Time, as they say,  certainly does fly when you’re having fun! It’s been a little under 9 months since BeerSweden quietly arrived on the Swedish beer blogging scene. Now, 300 posts later, I’m proud to say we’re well on the way to creating the most exciting – and definitely the smartest and most attractive – online community of beer enthusiasts in this country!

It’s been one hell of a ride so far hasn’t it? Interviews with brewing stars, Beer is Art, brewery visits, BeerSweden TV, live Facebook tastings, competitions, volcanoes and exclusive tastings are just some of the beery highlights of the last nine months that spring immediately to mind.

But don’t for one minute think we’re sitting back with a cold beer and our feet on the table here at BS HQ – far from it! We’re looking forward to creating a heap of original new content and of finding new, ground-breaking ways of exploring the exciting world of beer in this country.

Of course none of this could have not been possible without all of you who follow this blog day in, week out. It’s your comments and enthusiasm that fuel this site so a massive beers and cheers to each and every one of you (yes, even you lurkers!)

One of the my main ambitions with BeerSweden has been to make it as interactive as possible – to give you the opportunity to get involved in beer in a very real way. I can’t think of a better example of this than earlier this week when Swedish microbrewery Sigtuna Brygghus gave the BeerSweden community the chance to vote for its favourite label design for its upcoming Black October beer.

The results are now in and are as follows: (a) got just 7% of the votes, (c) polled a respectable 32% but the winner and the label you’ll all be seeing on bottles of Sigtuna Black October come September is (b) with 61% of the total votes.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Just a reminder that later on tonight (Wednesday) at 8pm BeerSweden together with Sigtuna Brygghus is going to conduct the first ever simultaneous national beer tasting live on BeerSweden’s Facebook page.

It all sounds a little complicated but in reality it’s pretty straight forward. Right now there are two unmarked bottles of Sigtuna beer chilling out in the fridges of five members of the BeerSweden community located all across Sweden. At 8pm tonight we will all simultaneously open one bottle after the other and post our immediate thoughts on what we think of the beer via this blog’s Facebook page.

According to our research it’s the first time such an online tasting has been done in this country and it’s certain be a lot of fun, so be sure to tune in at 8pm to see whether we all agree on what we think about these beers!

I happen to know that one of the two beers we’ll be trying is this year’s Sigtuna Black October which will be launched at the Systembolaget in the Autumn. But as if getting to try the beer months before it goes on sale isn’t enough Sigtuna Brygghus is also giving followers of BeerSweden the awesome responsibility of choosing the new label design for this beer!

Here are three ‘never-been-seen-before’ front label artwork alternatives for this year’s Sigtuna Black October. You now have a little over 24 hours to decide which one is your favourite and post your choice (of A,B or C) as a comment on the BeerSweden Facebook page or under this article. When the results are added up tomorrow night the design with the most votes will be submitted to the Systembolaget for approval next week and will be the one seen on the shelves come the Autumn.

It’s your chance to get actively involved and help support one of Sweden’s most exciting craft brewers so be sure to join us later tonight to check out the live tasting and to cast your vote for your favourite label design.

Cheers and Beers!

Darren

(here’s a link to a slightly more hi-res picture of the label designs if you want a closer look. Worth noting that the yellow colour shown here will be gold and the white detail will be silver in the final design).