given a post all of its own, so expect an interview with Menno here on BeerSweden later this week.

Back out on the floor I spent a long time chatting to Björn from Oppigårds about his exciting plans to significantly expand his craft brewery. Björn’s sharp wit and down-to-earth approach to beer and business is almost as infectious as his beers, so as we talked I took the chance to taste his delicious new November Bitter (“Not expecting to sell this for long?” I asked him? “Of course, next month we’ll call in December Bitter” was his quick reply). It’s only available on draft and is stewed with Chinook and New Zealand Cascade hops (which are supposed to be a little less aggressive and ‘refined’ than their American counterpart).  

Then it was off to the Carlsberg ‘Deli’ stand which, for its looks and the way it mashed together the worlds of beer and food so cleverly was actually my ‘stand of the show’. It was packed full of nice touches, including the small Hessian bags of malts and hops that are used in the beers it represents.

No Swedish beer festival would be complete without some hang time at the Great Brands stand where I tried another of the ’odd’ Stone Belgo beers (the first one is already out at the monopoly and reviewed here).  Stone Belgo Anise Imperial Russian Stout is just downright wacky, pouring pitch black with monumental aromas of anise (no surprise there then) chocolate and cocoa, and flavours of caraway seeds, liquorice, tar and light vanilla at the end. Despite its substantial ABV it never runs hot and the Belgian yeast sits quietly and well behaved in the background. For its complexity and madness it was my beer of the entire session.

There were other beers – lots of other beers, including Jontes Atgeir, my favourite cask beer of the show from Närke – but I’m going to wrap things up with a few ciders. Yes I know what you’re thinking, but I’m telling you craft cider is pretty amazing stuff and drinking it is the perfect way to refresh your palate after hours of hop abuse.

And if it’s craft cider you’re after you really need to go and spend some quality time with the Brekeriet brothers. They’re going all in on the fact more and more people are beginning to realise that real cider doesn’t contain neon green guava fruit, cactus or lime but, in fact, apples. The ones that grow on trees that is.

I tried three ciders from La Ferme d’Hotte in France. The first was Cidre Bouché du pays d’Othe, a medium-dry cider made with 40 different types of apples, followed by the cuttingly sour Cidre Rosé d’Ete which gets its attractive blush from the juices of beetroot and carrots and finally Cidre ‘Saveur de Pommier’ – Cuvee Prestigiuese, an elegant fruity cider with a crisp. clean and extremely addictive character.

And so, in closing the books on another excellent ÖÖWF, I return to the big question that started this two-part article off: was it worth it?  For me the minute Menno walked in with three of his acclaimed beers I knew it had been and that I’d be back next year. In fact I’m already looking for cheap flight tickets as you read this.

Carlsberg don’t do anniversaries, but if they did…….it would probably last eight months, feature numerous art and cultural exhibitions, conferences and involve substantial donations to great causes and organisations.

JC Jacobsen. A beer legend.

Today we celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of JC Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg and unquestionably one of the most important men in the history of beer.

Jacobsen’s research into the science of brewing (and particularly his work with yeast) has helped shaped modern brewing techniques. Even if you’re not a big fan of Carlsberg beer the chances are you have Jacobsen to thank for your favourite brew.

It all started back in 1847 when Jacobsen laid the foundations for the Carlsberg company in Copenhagen. Today Carlsberg is the fourth largest brewing concern on the planet, active in some 140 markets worldwide and employs over 44,000 people.

In 1875 Jacobsen founded the Carlsberg Laboratory and it was here that a beery breakthrough was made in isolating Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, the species of yeast responsible for lager fermentation as well as introducing the concept of pH in acid-base chemistry.

Jacobsen’s passion for beer science was matched only by his love of the arts and culture. When the media is only to quick to talk about the negative impact of beer in our society it is good to recall benefactors like the Carlsberg Foundation who have poured countless millions into supporting good causes, preserving and promoting art and culture and developing talent around the world.

So today I’m putting the craft beer away for a while and raising a can of Carlsberg Hof to one of the original punks of beer. Congratulations on your 200^th anniversary JC Jacobsen.

This is a day, as they say, that really does call for a Carlsberg!

Right this very second one of the greatest advertising pay-off lines in marketing history is being quietly dismantled in Copenhagen.

When Orson Welles’ unmistakably gruff voice first announced ‘Carlsberg – Probably the best lager in the world’* back in the early 1980 it marked the start of one of the most catchy catchphrases ever dreamt up and has been famously used to sign off the Danish brewery giant’s iconic brand around the globe ever since.

