Next weekend it’s ”all London Baby!” as I pack my bags and head over to the UK capital for the first ever European Beer Bloggers Conference!

Now I can practically hear the sniggering in some quarters already. A conference for beer bloggers? Are you serious? Whatever next? A conference for hundreds of fans of a particular make of American BBQ that like to call themselves Eggheads? (actually there already is one of those).

The serious truth is that beer blogging as a genre has developed in recent years to such an extent it now feels grown up enough to stage its own conference. In fact the first North American Beer Bloggers Conference was held back in November last year in Boulder, Colarado , where over 100 delegates participated.

The first European sister event runs over a packed two days and has attracted some of the most influential beer bloggers, food and drink writers and drinks industry figures, mainly from the UK but also Italy, the Netherlands and yes me representing Sweden!

And the good news is I won’t be all by myself as I’ve managed to talk Sigtuna Brygghus’s Head Brewer Mattias Hammenlind and flying brewer Jessica Heidrich (the creator of the S:t Eriks series of beers) into joining me in London to spread the buzz about Swedish beers among conference-goers.

Not only that but both Oppigårds Bryggeri and Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri are also sending over cases of their beers which will contribute to a formidable Swedish table that we are jointly hosting at the main ‘Night of Many Beers’ event being held at the Camden Town Brewery.

I’ll also be joining an international panel of bloggers to share experiences with delegates about the pitfalls and pleasures of writing and running blogs and to explore the possibilities of cooperating on an international scale.

I’m unbelievably excited to be a part of this inaugural conference and have high hopes it will underline what I have been saying for years now about the increasingly import role of blogs in spreading the word about great beer to a growing community of ‘on-line drinkers’.

To borrow a line from an article I wrote for Maltsen a few months back: “The responsibility to improve the status of beer blogging, is, of course, largely that of the bloggers themselves. As a group we need to take ourselves seriously first before we can expect anybody else to”.

This conference is a giant step towards this goal. The fact that four of Sweden’s most ambitious craft breweries will be represented at the conference in London next week also tells its own story.

I’ll of course be blogging the whole trip (you can’t attend a bloggers conference and not blog it now, can you) so remember to check back to see how we get on!

(ps: It’s still not too late to join us if you fancy a few days drinking world class beer in one of the most exciting cities in the world!)

“That’s the Way I Wanna Rock and Roll” is a track from Sigtuna Brygghus Head Brewer Mattias Hammenlind’s favourite hard rock band AC/DC. It also sums up nicely his approach to brewing beer.

Since becoming Sigtuna’s first full-time employee early last year Mattias has clearly struck a chord with beer drinkers in Sweden, masterminding the release of a string of imaginative beers including Sigtuna Black October, Symptom of the Universe Barley Wine and Vårweizen.

Sigtuna Brygghus Head Brewer Mattias Hammenlind checks the quality of his latest beer.

As a drummer in the band SuperJudge Mattias likes to play hard and fast. He applies the same high octane level of energy to brewing his beers.

“You could say I brew in A major, as that’s what AC/DC often play in and its their music I listen to when I start brewing my beers”, says Mattias.

“One of the conditions of starting here at Sigtuna was that I wanted to brew beers my way, which means big but also balanced”.

“My brewing style is a mix of classical British and US innovation”, he adds, meaning that like US microbreweries he isn’t afraid of tearing up the brewing style rulebook now and again in his quest to find new flavours.

“All our beers at Sigtuna have a distinctive character of their own but every one is made with the emphasis on quality, complexity and taste”.

If brewing volumes are anything to go by this no-limits approach to brewing certainly seems to be working at the brewery located in a business park three kilometres from Stockholm’s busy Arlanda airport. If anything, that means that cheap flights over to Arlanda to see this amazing process in action (or just to try some of his fantastic beer) is always an option.

The fermentation tanks at Sigtuna are filled to the brim with beers that will shortly fill shelves at the Systembolaget.

In 2008 Sigtuna Brygghus produced just 35,000 litres of beer. A year later that total had more than doubled to 100,000 litres. This year the brewery has already taken orders for more beer than they brewed in the whole of  2009, predicting to end 2010 on around 250,000 litres.

But such a meteoric rise in volumes doesn’t surprise Mattias. He believes the brewery can increase capacity to 1 million litres per year. “After that we’d have some serious space issues at the brewery” he says with a wry smile.

