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’s that time again. Tomorrow sees the release of 15 new beers at the Systembolaget stores, including several brands jostling for position to become your favourite fridge beer this summer.

Eleven of these beers are being released on a nationwide scale and will be available to pluck from the shelves at 10am in the morning. Four of them are a little more ‘exclusive’ (and consequently more expensive) and are only being stocked in around 30 stores so you might just need to order them in.

Here’s a list of the more widely available brands hitting the shelves:

And here’s those ‘harder to get hold off’ beers:

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I feel like dusting down my crocs and digging out my shorts when I read some of these names. Sigtuna Sommar Wit is summer in a bottle, Mohawk Summer IPA is a solid (if not spectacular) beer that will be in my hand when I’m BBQ-ing and Oppigård’s Summer Twist is destined, in my opinion, to become almost as folkkär as the brewery’s stupendous Amarillo Spring.

It will be fascinating to see if Jessica Heidrich’s summer sequel to St Erik’s Pilsner (you know, the beer in that bottle) is as hoppy and aromatic as the first and I’m curious to discover if Sleeping Bulldog has the bite a respectable IPA should have, or whether we should just let sleeping bulldogs lie.

Of course don’t forget Oppigårds’ ‘other’ beer, the grassy lager Slåtteröl or the big Mai-Ur-bock from Einbecker.

Probably the beer set to become the biggest seller of them all is Pistonhead Summer Brew. At just 10.90SEK and delivered in an eye-catching flaming skull can it certainly ticks the two largest boxes for commercial success. I’m really hoping it will be a bit more beer and a little less brand than the first Pistonhead. Fingers crossed.

Of the ‘harder to find beers’ the stand-outs are both American and both huge hop-bombs. Dugan A from Avery Brewing Co and Alesmith IPA from the Alesmith Brewing Company are certainly not beers for those looking for ‘light refreshment’ while mowing the lawn but they could be something to treat yourself to a little later on while watching the summer sun bounce down and back up again on the horizon.