It’s time for another guest blogger spot and today it’s a beer review written by Anders Thomas  (a regular commenter over at BeerSweden’s Facebook page) who has managed to get his hands on a bottle of Cacao-Porter from the newly started Malmö Brygghus.

Here's today's guest blogger Anders Thomas!

Only 2,000 bottles of this 8% ABV beer are being produced and sold locally through the Systembolaget and Anders is one of the very first people to review it. As with any review this is a very personal judgement that I’ve ‘creatively’ translated into English for all you non-Swedish readers. I’ll also be trying to get my hands on a bottle (which is not easy if you live at the other end of the country) to tell you what I think about it too. So without further ado it’s over to Anders!

När man öppnar den väldigt påkostade flaskan, med patentkork och guldtryck, och sätter näsan emot så känner man en svag doft av kakao. Det är inget mer, bara lite kakao. Jag hade väntat mig lite mer toner av kaffe, kanske lite doft från malten, men icke.

When you open this very expensive looking bottle with its stopper and gold print and smell you get a weak aroma of cocoa. There’s nothing more, just a little cocoa. I was expecting more tones of coffee, maybe a little more malt, but no.

Den är väldigt trevlig att hälla upp, nu växer doften i takt med det tjocka skummet. Färgen är som starkt kaffe, med en kant av rödaste rubin. Mycket vackert helt utan grumligheter.

It is a very pleasant beer to pour and now the aroma is released at the same time as the thick head builds up. The colour is like strong coffee with a hint of the reddest ruby. Extremely beautiful and completely clear.

Dags att ge glaset ”a whirl” och upp stiger nu ganska och svaga dofter. Kakao, givetvis, men också den förväntade doften av kaffe, där fanns lite läder och något mer som jag och den andre mannen i sällskapet kände igen men inte kunde placera. Vi försökte värka fram vad det var, men det var inte förrän damen i sällskapet konstaterade ”kåldolmar” som det satt, givetvis! En klar och tydlig, men inte på något vis obehaglig doft av kåldolmar.

Time to give the glass a whirl (Ed Note: I’m proud of you Anders!) and now some fairly vague smells are detectable. Cocoa of course, but also some expected smells of coffee, some leather and something else that neither I or the person I was with managed to put a name to. We tried to pin it down but it wasn’t before the lady in our company pointed out ‘stuffed cabbage rolls’ that we got it! A very definite , although not unpleasant, smell of cabbage rolls.

När man tar en mun känns en tydlig beska och en viss bitterhet från kakaon. Kaffet kommer igen tillsammans med lite brända toner. Denna porter ligger på 8% alkohol, men det känns inte. Eftersmaken är lång och känns i början lite humlesträv på tungan och i gommen. Efter en stund planar beskan ut och tonar ut i en smak av lakrits. Den smaken sitter envist kvar till sist i munnen, som en tapet i ett hus som delvis har rasat ihop.

In the mouth you experience a distinct bitterness, with a certain bitterness coming from the cocoa. Coffee flavours make a return with some mild burnt tones. This porter is 8% ABV but it doesn’t feel that strong. The finish is long and starts with rasping hops on the tongue and palate. After a while the bitterness softens out into a taste of liquorice and this stubbornly stays in the mouth until the very end, like wallpaper in a house that has fallen down (Ed note: not sure if that translates that well but you get the drift right?)

Detta är inte en ”klassisk” chokladstout, utan har en trevlig kakaosmak som aldrig tar över och dominerar, utan balanseras upp av alla de andra smakerna.

This isn’t a ‘classic’ chocolate stout, but rather a pleasant taste of cocoa that never dominates but balances up all the other flavours.

Vi delade upp betyget i tre delar:

We have divided up the scores in three parts:

Doft: 4,5 av 10. Dofterna var förvisso där, men alldeles för svaga och otydliga. Kåldolmen var kul.

Smell: 4.5 out of 10. The aromas are certainly there, but altogether too weak and vague. The cabbage rolls were fun though!

Utseende i glaset: 7 av 10. Inte mycket att diskutera, kanske lite väl mörk, svårt att se nåt annat än en mörk vätska.

Appearance: 7 out of 10. Not much to say here, perhaps a little too dark, difficult to pick out anything more than a dark liquid.

Smak: 8 av 10. Den går upp ett eller två snäpp på grund av eftersmaken som rullade på länge och ändrade karaktär från beska till lakrits och allt där emellan.

Taste: 8 out of 10: It improves because of the finish which lasted a long time and changed the beer’s character from bitterness to liquorice and everything in-between.

Thanks Anders for taking the time to write this review. If you want to be a guest blogger on BeerSweden just send your contribution to me at darren@beersweden.se. Remember anything with a beery theme can be submitted – a review of your last beer, an amazing (or disgusting) beer and food combination, a report from your favourite pub…..you get the idea.

There are times when a beer and a place fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw. A symbiosis in which the presence of one lifts the other to new heights.

And that’s exactly what happened (both metaphorically and literally) when BeerSweden follower Anders Thomas recently found himself halfway up a mountain with his wife during an Alpine holiday in Austria.

Thirsty after a 500 metre hike up through Sportgastein (a popular ski resort) they managed to find a watering hole and ordered this bottle of Edelweiss Hefetrub Weissbier – a classic German-style hefeweizen.

In the background is the spectacular sight of Graukogel that towers 2492 metres into the clouds. If there is ever a place on earth to enjoy a weissbier surely this is it?

As Anders says himself: ”I’m usually not a big fan of weissbiers but there is something special about them when you drink it in the right surroundings. And I do believe that it can´t be more right than on a mountintop on a sunny day with the love of your life. And I do love the alps. And my wife”.

Thanks for sending this breathtaking picture in Anders. I felt the overwhelming urge to break out into ”The Sound of Music” the second I first saw it!

If you have a picture of a beer you enjoyed in a special place then why not send it in to me at darren@beersweden.se and you could be the next BeerSweden guest blogger!

Remember anything with a beery theme can be submitted – a review of your last beer, an amazing (or disgusting) beer and food combination, a report from your favourite pub…..you get the idea!

It doesn’t matter if you write in English or Swedish. All that matters is that you have fun writing it

.

A few days ago I asked you, the ‘thirsty faithful’ to submit your own posts for BeerSweden.

The idea is for all of us get involved in creating a beery buzz in this country by uploading original content that you yourself have created. It doesn’t matter if it’s a video, an article, a beer review, a photograph or a spoof. Neither does it matter if it’s in English or Swedish. The only stipulation is that it’s about beer! (Ed note: and that it doesn’t break too many laws….).

So first out is this very professional and in-depth video beer review from BeerSweden fan Peter Nyström, who told me this ‘tribute’ video was filmed after a long day of testing beers (Ed note: You think?). I can only marvel and feel somewhat jealous of Peter’s unique tasting technique and use of metaphors. The look on his face when he smells the beer really does just say it all

Have you got a post you want to submit to this blog? Then what are you waiting for? Send it to me at darren@beersweden.se.

Cheers and Beers!

Darren

(ps: This video is in Swedish, although quite honestly I don’t think it really matters