To meet the surge in demand for Sigtuna’s beers the brewery now employs another full-time brewer, Emil Lindén, who Mattias describes as the ”hardest working man in brewing” and his ”partner in crime” while the brewery owners themselves often roll up their sleeves and spend their free time helping to bottle and pack beers.

“It’s very much a team effort here at Sigtuna”, says Mattias. “When we’ve got so many orders and deadlines to meet it’s a question of everybody getting stuck in”.

Mattias’s journey from enthusiastic home brewer to a leading figure in the Swedish craft beer movement has been as as fast and frenetic as his taste in music.

British malts and UK and US hops are used to create many of Sigtuna Brygghus's beers.

In 2005 he was brewing beer at home but a visit to another fledgling Swedish microbrewery Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri in Gothenburg was to set him on his path to becoming a Head Brewer. After pestering Dugges’s owner to give him work experience he quit his job as a truck mechanic (“which I hated”) and spent a year learning the brewing process from the bottom up.

He then endured a particularly frustrating four months at Swedish brewing giant Spendrups, where he described his role as “opening and closing valves and pushing buttons more than anything to do with brewing beer”.

After qualifying from a two-year brewing course run by Ludvika technical college he was invited to step up to the big league and become Sigtuna’s first Head Brewer.

A look in the fermentation room at Sigtuna reveals rows of full tanks, each labelled with the name of a beer that will shortly be launched at the Swedish monopoly stores.

East River Lager was being filtered when BeerSweden paid a visit. To the left is the beer before it passed through the filter and to the right the finished 'look'.

While I was visiting the brewing team were filtering 4,000 litres of East River Lager, a very drinkable, crisp US-style lager that I wrote about a little while back. I managed to take a few sneaky sips and can confirm that this is yet another beer worth filling your fridge with when it is released at the Systembolaget on March 1st. Read a full review of this beer in the next few days.

Next out were not one but two Easter beers from Sigtuna this year. One is very good, the other is exceptional. I’ve already waxed lyrical about both beers here.

Add to this the forthcoming releases of ESB (Extra Sigtuna Bitter), described as a light bitter with malty tones and a pronounced bitter finish brewed using only British hops, Sigtuna Red Ale and Sigtuna Sommar Vit, a Belgium-style wheat beer spiced with lemongrass, lime and orange and its obvious Mattias and the gang have their hands full.

“And we wouldn’t want it any other way”, he says, and smiles as he heads back into the brewery to turn the hard rock music back on.

Swedish microbrewery Sigtuna Brygghus isn’t putting all its Easter eggs into one basket this year as it gets ready to launch not one but two Easter beers at the Systembolaget next month.

BeerSweden is thrilled to be the first blog anywhere to try them out almost 5 weeks before they go on sale on March 15th!

This Easter it basically comes down to a choice of colours. Do you prefer yellow or red?

Choose red and you’ve got yourself an American amber/red ale by the name of Sigtuna Röd Påsk. Brewed with an equal split of Centennial and Amarillo hops it pours a glowing sunset red and despite its 65-70 IBUs (international bitterness units) has a wonderfully balanced sweetness courtesy of dark crystal malts. At 6.2% ABV it has all the ‘weight’ and richness a red ale should have. Watch out for this one!

However, pick yellow and you’re in for a real treat. Sigtuna Easter Ale may not have the most imaginative brand name but I’m going to stick my neck out here and predict this is going to become one of the most popular Swedish beers launched this year.

Why? Well because it exemplifies everything Sigtuna Head Brewer Mattias Hammenlind believes a beer should be – big but balanced.

He’s taking a calculated risk by moving away from the British and US hops Sigtuna normally uses and instead has experimented with New Zealand Pacific Gem and Riwaka hops, the latter of which has achieved something of a cult status down under where it is considered by many to be more than a match for US favourites like Centennial and Cascade.

But boy was the risk worth taking! Open a bottle of Sigtuna Easter Ale and the aroma will literally demand your immediate attention. The Riwaka hops burst out of the bottle with thick, oily, luscious smells of tropical fruit, sweet lychees and lemons. The taste of this 5.6% ABV beer is as invigorating as rolling around naked in snow, with lots of fresh citrus flavours and a welcome and assertive bitter finish.

It’s simply amazing stuff, and together with a beer from another Swedish micro I recently raved about is yet more proof that Swedish craft beer isn’t only catching up with the US and other craft brewing nations- it’s leaving some of them behind.

