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?!!)

In the third in my series of Beer Geek Brunch Interviews I talk with Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, the ‘flying brewer’ behind the world famous Mikkeller brand who has amassed more brewing air miles than any other and ask him about the differences between the Danish and Swedish beer scenes, his need to teach and whether he gets bored easily……

Mikkel Borg Bjergsø - a man who gets bored very very easily (thank goodness!)

BeerSweden: First off Mikkel, as we’re sitting here in Stockholm, what is your impression of the Swedish beer scene?

Mikkel: There’s no doubt that the Swedish beer drinkers and the Swedish beer scene are a billion years ahead of the Danish in the sense that in Denmark it is a discount country and few people give a s%#t about anything as long as it’s cheap, which is very different from in Sweden. Swedish people are a lot more into what they do, so if they’re into beer they’re into it 100%. You don’t take the second best if you’re into it.

It’s probably why we sell at least five times as much beer in Sweden as we do in Denmark!

In Denmark in our bar in Copenhagen we have a lot of Swedish customers because they (and this isn’t to say my beer is best but) they know what quality is.  

You also have a lot of beer bloggers in Sweden and I don’t think we have any (Ed note: well there are a few, like this one, but not many). It’s just a different way of looking at things in the beer world.

Also when we come here you can almost feel it. When you talk to people it’s a different approach and people are a lot more enthusiastic about what you do in my opinion.

I enjoy coming to Sweden and doing stuff. We did a beer dinner in Helsingborg (Ed note: that would be thanks to Fredrik and Gastro!) a couple of years back and I think we had 160 people over two nights. That would be impossible in Denmark.

BeerSweden: One thing that fascinates me about you Mikkel is the sheer number and range of beer styles you brew. Do you get bored easily?

Mikkel: (laughing) Yeah yeah yeah, I get bored the second time I brew a beer. For me the fun thing about brewing beer is making something up, thinking up something, realising it in a brewery and then tasting it to see; did I get what I thought it would be? The second time I brew the same recipe I know what will come out of it and it’s not so interesting anymore.

That’s why I have at least, at least, 20 new recipes on hand at any time. Any time I drink a beer, where I am, if I talk to people that are into beer and they say it would be fun to taste something I always think “how can I turn this experience into a beer”?

BeerSweden: Most other brewers tend to stick with a beer that is successful. You on the other hand can brew an amazing beer and then move on and brew something completely different. Are you always going to do that?

Mikkel: I hope so. Last year I think we released 76 new beers and I thought, OK, that’s pretty crazy but I think this year it will be more actually.

BeerSweden: Of all these beers is there one that you’re particularly proud of?

Mikkel: Of course there are a few of them. I’m very happy about my light beer ‘Drink’in the Sun’ which this year is 2.4% ABV. It’s a beer that I made about three years ago (Ed note: it started off at 3.9% abv and is not currently available in Sweden) and I make it lighter (in alcohol) every year. I want to see how light I can make it and still keep all the flavours and stuff. It’s a beer you can drink a lot of but it still really gives you something. The style is an American wheat (30% wheat) fermented with an American ale yeast so it doesn’t have all those banana flavours and stuff and then I add Amarillo and Tettnanger.

Then…….every time I drink Beer Geek Brunch Weasel I like it. For me it’s the perfect Imperial Stout. Of course I’m not saying there aren’t better ones out there but for me…I don’t think I can make a better one. I don’t know how I would make it better.

BeerSweden: You used to work as a teacher. Do you still have that teaching ‘gene’ in you and are you trying to educate us through beer?

Mikkel: Oh for sure. I think with the single hop series, the yeast series, the barrel-aging series and now what we are doing with the lambic fruit beers for me yes it’s teaching people about beer rather than just brewing it. When I was a homebrewer I did single hopped beers myself to teach myself about the different hops. I think it’s really important for beer drinkers to learn more about their beer. In my opinion wine was, and still is, ahead of beer in the sense that when people drink wine they often know a little bit about it – what grapes are in it and such. With beer people just say “this is an IPA” and mean that it’s bitter. I think it’s really important to know what hops are in it and where it comes from.

