NOV/DEC 1998

VOL.4 NO.9

Kitchen Table Tasting -- Swedish Beers

Quite some time ago, I received an email from a Swedish beer aficionado by the name of Fredrik Berggren. As a charter member of the Svenska Ölfrämjandet -- or the Swedish Beer Furtherance, as he "freely" translated it -- Fredrik wrote that he was interested in receiving my opinions on several of the beers of his home country, and to facilitate this, he offered to send me off a few bottles. Not being one to decline a unique beer tasting adventure, I readily accepted his offer and prepared to experience the world of Swedish brewing.

After some delays due to both my and Fredrik's travelling schedules, the beers arrived and I sat down to taste them with my wife, Christine, and lawyer-friend-beer lover Gary Gilman. What we discovered was that Swedish brews definitely merit greater attention than they are presently receiving on the world beer stage.

Beer number one was a lager, Ahlafors Ljusa, from the Ahlafors Bryggeri, or Ahlafors brewery. According to Fredrik, this brewery, which opened in 1996, is one of the most interesting breweries in the country, much thanks to their brewmaster, Patrick Holmqvist.

We didn't find the beer so much interesting -- at least, not in the complex and intriguing sense -- but more very clean and very well constructed. The aroma holds fresh florals (buttercups) while the body begins lightly sweet, soft and round before adding a light bitterness in the middle which grows through to the grassy, dry finish.

Beer number two was Kalasöl, a münchner-inspired lager from the Tärnö Bryggeri AB på Kungsholmen, or Tärnö brewery on Kungsholmen. In his notes, Fredrik explained that the brewery is a relatively new and small operation founded by seven homebrewers and beer enthusiasts in reaction to the pasteurized, adjunct-y lagers of the big Swedish brewers.

Almost ale-ish in character, I found myself very much enjoying this orange-copper, 5.2% ABV brew. The aroma is rich with fresh hop, tobacco and dried leaf notes while the taste begins dry and earthy, moves through a spicy (black pepper, clove), fresh hop middle and finishes earthy, roasty and moderately bitter. If it had any fruitiness at all, I would be tempted to consider this an ale, but as it is, I found it well balanced, quenching and very enjoyable.

Number three was an ale; a pale ale from the Källefall Bryggeri (Källefalls Brewery). It also unfortunately seemed to be the only one that suffered from its cross-Atlantic voyage. The brewery was reportedly born to produce only English-style cask ales, but in the last year or so has concentrated more on bottled ales, although Fredrik said that the cask market was of late growing.

The hazy copper colour and buttery, lightly cardboardy nose spoke to the age and transportation problems, but the taste had not suffered as much, with a softly fruity, lightly citric and tannic body and a quick and dry finish. Nevertheless, we all suspected that this would be a much different beer if sampled fresh.

The fourth beer was Jämtlands Porter from the Jämtlands Bryggeri (Jämtlands Brewery). According to Fredrik, this brewery opened in 1997 with a Scottish brewer named David Jones, who formulated all the beers but later moved on to another brewing position in Ireland. Judging from the porter, however, his departure has not affected the beers one bit.

Deep black in colour, this 4.8% ABV porter has a full, roasty, smoky nose with hints of orange and licorice. The start of the taste offers perfumey notes of fruit leading to a fairly dry and faintly fruity body with roastiness, bitter, earthy hop notes and perhaps a note or two of nuttiness. Finishing dry and roasty, I thought this a very good porter deserving of its style name, ie: not so heavy as to be a stout nor light enough to be a brown ale.

The final two brews came from the Nordsjö Gårdsbryggeri, or Nordsjö brewery (I don't know what the "Gårds" part means). According to Fredrik, this is a very small brewery -- Sweden's smallest, in fact -- which is run by a husband and wife team on a dairy farm some 170 miles south-west of Stockholm, in the mainland province of East Gotland.

The beers were definitely the most unusual we sampled. First came Östgöta Ört Öl, a 5% ABV lager flavoured with herbs that Fredrik translated as "marsh tea" (botanically, Ledum palustra) and "southernwood" (Artemisia abrotanum). With a sweet, floral, herbal and honeyish aroma, it is a light-bodied beer with difficult to define character. Subtle flavours of herbs and very light citrus notes define the taste while the finish is pure pilsner -- hoppy, a bit metallic and dry. We agreed that another bottle or two of this would be necessary in order to get a grip on the flavour and character of this quite frankly intriguing beer.

The final beer was Östgöta Blåbärs, a magenta-coloured blueberry lager. To Fredrik's knowledge, it was the first (and I think may still be the only) fruit-flavoured commercial beer in Sweden.

The aroma of this brew is pleasant and conventional enough -- herbal, leafy and fruity -- but the first taste definitely shocks, so much so that Gary suspected that it had gone off. The start is fruity and tannic while the main flavours are of herbs, fruit and tart fruit skin. Being a lager, there is no inherent fruitiness in this beer other than the added blueberries, which make its sweet-and-sour flavour particularly interesting. Equally enticing is the brutally dry finish that offers lingering blueberry cheesecake notes. A fascinating and delicious brew, I suspect that it would be particularly excellent with patèor pork.

Over all, I was quite impressed with the quality and diversity of these beers, as were Christine and Gary. If this is how Sweden's brewing industry is going, then I'm overdue for a trip to Scandinavia.

Stephen Beaumont reserves all rights that pertain to the text of his articles, in any form that it appears.