In recent years The Bishops Arms in Stockholm’s Vasagatan has become something of the unofficial efterfest* location during the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival. This year they are making it totally official by keeping the kitchen open later and serving up some exclusive late night beer treats for festival-goers, brewers, importers and bloggers alike!

As BeerSweden likes to be where all the action is we’re proud to announce we’ll be a co-sponsor of this cool initiative. The pub (located a stone’s throw from Stockholm’s central train station) will be serving up a special late-night food menu until 2.30am (Edit: a much more healthy and tasty alternative to a kebab right?) as well as pouring up a number of exclusive beers during both weeks of the festival, including unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell and ‘Hello, My Name is Ingrid‘ on draft!

So if you don’t want the party to end after a tough day tastings beers at the festival then I hope to see you there!

* Wiki’s explanation of what an Efterfest is here!

Taken tonight at Norrmjöle beach. 8pm. 28 degrees. Golden sands. Golden beer. Golden moment.

Right this second I know exactly how that crazy Microsoft founder felt.*

After three days at the first ever European Beer Bloggers Conference 2011 in London I feel so pumped I could run up to complete strangers and shout things like “THE FUTURE OF BEER MEDIA IS ONLINE!” and “BLOGGERS ROCK!” right into their startled faces.

But I won’t because quite frankly that would be a little silly (although both statements are true I don’t think people are really ready for that just yet).

So instead I’ll try and climb out of the bloggers bubble I’ve been inflating around myselft over the past few days, exercise restraint and say that I believe I have just witnessed the genre of beer blogging come of age in London and stake its claim as a credible and indispensable media source of the future.

Over 70 delegates attended this inaugural event with the vast majority from the UK blogging scene as well as representatives from Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and of course me waving the flag for Sweden.

*It might not look cool when learning how to detect faults in beer but it was a fascinating experiment to sample beers spiked with off-flavours. Food and beer pairings were a major theme throughout the conference and some of the leading UK bloggers (and an international panel of bloggers with me in it) gave a series of talks on where we see the future of online media heading.

Over three days of fascinating sessions and passionate debate (fuelled by some amazing beers) we took a long hard look at ourselves as a community, talked about how far we’d already come and more importantly how far we’ve still got left to go in establishing beer blogs as a respected and trusted source of beer content.

What I learnt has left me in no doubt bloggers are the vanguard of modern beer media. As conference organiser Allan Wright put it: “You (bloggers) have an opportunity to become the leading source of information about beer on the planet. You just have to take it”.

The people I met at #bbc11 (just twitter search that for an entertaining timeline rundown of what happened in London) were possibly the most passionate, engaged, driven and inspiring bunch I’ve ever met. The vast majority spend hundreds, even thousands of hours each year blogging about beer without a thought for reward.

They do it simply because they love beer and because they want more people to feel the same way about it as they do.

*Some random images from the conference, which attracted some big beer names, a goblin and the opportunity to try some amazing beers from all over Europe. Oh and if anyone from Camden Town Brewery has seen the other half of my glasses I’d be grateful if you’d get in touch

But blogging aside the European Beer Bloggers Conference was a breakthrough for an entirely different reason as four Swedish breweries took their first tentative steps into the world of export.

Sigtuna Brygghus, Jessica Heidrich (with her S:t Eriks beers), Nynäshmans and Oppigårds all had their beers represented at the conference’s headline event ‘The Night of Many Beers’ and I think it’s fair to say we grabbed more than our fair share of attention.

It was amazing to see beers from 4 Swedish craft brewers being poured in London. Here's Mattias and Jessica getting ready to greet the bloggers.

To see Swedish beers being poured up in the UK capital was pretty special and to witness the smiles on the faces of hardened beer bloggers as they tried them (in-between furiously scribbling down notes) confirmed something I’ve been saying for some time now.

Swedish craft beer is world class. **

There’s a lot of people I’d like to thank for the last few days. Firstly the four Swedish breweries that took the time and the initiative to be a part of this amazing event. It was important to showcase just how far the Swedish beer scene has come and in my opinion we did all that and more.