BeerSweden: You’ve already achieved so much but what are your ambitions for the future?

Mikkel: This is a question I get asked all the time and to be honest I don’t have any f#%king clue! I don’t have any ambitions actually. When we decided to do a commercial batch for the first time coming from homebrewing we thought “if we could sell this batch it would be cool” but if we couldn’t we’d have 3000 bottles of beer and we could drink it ourselves. Then this batch was sold and we did the next one, then the next one. And here we are today.

If people lose interest in my beers I can always go back and teach. It not that I have a dream of taking over the beer world or anything. But of course I enjoy what we have now and enjoy that we’re growing and that people like our beers.

BeerSweden: Any plans for a Mikkeller Bar in Stockholm?

Mikkel: I would like that! We are also looking at a few other places as well…….

BeerSweden: Last question Mikkel – is there one beer style you would NOT brew?

Mikkel: (Long pause) Probably a German wheat beer because first of all I don’t really care for it and second of all the ones brewed in Germany that are really good would be impossible for me to do any better. Why do I style that I don’t believe I can add anything to? But maybe I will, one day, if I run out of other ideas……

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

Now that the bonfires lit to celebrate Valborg (which outside of Sweden is known – or as is often the case not known – as Walpurgis night) are nothing more than smouldering memories it’s the Systembolaget’s turn to herald in Spring with the release of seven new beers being released in around 30 stores around the country from 10am today.*

Unlike the last release which burned a serious hole in our wallets you can buy all seven of these beers for a rather more reasonable 290.30SEK. Question is; do you really get more for less?

Let’s work from the top down. First out is Bödeln IPA from the gang at Hantverksbryggeriet based in Västerås. I believe this might be the first time Raimo and his crew have broken away from their three closest Systembolaget stores, finally giving the rest of us a chance to try some of their excellent hand-crafted beers. And Bödeln (which means ‘the executioner’) is a beer that the brewery promises can do some serious harm to your tastebuds with an aggressive American hop character of grapefruit and spice that leaves a lååååååång after-taste. Any beer that wins a Gold Medal at the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival is worth a punt in my book. Highly recommended!

Great Divide is a US brewery that I hugely admire. After all they’ve given us classics such as Yeti, Old Ruffian and Titan IPA. This Denver-based brewery brews the US way, and that means big. However their track record with Belgium beer styles isn’t quite as impressive and in the case of their Grand Cru I’m not so sure I want to be drinking a sweet tasting big-arse 11%  US style Belgium strong ale now that the sun has made a comeback…..

Grebbestad Lunator is a beer that has popped up several years in the monopoly, although exactly when can vary from year to year. Again I feel this release is about as well timed as a Paul Scholes tackle, with another powerful beer that for me is best drunk during those long months when the sun struggles to crest the horizon. Having said that this Swedish produced doppelbock is a finely crafted beer so you might want to do like me and buy a few bottles to squirrel away for when the snow returns (Ed Note: which in Norrland is in about a fortnight).

It’s back to Belgium again with the fourth beer on the list but this time it comes from a brewery that I know understands Belgium beers beautifully. After all, Brouwerij De Ranke comes from there and who can forget their unforgettably puckering XX bitter? Guldenberg is another Belgium Strong Ale (albeit slightly tamer in alcohol at 8.5%ABV) and I’m willing to bet De Ranke’s customary abundance of hops will scratch away much of the sweetness to deliver an assertively bitter and refreshing drink. For less than 27SEK a bottle I’m all in.

Ichtegems Grand Cru is a beer I reviewed a year ago on this blog, when I wrote of its smell: ”a splash of vinegar, some light berry and red onion aromas and old leather” and of its taste: ”loads of wood throughout and the finish is tannic, dry and long” (read the whole review here). Personally it feels like I’ve done this one but if you haven’t tried a Flemish red ale before you really should.

