With all the excitement and fuss surrounding the Stockholm Beer and Whiskey Festival it’s easy to forget that in just a couple of days the Systembolaget will be releasing another burst of new beers into its stores.

On October 1^st over 20 new beers will go sale, among them a few that you really shouldn’t miss out on trying!

For a complete list of what’s in store you can do no better than check out Schnille and Smack’s comprehensive round-up. As you can see there’s a little something for everyone but personally I’ll be narrowing the list down a bit to the following:

Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout – this is (pardon the pun) a monster of an imperial stout, with ridiculous amounts of coffee and dark chocolate malt  flavours that are stunningly smuggled into your mouth in one of the softest, most creamy bodies of a beer I’ve ever drunk.  Among the elite of US Imperial Stouts. Have I made myself clear enough here? Buy it!!

Cantillon Kriek – kriek is a beer style that shocks and amazes in equal measure. From its wine-like appearance, aromas of wet sheep and horse shit, red onions and balsamic vinegar to its spiky puckering sourness a glass of kriek leaves no-one unmoved. There are many modern krieks that use cherry syrup to sweeten their beer for fear of turning away drinkers. Cantillon Kriek is a 100% lambic beer that sits on real cherries for months and is as authentic as they come. If you really want to say you’ve drunk kriek, drink this.

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale – another tasty beer from Brooklyn’s brewmaster Garrett Oliver, who conveys his love of British beers into this modern interpretation of an IPA, foregoing the temptation to slam it full of US hops and malts,  using only British varieties of both. Dangerously drinkable for the ABV so watch out!

Dugges Kals Stout – I haven’t had this particular beer from Dugges before but if I’ve learnt one thing over the past few years that is that Dugges know how to brew tasty stouts so I’m looking forward to giving this one a whirl.

St Eriks IPA – You’ll see from reading this blog that I’ve closely followed the ‘new’ St Eriks range since its relaunch with St Eriks Pilsner ealier this year. Under the watchful eye of Jessica Heidrich the St Eriks beers have given us some fascinating flavours and styles at a price that you simply can’t argue with. I therefore have high hopes for the IPA!

(ps: Sorry for the lack of pretty pictures. The wireless connection at McDonalds at Arlanda – where I am attempting to write this post from – is not the fastest or most reliable. The fact that this is the only McDonalds in Sweden that serves beer on tap is making up for some of the frustration this is causing. However it is Norrlands Guld so I’m kind of happy-sad).

It was only 9 days ago that we were bombarded with 12 Easter Beers and five rather special ‘middle of the month’ brews at the Systembolaget and the hits just keep on coming!

In just a few hours an additional 16 new beers will go on sale at the Swedish alcohol monopoly stores, among them some exciting brews from Europe, a couple of old campaigners from the UK as well as two Swedish brands that have practically been brought back from the dead (and maybe one or two that should have been left there).

Here’s a nuts and bolts linked-up list of the new beers being stacked on the shelves of the Systembolaget from 10am this morning:

Adnams The Bitter 500ml 19.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1686
Belhaven Wee Heavy  355ml 17.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1562
Bjørnebryg can 330ml 7.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1204
BrewDog Trashy Blond 330ml 15.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 11581
Bryggmästarens Premium Guld  500ml 12.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1445
Carlsberg Hof PET bottle 500ml 15.10SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1365
Früli Strawberry Beer 250ml 14.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1586
Guldkällan 500ml 14.50SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1472
Jenlain Blonde 330ml (can) 12.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1387
Lager No 1 500ml 24.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1413
Mikkeller Jackie Brown 500ml 34.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1312
Mohawk Extra India Pale Ale 500ml 36.10SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1419
Pripps Blå  330ml 10.50SEK Systembolaget Article Number 11451
St Eriks Pilsner 330ml 15.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1453
Sailor PET bottle 330ml 12.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1431
TT Green Lager can 330ml 8.90SEK Systembolaget Article Number 1495

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Followers of this blog will already know what I think about Mohawk Extra IPA so if you like your beers hoppy get out there and buy it!. Mikkeller’s Jackie Brown from Denmark is also a given, as is BrewDog’s Trashy Blonde which I previously wrote briefly about in the very early days of this blog.

Adnams the Bitter and Belhaven Wee Heavy are two beers from the British Isles that are well made examples of their respective styles. Maybe not mould-breaking but then not every beer needs to be does it?

I’m looking forward to trying Lager No 1 from Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri and seeing whether this innovative Swedish micro can make a beer with a bottom-fermenting yeast that is as interesting as the edgy ales and porters it is well known for.

The sight of Früli Strawberry Beer brings back horrible flashbacks of last year’s Hoegaarden Rosé but the word is that this Belgium wheat beer uses only real strawberry juice and no artificial essence. Let’s give it a chance!

Finally it’s a story of two bottles – the elegant and eye-catching St Eriks Pilsner – a resuscitated Swedish brand given the kiss of life by acclaimed Swedish brewer Jessica Heidrich and the downright tacky looking Sailor in a PET bottle, a sort of ”Carlsberg of the Caribbean” in all its mock plastic porcelain glory.

Yesterday on BeerSweden’s Facebook page I asked people to decide which beer should be the next reviewed here – the critcially acclaimed 1/2 idjit! imperial porter from Swedish micro Dugges in Gothenburg or a relatively unknown (and rather more difficult to get) amber ale produced by a Norwegian brewpub from Flåm that looks like it comes straight from the set of The Fellowship of the Ring.