Until today that is, with word coming through from Copenhagen right now that Carlsberg is largely dropping the famous tagline as part of a global repositioning of its leading brand, replacing it with the new line ”That calls for a Carlsberg!”

A series of new TV/Internet ads featuring the new tagline are going live shortly and a new social app for Sweden will be launched later this week.

The changes will be implemented in around 140 markets today, except that is in Sweden, the only country in the world which gets to keep the old line.

Just exactly why we’re not Calling for a Carlsberg in Sweden is unclear as of writing, but personally I’m more than happy to stick to the classic line.

Here’s what Henric Byström, Head of PR for Carlsberg Sweden had to say in a press release issued earlier today:

”Carlsberg as a premium beer has a good position in Sweden. Now we’re undertaking a big investment internationality and here in Sweden to strengthen our position on the market”.

More to come. Probably.

*In some countries the line was changed from lager to beer.

Carlsberg don’t do pub signs. But if they did they’d probably be the best pub signs in the world.

(Snapped this while out and about in Stockholm last night. Gaffer tape truly is the most significant development for mankind since the invention of the wheel. don’t you think?)

Here’s an experiment for you to try at home. Take a glass of plain sparkling mineral water (any brand will do) and put two old 50 öre coins you’ve got cluttering up the back of a drawer somewhere at home and drop them into it. Leave the glass in the fridge overnight.

The next morning take the glass from the fridge, remove the coins and drink the contents. Congratulations – you’ve just replicated the taste of Pripps Blå Pure.

It started off as a playful dare over at BeerSweden’s Facebook page yesterday. “Why don’t you taste some Pripps Blå….so many people love it…(but) geeks hate it”.

After having reviewed a clutch of amazing but rather exclusive beers in recent weeks (like this one, or this one) I figured that joking aside it would add a little balance to the blog if I tried a beer that was the third biggest selling beer brand in the Swedish monopoly in 2009 – notching up just over 10,000,000 litres (figures for 2010 are not yet in).

The Pripps Blå ‘family’ of beers consists of three mainstay members – Pripps Blå Pure, Pripps Blå Export and Pripps Blå Extra Stark (their Extra Strong version at 7%).

Pure is, I assume, designed for all those conflicted people that want a beer but not the carbs that come with it, apparently having 50% less of them than an ‘average’ beer.

Pripps Blå Export is the ‘straight’ version at 5% and the one that has sat in the top 5 best sellers list for as long as I care to remember.

Pripps Blå Extra Stark is the ‘park bench’ version at 7% ABV which, rather bizarrely, is priced exactly the same as the Pure. Same Price. More carbs. More hangover.

So how do they taste? Well I started with Pure and worked up to the Extra Stark version. In terms of appearance they look identical – pale, fizzy and yellow. The only thing that tells them apart is the length of time it takes the head to collapse (within seconds for Pure and maybe a minute before the bleached white spit of the Extra Stark beer fizzles into nothing).

Pure is a truly remarkable example of what extreme filtration can do to a beer. When done correctly filtration removes unwanted particles and improves the clarity of beer, although it nearly always comes at the expense of a loss of flavour and mouthfeel.

(Just look at the condition of BrewDog’s Punk X in this video to see what a beer that has been barely filtered looks like).

Pripps Blå’s owner Carlsberg (oh yes, for it is them) clearly don’t find any of this an issue, filtering this beer so intensely that I genuinely struggled to find a molecule of flavour or aroma in it.

Which all leaves me in the rather difficult position of not having very much to rate, so I’ll give it 0.7 and leave it at that.

Pripps Blå Export is the headliner of the range. Same look, slightly sweeter smell of wet grain and plastic, like the smell you get when you open a brand new fridge in the showroom. OK if you’ve just refitted your kitchen. Bad if it’s in your beer. Rating: 1.5

Pripps Blå Extra Stark was actually my ‘favourite’ of the series, with the additional alcohol adding some body and I swear I detected a short-lived burst of bitterness after all those greasy sweet malts. Rating: 1.7

All in all a rather depressing beery experience then. Drinking any of the Pripps Blå trinity is a bit like being a deathrow inmate and having to pick your method of execution. None of the choices are particularly worth looking forward to.

The fact that so many Swedes drink this beer in such huge quantities can be viewed as depressing but also (as I prefer to see it) an enormous opportunity.

Surely all we have do to convert thousands of drinkers whose senses have been dulled by beers like Pripps Blå is present them with well crafted beers bursting with great flavour?

I readily concede there’s a hardcore following that will always stick by the brand (and the sub-11 SEK price tag) but I’m equally convinced that given the choice of cheap beer with no flavour or great tasting beer for a few kronor more thousands of drinkers are going to trade up.