Oh Mikkeller, Mikkeller, Mikkeller. Can you do no wrong? Is there nothing you can’t brew a beer with and catapult it to the top of the Ratebeer rankings? Take, for example, the idea of making a coffee IPA. On paper it sounds like a train wreck and yet somehow this Danish brewing virtuoso manages to pull it off. I tried the first incarnation of this beer using a different (although equally impossible to pronounce) type of Ethiopian coffee. Word is that this Odoo Shakiso version doesn’t quite reach the heights of the original but I for one want to find out for myself. A must buy!

Finally we arrive at a beer produced by a pair of young Danish brewers who were inspired to start brewing after a late night conversation with their teacher – none other than Mikkel Borg Bjergsø (that’s the Mikkel in Mikkeller in case you were wondering). To Øl Frontier IPA is exactly the kind of beer I do want to drink this spring, dry hopped as it is with heaps of Warrior, Simcoe and Centennial hops to deliver a sharp, fruity, floral taste with just enough muscle to ward off the crisp chill of a May evening. Recommended!

* The rest of us can order in bottles via the Web to our chosen store.

Forget California, Pilsen and Fraserburgh – over the next couple of weeks it is Stockholm that will be at the very centre of the beery universe.

Brewing stars and their beers are right this moment being irresistibly pulled toward the Swedish capital as we enter the final countdown towards one of the world’s most respected beer events – the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival.

Now in its 19^th year and larger than ever before the SBWF is a festival of real gravitas. The list of celebrated brewers checking into Stockholm and staging events of their own in and around the festival is proof, if ever it was needed, that the brewing world is taking Sweden seriously these days.

James Watt from BrewDog likes to do things first. His brewery was the first to freeze a beer in an ice-cream factory and name it after a flightless aquatic bird, first to launch a beer with 0.5% of alcohol that still has enough hops to contort your face the same way ski-diving does and he’s first out with a Beer Makers Dinner ‘Dinner for Punks’ on Wednesday, September 29^th.

Only 30 seats are being pulled up around the dinner table for a three-course meal at the Bishops Arms in Folkungagatan and the promise of some exciting BrewDog beers presented by James himself. Tickets are selling fast (probably gone by the time you read this) but if you can’t make it don’t worry because I’ll be there to grab an interview with James and drink all his beer. I might even do it live!

BA ‘Folkis’ is proving once again why it has the reputation as one of the coolest beer pubs in Sweden by hosting another Beer Makers Dinner only a week later and this time none other than Mikkel of Mikkeller is dropping by! The event takes place on Wednesday, October 6^th and is already sold out.

Over at Monks they’ve been busy putting together a line-up of brewing ‘celebrities’ who will each be giving a talk and tastings of at least five of their own beers. Frank Müller, brewmaster at Brauhaus Riegele in Germany is first up on October 1^st at Monks at Wallingatan 38.

Greg Hall will be talking about his award-winning beers.

Greg Hall, head brewer at Goose Island Brewery in Chicago, USA is making an appearance at the same pub on October 8^th. Details here.

Last, but certainly not least, is Menno Olivier, brewmaster at the celebrated de Molen Brouwerij in Holland. Menno is the creative force behind some of the most amazing experimental beers coming out of Europe and whatever he’s got to say about beer is bound to be worth listening to. Hear him at Monks Porter House on October 8^th.

Stene from Akkurat adding more hops to '6 of the Best'!

Of course it would be remiss of me not to mention the launch of ‘6 of the Best’ at Akkurat on Wednesday, October 6^th at, you’ve guessed it, 6pm. Only 16 casks of this specially brewed beer were made at the pilot brewery belonging to Shepherd Neame to commemorate the 15^th anniversary of one of Sweden’s absolute best beer joints.  As well as ‘6 of the Best’ there will be a selection of other Sheps cask beers on tap and I’ll be on hand to answer any questions you may have. See you there!