The people voted (well about 5 of you actually) and asked for the Rallar – which meant I got to try my first ever beer from the Ægir Brewery, which has the distinction of being named Norway’s Brewpub of the Year in 2008.

The story behind this brewery’s name is wonderful. I’ll let their website explain:

”In Norse mythology, Ægir is described as a giant, the brother of Kári (Wind) and Logi (Fire) and the master of the ocean. Ægir’s hall is lit not by fire but instead by bright gold. Every year he invites the Norse gods to a great feast in his hall, Brime, where the beer and the food are magically transported to the guests and the drinking-horns fill themselves (editor’s note – got to get me one of those). According to Odin, Ægir brews the best ale. He has the world’s biggest brewing kettle, a mile deep, which Tor stole from the giant Hyme and gave to him. In Ægir’s hall the gods were never allowed to fight, and anyone making trouble was banished for all eternity (editor’s note – gulp…better be careful what I say then).”

All of Ægir’s beers are unpasteurised and unfiltered, which became pretty obviously the moment this beer hit my glass, pouring a murky chestnut brown with a noticeable yeast ‘throw’ as I reached the bottom of the bottle.

I wasn’t expecting a lot of hop character from this beer as amber ales tend to display a distinctively malty nature. Ægir uses no less than six different kinds of malts in Rallar. However I also wasn’t expecting the strong smells of yeasty bread dough it threw up. It was as though most of the freshness had already left this beer. It reminded me of the smell in the darkest parts of the woods in autumn, when mushrooms push through the wet fallen leaves and cover the roots of moss-covered trees.

To taste Rallar delivered a little more. The malts of course were there, giving the beer a nourishing, quite heavy feel with some brown syrup sweetness and faint chocolate. The hops were almost non-existent which made Rallar anything but refreshing.

Without wanting to incur the wrath of any gods I wasn’t that sold on Rallar Amber Ale. I understand that Norwegians are the butt of jokes here in Sweden very much like the Irish are to the English and the Canadians are to the Americans but Rallar Amber Ale could never be called a joke of a beer.

It’s completely missing a punchline.

(Editor’s note: 1/2 idjit next up!)

Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri from Gothenburg is arguably the coolest of the new generation of Swedish microbreweries. With their eye-catching ‘Miami’ coloured bottle labels and tongue-in-cheek brand names Dugges have always succeeded in making their beers look good as well as taste great.

I’ve personally had more than one enjoyable session at the Stockholm Beer Festival propped up against their stand, when it was all High Fives, me talking a lot of bollox and then leaving feeling a bit of an idjit.

Dugges was early to embrace American hops in its beers, creating a succession of innovative and generally well received beers. They’re largely responsible for making Swedish beers fun again, creating a buzz based on humour but with very serious beers to back their micro-message up.

I say all this as a precursor to what’s coming next because I really like Dugges. Really I do.

But I don’t like their Spring Beer Lager.

It wasn’t that long before things started going wrong. When I poured the beer into the glass I noticed it was a rather cloudy pale copper colour with a thin slightly yellow head – strange for a premium lager I thought. The first line in my notebook reads: ”Is this beer ok?”

I was partially reassured by mild hoppy smells of grass and orange but they were muted by something else unpleasant and yeasty.  In the mouth things went from bad to worse. The body is quite thin, with some initial malty sweetness followed by a short-lived bitter finish. The third line of my notebook reads: ”where are the hops?”

It all culminated with the strong taste impression of wet paper, a classic tell-tale sign of oxidized beer, which leads me to wonder if I stumbled upon a dud bottle. I hope it was, because this beer was stale and dull and Dugges is normally anything but.

So take this review at face value with a disclaimer that I may not have experienced Dugges Spring Beer at its best. I’d be very interested to hear what you all thought of it and will revisit it again to see whether I was just unlucky this time. If I was then forget all of the above, or as Dugges themselves would probably say, Never Mind the Bollox!

Dugges Spring Beer Lager

A Premium Lager

4.7% ABV

Systembolaget Article Number: 1479

The Systembolaget is making this particular Monday a little easier to get through with the release of 12 new beers going on sale from this morning.

The Swedish micros are particularly well represented this time round, with beers from Nynäshamn, Oppigårds. Sigtuna and Dugges hitting the shelves. Big brother brewery Spendrups is also there with it’s eye-catching and quirkily named Pistonhead Hot Roddin’ Lager.

Expect a review of all these beers over the coming days!

From the US comes Double Bastard Ale from Stone Brewing and Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale – both big, bold and critically acclaimed beers. The US invasion continues with a beer that “bites like a rattlesnake looking for a fight” – Hop Ottin’ IPA and an altogether tamer wheat ale from Good Islands Beer Company that feels a little out of season with the thermometer currently dipping below -20 degrees here in Umeå.

A pair of English style beers from Stensbogaard Bryghus in Denmark almost complete the new line-up; a dry IPA (India Pale Ale) and a coffee-tasting stout.

I said almost because Estrella Damm launches its non-alcoholic lager today. Now in fairness I haven’t tasted this one, only the ‘normal’ strength version. However if it’s a paler copy of that I warmly recommend you drink something (read ANYTHING) else instead.