I’d also like to thank the conference organisers Zephyr Adventures for staging an amazing event that far exceeded any expectations I had and Mark Dredge for helping pull everything together.

Then there’s the sponsors, headed by MolsonCoors, whose financial contributions made the event happen but more importantly made us bloggers feel valued. I’ve also got to pick out Pilsner Urquell for cleverly transforming a room in a London conference centre into a little bit of Pilsen and serving us their beer in all its unfiltered and unpasteurised greatness.

Finally I want to say thanks to all the amazing bloggers I met, who shared their passion for beer with me and made me realise that I am a part of something incredibly big and exciting.

The talk is the European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012 will be held in either the UK or the Czech Republic. Wherever it’s held BeerSweden will be there and I urge as many of the other Swedish beer bloggers who can make it to join me there.***

*minus the horrendous level of personal sweat of course.

** I know a big statement like this will inevitably get some of you rolling your eyes up to the heavens and itching to post a comment telling me to get a grip on reality but our beers were poured up together with some amazing beers from the US, France, the UK and Italy and they more than held their own. So say what you want but we were there and we owned it!

***I apologise if this post is a little too much blog and not enough beer but hope you’ll humour me just this once.

BrewDog's End of History was until recently the world's strongest beer at 55%ABV. It also comes in a bottle inserted into a squirrel called Susan. Alarmingly I am not making any of this up.

It’s amazing how things can change in just 24 hours. Only a day ago I had never drunk a 55% beer from the body of a stuffed squirrel or tasted unfiltered and unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell from a huge (leaking) 2,700 litre wooden cask.

Now I have.

Just 24 hours ago I only knew many of this country’s top beer bloggers via posts, comments and emails but now I’ve actually met them in real life (where may I say they are all much larger and better looking).

The Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival is the reason behind all this of course, once again drawing together the entire Swedish beer community for an annual celebration of its favourite drink.

And what a party it is, with more breweries and more beers on show than ever before  – around 2,000 at the last count!

This is the 19^th SBWF ( the 11^th in a row that I have attended) and I have to say it just seems to keep getting better and better.

For me one of the absolute highlights this year is ‘Snickeriet’, an initiative under the banner of the Svenska Småbryggerier (Swedish Craft Brewers) in which for the first time many of this country’s craft breweries have gathered together in a collective show of force to demonstrate just how far beer has come in this country.

Närke clearly understands the effects too much hops, yeast, malt and water can have on festival goers.

It’s fantastic to see the passion and camaraderie from the likes of Oppigårds, Sigtuna, Närke, Hantverksbryggeriet, Nils Oscar, Nynäshamns (the list goes on and on) standing side-by-side and shoulder to shoulder promoting and pouring Swedish beers, some of which are truly world-class.

You could come to the SBWF and never need to leave ‘Snickeriet’. Several of my last 24 hours have been happily spent there.

If you do manage to drag yourself away there’s hundreds of other Swedish and international brands to choose from. I tracked down one of Sweden’s top brewers Jessica Heidrich and got to taste her new St Eriks Pale Ale which should really carry a government health warning for having such a seductive aroma of passionfruit and peach and a mischievous bitter bite for a beer of 4.5% ABV.

I also bumped into Stefan Gustavsson, ‘the man behind the Mohawks’, who is tipped to win some prizes for his series of beers later on during the festival (and has already won BeerSweden’s prize for ‘Craziest Hairstyle’

Believe it or not this only a fraction of the beers Oliver Twist can tempt you with.

If you want to try the very latest beers from the US then get over to the Oliver Twist stand, pull up a chair and make yourself at home because you’ll be there a long time sampling your way through some of the hundreds of craft brews they have available.

It's what I've been saying for ages - beer is art!

Two of the contenders for ‘best stand’ at this year’s show are Carlsberg and Pilsner Urquell. Carlsberg has taken my whole ‘Beer is Art’’* concept to whole new level by exhibiting a collection of around 20 beery works of art from as many Swedish designers.

Pilsner Urquell’s stand is a real head-turner, dominated by a huge wooden cask that holds (Ed note – probably held by the time you read this) 2,700 litres of unpasteurised and unfiltered PU. It’s the first time this beer has ever left the cellars underneath the famous brewery and travelled across the Czech border.** If you’re coming to the festival today or tomorrow there may, just may, be some left but you’d better hurry!

