Good things, they say, come in threes, so Swedish beer fans should be feeling really good about themselves as the Systembolaget launches not one but three releases of new beers this Thursday (September 1^st).

Following the monopoly’s re-jigging of the way it launches beers over the summer (the more ‘exclusive’ middle-of-the-month releases are now history and have been lumped together with the ‘start-of-the-month’ releases) you’re going to need strong arms and a big wallet if you’re going to take home a bottle of everything coming your way later this week.

That’s because the combined temporary seasonal and exclusive launches are coinciding this month with the annual release of Octoberfest beers, bringing the total number of new brews going on sale to a whopping 34!

To avoid exceeding this blog’s storage limit in a single post I’ll break the beers down into their respective releases:

Temporary Seasonal Release September 1^st (Autumn release)

This smoked beer from Jessica Heidrich is a great introduction to the style.

Falcon Pilsener (SB nr 11606-03) Sweden 12,90 SEK
Mohawk Rye Lager (SB nr 95370-01) Sweden 26,90 SEK
Sigtuna Dunkel Lager(SB nr 11236-03) Sweden 17,90 SEK
Dugges Höstbrygd (SB nr 11703-01) Sweden 27,50 SEK
Beer Here HöstCitra (SB nr 11733-01) Danmark 37,50 SEK
Sigtuna Höstporter (SB nr 11806-01) Sweden 24,90 SEK
Beer Here HöstStout (SB nr 11803-01) Denmark 37,50 SEK
S:t Eriks Rauköl(SB nr 11705-03) Sweden 23,90 SEK

You can read and see what I think about Sigtuna Höstporter, Sigtuna Dunkel Lager and S:t Eriks Rauköl by following the links. The Beer Here Höst Citra is a name-change for Danish brewer Christian Skovdal Andersen’s risqué Karma Citra brown ale. Check out the details – if you dare!

Similarly Beer Here Höst Stout is a re-working of its Ammestout, a sweet stout whose original label (depicting a mother swigging beer out of a bottle while breast-feeding) would have been disqualified faster than Usian Bolt at the Systembolaget.

I’m really looking forward to some Dugges up here in Norrland but I think I’ll pass on the Falcon.

Octoberfest Beers (availability will vary)

Black, moody and perfect for the colder Autumn nights.

Flying Dog Dogtoberfest Märzen (SB nr 11231) USA 355 ml 25,90 SEK
Herslev Bryghus Oktober Bock (SB nr 11229) Denmark 500 ml 39,90 SEK
Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier (SB nr 11298) Germany 500 ml 19,90 SEK
Kaltenberg Oktoberfest (SB nr 11278) Sweden 500 ml 18,50 SEK
Löwenbräu Oktoberfestbier (SB nr 11210) Germany 500 ml 19,90 SEK
Oppigårds Oktoberfestbier (SB nr 11238) Sweden 500 ml 25,90 SEK
Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier (SB nr 11250) Germany 500 ml 20,90 SEK
Red October (SB nr 1246) Sweden 330 ml 15,90 SEK
Samuel Adams Octoberfest (SB nr 11261) USA 355 ml 17,90 SEK
Sigtuna Black October (SB nr 11262) Sweden 500 ml 23,90 SEK
Spaten Oktoberfestbier (SB nr 11281) Germant 500 ml 19,90 SEK
Weltenburger Kloster Oktober-Festbier (SB nr 11290) Germany 500 ml 23,10 SEK

I recorded a BSTV show last year that features two of these beers (Hofbräu and Samuel Adams) plus gives you a bit of the background behind the world’s biggest beery knees-up. To be honest Octoberfest beers aren’t my favourite style, tending to be somewhat bland. I either go traditional (only breweries located within the city limits of Munich can truly call their beers Octoberfest beers and be served on tap at the festival) or totally the other way and look for contemporary spins.

Special mentions here for Flying Dog Dogtoberfest Märzen (coolest name of the release), Sigtuna Black October and Oppigårds Oktoberfestbier.

‘Exclusive’ Release September 1^st (in around 30 selected stores)

10,000 bottles of Ingrid will go fast so you'd better be quick!

Black Rooster The Hoptimizer IPA (SB nr 11021) Denmark 500 ml 49,90 SEK
Bröderna Andersson´s Brutal Oak Edition (SB nr 1404) Sweden 250 ml 79,90 SEK
Caracole Ambrée (SB nr 11019) Belgium 330 ml 26,90 SEK
Fuller’s Past Masters Double Stout (SB nr 11018) UK 500 ml 34,50 SEK
Hello My Name Is Ingrid (SB nr 11177) UK 330 ml 36,90 SEK
Jai Alai India Pale Ale (SB nr 1596) USA 750 ml 109,00 SEK
Maduro Brown Ale (SB nr 1547) USA 750 ml 99,00 SEK
Nils Oscar Jubileum 15 (SB nr 11022) Sweden 750 ml 99,00 SEK
Nøgne Ø Imperial Brown Ale (SB nr11025) Norway 500 ml 49,90 SEK
Shipyard Smashed Blueberry (SB nr11740) USA 650 ml 69,00 SEK
Saint Amatus (SB nr 1626) Belgium 330 ml 59,90 SEK
Thisted Black Ale (SB nr 11017) Denmark 330 ml 24,90 SEK
Thisted Limfjordsporter(SB nr 11237) Denmark 330 ml 23,10 SEK
Tournay Noire (SB nr 11020) Belgium 330 ml 29,80 SEK

Of these Fuller’s is a given, as is the Nils Oscar Jubileum (I have a thing for saison-ish beers from NO) and Nøgne Ø Imperial Brown Ale. Neither can I resist a bottle of Saint Amatus from the acclaimed De Struise Brouwers in Belgium or (checking my wallet) the big bottles from Cigar City (Jai Alai and Maduro).