Put the date of Monday, March 15th in your diary right now so you don’t miss the chance to try these two colourful Easter beers from Sigtuna Brygghus.

(BeerSweden spent a great afternoon at Sigtuna Brygghus earlier this week, sampling new beers  – some of which haven’t even been named yet – and talking about the brewery’s explosive growth and exciting plans for the future. Full coverage of the visit will being posted very soon here at BeerSweden!)

It’s certainly the season of giving at Sigtuna Bryggeri as it announces the launch of another new beer just two days after releasing details of its upcoming ESB (Extra Sigtuna Bitter).

This time it’s Sigtuna East River Lager, a 5.2% ABV amber-coloured lager that Head Brewer Mattias Hammenlind promises will have a fresh, floral hoppy aroma and a toffee-like malt body.

The beer, which is due to be released in the Swedish Systembolaget in March next year, will be dry hopped with US Vanguard. Sigtuna recommends pairing it with traditional Swedish food as well as pizza.

As with their ESB label Sigtuna are featuring another famous bridge on the front of their East River Lager, this time the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

Restaurant owners who don’t want to wait until March can order bottles from Brill.

Sigtuna's Brewmaster Mattias Hammenlind with one of the brewery's founders Lars Landeman looking on. Foto: Helena Havlund: www.vinochgastronomi.se

Under the flight path of planes landing at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport lies Sigtuna Brygghus, one of a new wave of microbreweries taking off in Sweden right now.

Brewmaster Mattias Hammenlind is the man who’s ‘heavy metal’ approach to brewing has helped create a new buzz around Sigtuna which has seen sales soar and a clutch of new brands launched at the monopoly stores.

”Good beer should be mashed in with AC/DC playing in your headphones”, says Mattias. BeerSweden couldn’t agree more, so we’re rocking out with the second in our ’5 Questions’ series to Metal Head Matt Hammenlind, Brewmaster at Sigtuna Brygghus.

BeerSweden: I’ve searched around the internet but couldn’t find much about your brewery’s history. Can you tell us how it all began and the people behind Sigtuna Brygghus?

Mattias: The story about Sigtuna Brygghus began in 2005 when a couple of beer enthusiasts/homebrewers/beer geeks got together and decided to start a brewery. For years the brewery was a hobby for them but in 2009 they decided to take it a step forward. I started working here as a Brewmaster in January 2009 and we have since then hired one more person full-time and tripled our production from 35000 litres to 100000 litres of beer. The brewery still relies on hard-working part owners that work several hours a week for free.

BeerSweden: What is your beer philosophy at Sigtuna Brygghus. Where do you get your brewing inspiration from?

Mattias: Great Britain for their brewing tradition and American microbreweries for their innovation and boldness.

BeerSweden: What would you say are the biggest changes in the Swedish micro-brewing scene over the past 5 years?

Mattias: The amount of breweries and the will to make ”out of style” beers.

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BeerSweden: That’s the past. How do you see the future of beer in Sweden developing over the next few years?

Mattias: I think will see more microbreweries starting up in Sweden and I think people in general will appreciate ”craft beer” more and more. Hopefully in the future people will stop drinking fizzy yellow ”beer” that is more comparable to tap water than real beer.

BeerSweden: Finally congratulations on two new releases at the Systembolaget (Snowblind Strong Ale and Midvinternattens Mörker) in the past month. Have you got any new beers or plans in the pipeline you can tell us about?

Mattias: There´s always beer in the pipeline! We got three releases at the Systembolaget next year (so far…); two easter ales, Sigtuna Röd Påsk and Sigtuna Easter Ale. Then in February our weissbier, Sigtuna Vårweizen will be released. In January there will be a collaboration between me and the Brewmaster at another European brewery. We´re making what we think will be a really exciting beer. I´ll tell you more when we finished the details.

***News Flash***

From Mattias posted on Facebook today: ”Sigtuna Brygghus+ Nørrebro Bryghus=Yeah! Den 21 Januari kommer jag att göra ett gästbrygg på Nørrebro Bryghus tillsammans med deras bryggmästare Anders Kissmeyer. Vad vi kommer att brygga håller vi hemligt ett tag, men att det blir nåt spännande kan jag garantera…”

See all of Sigtuna’s beers available at the Systembolaget here.