BeerSweden Trev and I are making our last technical tweaks (this means we’re actually just reading the instruction manuals) in preparation for the Örebro Beer and Whisky Festival that kicks off at the city’s Conventum Arena this Friday afternoon.

If you see this man in Örebro you have two choices: try his beers (they're mostly fantastic) or run!

With some 50 breweries, importers, distilleries and others taking part the 3^rd Örebro Beer and Whisky Festival promises to be the largest yet and BeerSweden is going to be right smack in the middle of all the action with our very own stand streaming lots of the action to you live via this blog!

I’ll be hoping to grab some of the brewers, importers and beery characters behind some of your favourite beers to interview them on camera. I’ll also be hunting down some of the best and most exciting beers of the show and will be giving them a whirl live and direct.

(BeerSweden Trev: that’s assuming we can make all the bloody technology work mush!)

The festival itself runs from 15:00-23:00 on Friday and Saturday (November 19-20^th) and we’re planning to stream the event live on both days between 16:00-17:00 and again from 20:00 to 21:00.*

Of course in between live broadcasts we’ll be running around filming too and will upload additional content as quickly as we can.

So if you’re one of the expected 6,000+ people coming to the Örebro Beer and Whisky Festival this weekend make sure you drop by the BeerSweden stand and say hi. And remember, it will be the first time ever you’ll be able to see BeerSweden Trev face to face. Now if that isn’t worth the price of admission I don’t know what is!

*subject to hardware/software/connection/upload speeds/acts of God and technical tantrums. For those of you wanting to watch from outside Sweden remember all times mentioned are GMT + 1 hour.

Ps: I’ll be bringing a very limited number of BeerSweden T-shirts if anyone’s interested.

PPs: Here’s some useful tips on how to survive a beer festival for any of you ‘first-timers’.

PPPs: Check out the festival organisor’s homepage here for full details on when, where, who and who much.

PPPPs: Here’s a look back at last year’s festival!

These are exciting times in the Swedish beer scene right now!

A flood of great new beers have just landed in the Systembolaget, the Swedish micros are increasingly making an international name for themselves by producing some inspirational beers and on top of that the way beer is being written about here in Sweden is getting a radical facelift.

Rather than the occasional column inch in a Sunday supplement written by a wine writer on a bad news day beer writing in Sweden has taken to the internet with a new wave of bloggers experimenting online with fresh ways to spread the word about great beer.

A couple of beer evangelists from Schnille och Schmak have just started having fun with some wacky video beer reviews and several other Swedish bloggers are regularly live-blogging and tweeting their way onto people’s PCs.

This is just not only great news it’s absolutely necessary because as beer is busy re-inventing itself so must the way it is reported and presented to the public change too.

So what’s BeerSweden doing to keep up?

Well later this week I’ll be launching a new column in response to some people saying us bloggers are, how can I put this nicely, a bit too geeky about our beers. Can’t say much more now except that a new member will be joining the BeerSweden crew in the next week and he’s promised he’ll be shooting from the hip.

A ‘back to basics’ guide to beer styles is also under construction in response to emails from readers who want to be able to tell their IPAs from their APAs and their porters from their stouts.

On Friday I’ll be packing my bags and flying down south to the Örebro Beer Festival where I’ll be hoping to track down and interview some of the main players in the Swedish beer scene. Oh, and I’ll probably be sampling a beer or two along the way…..

So sit tight and remember that wine is just sooooooo passé these days. Beer is where it’s at!

As a veteran of dozens of beer festivals and with the Örebro fest only a few weeks away I thought it might be useful to give you a quick 10-step guide on how to survive your next beer-athon.

1)      The secret to a successful festival is planning. As Benjie Franklin once said, “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. To be fair he was probably talking about national politics and not beer – but he still had a good point. What to do want to get out of your festival? Do you want to scoop some new beers, spend some one-on-one time with your favourite brewers or simply drink as much as you can before they shut the hall? Plan accordingly – visit the festival’s website to get a list of the exhibitors and beers available. Make a list of the ones you really want to try and stick to it!

2)      Before you get to the festival eat something. Drinking beer all day after a spinning session and a light salad isn’t going to cut it people. You’re more likely to go down faster than Zlatan in the penalty box. If you’re going to a beer festival you’re probably not that bothered about carbs – so line your stomach with stodgy foods like pasta, burgers or palt. But not all of them at once, otherwise you won’t have any room for the beer.

3)      Don’t – I repeat don’t – start drinking before you get to the festival. There’s often literally hundreds of beers to try inside so don’t be tempted to kick things off early. Festival organisers place a lot of emphasis (and money) on health and safety and if you turn up drunk there will probably be a guy looking like a condom full of walnuts (often called Johan) who will spin you around and send you on your way.

4)      Never drive to or from a festival. Check out public transport links or get a group of friends together and share a cab. Remember that things get pretty crazy at closing time so it’s always best to get in early and leave an hour before lock-down.

5)      If you have specific questions about a particular beer and want to have quality conversations with the good people working behind the stands get to the show early. After a couple of hours it will get more crowded than a Systembolaget store on a Friday afternoon and you won’t be able to hear a word.

6)      Don’t come to the show wearing a t-shirt that looks like this, or anything else remotely like it. If I’m there and working behind a stand I won’t serve you. I promise.

7)      Protect your official festival glass as though your liver depended on it. It’s the only thing exhibitors are supposed to pour beer into. Without it you’re about as useful as a one-legged ice hockey player.

8)      Drink water – and don’t give me any crap about beer being 96% water. It doesn’t wash with me. Alcohol is dehydrating, so when you’re rinsing your glass out between beers take a quick swig of water.

9)      Don’t get fooled by the small sample measures you’re trying – they all add up! At most fests you can try a 20cl sample or pay a bit more for a large measure (around 40cl). If you try 20 samples that’s 4 litres of (often) high octane beer with ABVs that could stop a grown elk in its tracks. Pace yourself!

10)  Most importantly enjoy yourself! Beer festivals are great place to experience new beers and meet fun people. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to the girls and guys working the stands – that’s the reason they’re there and they really like nothing better in life than to talk beer with you.