Which leaves lastly, but not leastly, our dear Ingrid. I don’t think there’s very much left for me to write about her is there, but I’ll sign off this monstrously long post by saying I’ve tasted old and new Ingrid side-by-side (video coming very soon) and can only echo the words of BrewDog James when he said: “”The new batch of Ingrid rocks – better than the first”!

Good luck on Thursday everyone. I hope you get the beers you’re after

First of all take some deep breaths and relax. There’s no need to sit by your computer tomorrow waiting for the latest release of beers at the Systembolaget to go on sale at 10am just so you can press the F5 refresh button as though your life depended on it in the hope of being the first to place your order.

As it turns out that’s not how the system part of the Systembolaget works, but more about that in another post later this week!

Relax, calm down. There's no need to panic!!

That’s not to say you should take too long before checking out tomorrow’s beers though as several of them are highly rated, hard to get hold of and likely to fly off the shelves almost as fast as you can say ‘Ingrid’.

Here’s a list of the nine beers coming your way in the morning – with hyperlinks to Ratebeer so you can see what other beer fans are saying about them.

11142 De Molen Vuur & Vlam 330ml 32,90SEK
1141 De Molen Hemel & Aarde 330ml 59,90SEK
11143 De Molen Mooi & Meedogenloos 750ml 99,60SEK
11140 De Molen Hel & Verdoemnis Misto B.A. 180ml 59,90SEK
11127 Hornbeer Hophorn 500ml 56,90SEK
11150 Goose Island Pére Jacques 2010 650ml 119,90SEK
11153 Amager Mikkeller Hr Frederiksen Veasel Brunch 500ml 99,90SEK
11138 Amager Citra Weiss 500ml 55,80SEK
11154 Cuvée de Ranke 750ml 79,30SEK

At this point I’d normally tell you all about each beer and whether you should buy it but while taking my morning walk through the beer blogs this morning I found that Manker over at his excellent site had already done a great review (in Swedish only) so I warmly recommend you take a trip over there to check out what he has to say.

All I can add is that although the last De Molen beer was not as amazing as I’d hyped hoped* every one of the 4 De Molens being released tomorrow are worth trying (let’s just stop for a second and let that sink it – four freaking De Molen beers are being released in the monopoly ON THE SAME DAY!!)

Personally I’m making a straight line for the Hel & Verdoemnis Misto B.A,  a beer aged in bourbon casks. Admitedly you don’t get a lot of liquid for your money compared to most other beers but you do get masses of flavours and a beer that can be aged for many years ahead.

I tried Hornbeer Hophorn at the Stockholm Beer & Whiskey Festival last year and recall in a frantic (but highly enjoyable) tasting of amazing Danish beers that this was one of my favourites. It will be interesting to see how this second black IPA in a month stacks up to the rather confusing one I had from fellow Danish brewery Amager recently.

Talking of which Amager makes a welcome return with two beers both of which are must-tries. If you mix two world-class imperial stouts in Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch Weasel and Amager Bryghus Hr. Frederiksen the results have got to be spectacular, right?

Citra is all the fashion among the hoparazzi right now but teaming it up with a German Hefeweizen is going to take it right out of its comfort zone. This beer will certainly be interesting to try!

Goose Island is always a safe investment and the last beer I had from De Ranke was superb so this old sour beer blended with Girardin lambic should get me feeling all spring-like in no time at all.

That’s it. I said I wouldn’t write about each beer but ended up doing it anyway. I just can’t stop myself sometimes

* The De Molen in question was Op & Top which on its own was a little thin and fizzy but came to life with a juicy joint of roast pork served with roasted parsnips!

It’s that time of the month again (Ed note: no, forget it) when the Systembolaget makes beer lovers just that little bit happier with the release of some fresh new beers.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 15th) a total of 6 beers go on sale at the monopoly’s vinkällarbutiker in Gothenburg, Malmö and Stockholm with three coming from neighbouring Denmark and the other three from arguably the world’s most fascinating beer producing nation, Belgium.

First out is Deus Brut de Flandres, a champagne-like beer that needs no further introduction. My recommendation? Buy it.

Next is Guldenberg, a strong blonde 8.5% ale from De Ranke (the brewery that recently melted my tastebuds with this beer) that they claim is ‘vaguely’ an abbey style beer, bears no resemblance whatsoever to any Tripel you may have sampled (except in colour) and is very hoppy and malty. If you’re as confused as I am about what to expect there’s only one thing to do – buy a bottle and try it (or wait until I fork out nearly 70 spänn and review it for you of course…..)