Swedish drinkers have become far more interested in ‘luxury’ beer over the past 12 months according to a new survey.

The report just released by Carlsberg Sweden gathered data from 1,023 Swedes between the ages of 18-79 from throughout the country.

It concludes that three out of 10 Swedes have become more interested in beer over the last year and six out of ten enjoy drinking a more ‘luxury’ beer now and then. Drinking beer with a meal at a restaurant is becoming increasingly popular and six out of 10 women said they would consider drinking a beer during a romantic dinner.

The report also points to the growing popularity of beer as reflected in sales at the Systembolaget (Sweden’s alcohol monopoly) where during the past three years the selection of beers has increased by 20%, or to put it another way over 100 new beer brands.

“We have noticed that Swedish people have become more curious about and interested in beer. Our sales figures also indicate an increase in the types of beers with more flavour”, says Joakim Losin, a beer expert responsible for special beers at Carlsberg Sweden.

Oh just stop it the pair of you and have a beer already!

“More and more people are discovering that beer isn’t just a ‘stor stark’ (Ed note: a term used in Sweden to describe a standard low cost ‘industrial’ lager). We believe this beer trend will continue as more consumers become more aware (of beer)”.

Here’s a round up of the survey’s main findings:

• 6 out of 10 Swedes (73% of men and 51% of women) like to drink more ‘quality’ beer.

• 79% said they had drunk lager, 65% had tried ale, 58% had tested a porter/stout and a surprising 48% had given wheat beers a whirl.

• Summer and holidays like Christmas and Easter are the times when both men and women like to drink ‘better beer’.

• 20% of those asked preferred drinking a quality beer at home and the same amount liked to order one at the pub. 17% preferred ordering a quality beer at the restaurant, 12% drank one in front of the TV, 11% at a party and 10% at home with friends.

I’m often asked what I think about the ‘evil twins’ of brewing here in Sweden, Spendrups and Carlsberg.

The question is normally followed by a comment such as: “I bet you wouldn’t touch the stuff would you. After all you know what fish do in water (etc etc)”.

Well guess what? I do touch the stuff now and again, and you know what, I don’t think it’s that bad at all.

It’s very easy to put the hate on S&G (and any other brewery for that matter perceived to have exceeded the ever-shifting definition of ‘microbrewery’). Like gangs forming in the playground during a school break it’s tempting to side with the beer bullies who dismiss any brewery that doesn’t oak-age, over-hop, triple ferment, double, imperial or Americanize their beers.

Spendrup's brewery and head offices in Vårby

I suspect just like being at school peer pressure leads some people to unilaterally bash the bigger breweries, often labeling them nothing more than factories and the nemesis of all that craft beer stands for.

But as with most things in life I don’t think things are that black or white. I think we need big breweries like Spendrups and Carlsberg. Whether you like it or not they are responsible for switching millions of people onto drinking beer every year. They have the means and the muscle to create huge demand for beer in a way micros, by their very nature, never can.

We need them to help swell the ranks of beer drinkers, because its from them that we recruit drinkers of craft beer.

And lets be honest here. Are their beers really that bad? There’s a very interesting book I recommend you read (not only to underline this particular point, but because of its fascinating coverage of beer contra wine in general) called Grape vs Grain by Charles Bamforth.

Now Charles really knows his beers. He’s the Chair of the Department of Food Science, Editor in Chef of the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists among a long list of other professional merits. In short he’s considered one of the top three brewing scientists of his generation.

He’s also an Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at the University of California (I can almost hear the hissing from here) and explores in depth the attitudes of beer drinkers towards the major breweries in the US.

He writes that it is the micros that “have captured the consumers’ imagination by touting a perceived sophistication that belongs in the same class at that engendered by wines”.

The famous entrance to Carlsberg's original brewery

He goes on to defend the big breweries, calling them “places of sophistication and excellence….hygienic, airy, busy and highly productive…..often highly automated but always using time-honoured brewing techniques”.

His point is that it’s no mean feat to consistently produce a beverage at thousands of bottles an hour to the same level of quality 24 hours a day, day in, day out. It may not conjure up romantic images of beer being brewed say, in a barn, but it’s an impressive accomplishment none the less.

Mr Bamforth presents a strong case from a refreshingly different perspective.

Personally I know several people who work for both Spendrups and Carlsberg and they are as professional, engaged, proud and passionate about their brands as anyone I’ve met in the trade.

So coming back to the question I was posed in the opening paragraph on this now rather long-winded blog post, my answer is that I believe the big brewers are every bit as important to the future success of craft beer in this country as the microbreweries themselves.

After all every story needs a villain – it makes the tale of craft beer all the better in the telling, don’t you think?