I realise having just read this post back that I’ve missed out a staggering amount of great beers and breweries. That’s why I’m going to take a deep breath now and plunge straight back into day 2 of the festival.

I wonder what on earth the next 24 hours have in store for me……

*In reality Carlsberg has probably never heard of my Beer is Art concept. I’m taking the credit anyway.

I couldn't think of anything more original when asked "Does it taste good" than to give it a thumbs up. Behind me is a glimpse of the huge wooden cask containing the beer.

**I’ve actually been lucky enough to try this beer at the brewery in Pilsen so it was like meeting an old friend when I was presented with a glass of slightly cloudy honey-coloured beer that smells of grassy, spicy saaz hops and tastes of crisp malts and the faintest hint of oak. The most deliciously drinkable beer at the show?

Sweden’s dream bartender has ‘beer smarts’ and is charismatic rather than just another superficial Cocktail Tom Cruise fast talker, according to a new survey conducted by Czech brewery Pilsner Urquell.

Apparently we don't want fast-talking, wise-cracking bartenders like Mr Cruise anymore....

The iconic brewery, famous for developing the first golden beer back in 1842, asked 1026 Swedish drinkers to describe their perfect bartender.

Most want someone who is pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful, while those who joke around, talk too much and focus on drinks with new and strange tastes come much further down the list of top ten characteristics a dream bartender should have.

The survey was conducted in association with the annual International Master Bartender competition organised by Pilsner Urquell which they’re billing as the world’s biggest contest in beer knowledge for professional bar personnel.

The Swedish final will be fought out at the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival on October 2^nd and the winner will go on to represent Sweden in an international final in Prague later the same month.

Bartenders like Marvin pictured here may not have film star appeal but they know their stuff, a characteristic many of us want in our dream bartender, according to the recent survey (picture courtesy of Hotel Monteleone).

“We’re seeing a clear trend that the factors behind (a bartender’s) status have changed in recent years. Instead of the ‘outside’ we are now more impressed by knowledge and bartending skills”, says Henrik Persson, the man responsible for the Swedish heats of Master Bartender.

(footnote: The Master Bartender competition is open to both men and women – indeed the reigning Swedish Champion is Majsan Johansson from Kock & Vin in Gothenburg).

If you thought pouring beer into a glass was easy then think again! Participants in the Pilsner Urquell International Master Bartender Competition had to have steady minds as well as steady hands when they recently competed for the honour of being crowned the world’s best pilsner pourer.

Majsan Johansson, a bartender from Björns Bar in Gothenburg was at the final in Berlin representing Sweden where she competed against bar colleagues from 16 other countries chosen from an original field of 4,000 entrants worldwide.

Majsan had to answer a series of questions incorporating brewing chemistry, beer history and the theory behind how to pour the perfect glass of Pilsner Urquell. She then had to hold her nerves in check to pull a PU in a single pour with a perfect head (which I’m told should be exactly 35mm high!)

Although Majsan didn’t quite make it into the final top three she had a blast in Berlin anyway. Here’s how she got there…..

Just glad I didn't have to do the washing up!

it may be too late. For the sixth year in a row the Soldaten Svejk pub in Östragötgatan in Stockholm is serving up unfiltered, unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell between 9-17th October. Or until the casks run dry, which last year only took five days.

This traditional-style Czech pub is the only place outside of the Czech Republic where the unpasteurised version of this beer (similar to the stuff you get at the end of the Pilsner Urquell brewery tour) is available.

I managed to squeeze into the launch party last weekend where the incredibly friendly Soldaten staff kept thrusting pint glass after pint glass into my hand. So what’s the difference between this and the regular PU you ask? For me it’s the exceptionally light carbonation and creamy mouthfeel. This beer feels almost flat and yet tastes intensely fresh, with the spicey saaz backlash it’s known for still clearly evident.

If you’re out of luck this time make sure to be in Stockholm around the same time next year. This is one of those rare beer opportunities you simply cannot miss.