The final beer from Belgium is a classic that is the main reason why I’ll be standing here at 10am in the morning. Rochefort 8 is a Trappist Belgium strong ale held in the highest esteem in the beery world. Here’s what I wrote about it waaaay back in 2006:

”Stewed tea appearance with a quickly thinning tan head. Powerful aromas of earth, fruit and marzipan. As with all the Rocheforts, the mouthfeel was excellent, with tight carbonation and a pleasing level of residual bitterness. However I couldn’t escape from the fact I got a lot of soap flavour from this bottle. I swear if I’d burped bubbles would have come out of my mouth…….. And the alcohol is a little raw, especially when it warms up. Not as well balanced as the 10 in my opinion but still a classy beer that paired well with a very over-ripe brie”.

Back then I gave it 3.9 out of 5 (drunk fresh with no ageing).

However what’s particularly exciting about tomorrow’s release of Rochefort 8 is that it’s coming at you in a 1.5L bottle. These are just made for ageing (the larger volume of beer can affect the development of taste in the second fermentation of a beer leading to a fuller and smoother character) so I’ll be buying a bottle to keep and I recommend if you can spare 265 SEK you should too.

Over to Denmark and two beers from the Bøgedal brewery – Scandinavia’s only all gravity brewhouse (i.e they don’t use pumps to circulate the beer). These beer are truly handcrafted and can vary noticeably from batch to batch. The bottles are very wine-like in appearance and labelled simply with the number of the brew, the type of beer and the hops used and the brewing and bottling dates.

I recently tried Bøgedal 213 at a tasting in Stockholm and picked out smell of boiled sweets and watermelon and flavours of wine-gums and a noticeable balancing acidity. A very wine-y beer indeed.

Bøgedal Hvede (brewing batches 207,208,209,210,211 and 212) is the brewery’s take on a wheat beer with the traditional additions of orange and coriander. It’s an unknown quantity to me but I really like the sense of respect for grass roots brewing I feel pouring out of Bøgedal so I’ll probably be digging into my pockets again (this is going to be an expensive trip…..)

Lastly the only ‘normal’ 500ml bottle comes to us from Herslev Bryghus, who rather confused me with their asparagus beer earlier this year. This time its not a vegetable but rather a fruity berry beer on offer. Not sure if I’ll be rushing to buy this one, but you know what they say: ”in for a penny, in for a pound!”

* (This is what happens when you spend a couple of days in the middle of the forest in a summer cabin and lose all concept of time and space. Suddenly Mondays become Fridays. Thanks people for pointing out that I’m losing my grip on reality. I’m back in town now so assume – but won’t guarantee – that things will return to normal now…..)

The Swedish alcohol monopoly, Systembolaget, continues to make my Mondays Fridays just that little bit more bearable with yet another ‘middle-of-the-month’ release.

This time  just five beers were drafted in to the ‘wine cellar stores’ in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg – among them the insanely hopped Mikkeller 1000 IBU, a beer that caused something of a storm in a pint glass a while back after some beer fans accused the Danish brewer of resorting to gimmicks to boost sales.

A beer with 1000 IBUs (International Bitterness Units) is a little bit like making surströmming more…..smelly. There’s really very little point. You see most humans can only taste and tolerate bitterness up to around 100 IBUs, which is the top end of the IBU scale that measures the bitterness of beers derived from the alpha acids of hops.

After 100 IBUs it is generally accepted that your taste buds raise the white flag and surrender, so Mikkeller’s claim to have brewed a beer with 1000 IBUs was greeted by some beer drinkers with more than a touch of scepticism.

Mikkel (the gypsy brewer who is the man behind Mikkeller) explained his motivation behind releasing this beer on his website as well as pointing out that the 1000 IBUs was purely a theoretical, not actual, measurement. I’m not entirely sure what all this means to be honest but I do know that I want to try some and I recommend those of you who want to see just how much your tongues can take to get hold of a bottle too.

Second on my shopping list is Samuel Smith Yorkshire Stingo, an English strong ale with a whopping 8%ABV that is matured in old brewery oak casks for over a year before being bottled, where it continues fermenting until you decide to drink it.

Samuel Smiths is without doubt one of my absolute favourite English breweries with a thoroughbred stable of beers which includes several world classics (like this one). Yorkshire Stingo is a beer that I’ll be buying to age rather than drink now, as its thick, Christmas pudding flavours are a little out of sorts with the season and my beery tastes.

The remaining three beers are a little less appealing on paper although I am intrigued by the Herslev Brygghus Sparrisöl which is launched just as the first spears of asparagus ripen in the early summer sun in southern Sweden. This is a wheat beer that I understand has been flavoured with asparagus. Will it be a perfect match with this tricky food partner? Will it be drinkable?

Footnote: These beers were released on Friday so if you want to check to see if there are any bottles left then check out the amazingly useful Systembevakningsagenten and just punch in the name of the beer you are interested in.

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.