Picked up a can of New Belgium’s Fat Tire in Stockholm.
It’s been a good ten years since I last tasted it. While travelling on business in the pacific northwest, this was a beer that was pretty much universally available (even though the brewery is in Colorado).
Tastewise it was a pleasant re-acquintance – an amber ale with a bitter finish.
As the blog hasn’t exactly been swimming in new content, I figured a retrospective series on beers that have shaped me and my taste is in order. At some point. Do not hold your breaths waiting, it’s not healthy.
FI: Läskipyörän maku ennallaan, kitkeryydessään ei mikään helppo aloittelijan amberi.
Heila, the local produce market located in Heinola has added a craft beer shop to its already formidable and unusual array of sales departments. Unusually for a normal store, Heila is able to sell both sahti and wine, even though the ABV of both is far north of the legal 4.7% limit.
While the selection was larger than in a run of the mill store, it pales in comparison to that of Pien.
But that’s confined to the capital region, and thus it’s very good to have a another sales channel for the small breweries.
Hilpeä interior
FI: Odottamattomasti volttirajat ylittävän viini- ja sahtimyynnin lisäksi Heilassa nykyisin myös sangen edustava pienpanimokattaus.
Spent a good chunk of the trip’s last morning in SF Bokhandeln – its selection on books, movies and games is so far above the domestic alternatives that it’s not even remotely funny.
Took a look in the Drottningsgatan’s Systembolaget and picked up an odd Omnnipollo can (lemonade never sounds too enticing in beer context) and a serendipitously discovered Thomas Hardy Ale. Neither of these was available in the “big” store, which just proves that a proper flagship location would be a good addition.
Alice Cooper
Picked up Alice Cooper’s new album – one of the very few artists whose records I keep buying in the age of streaming. He’d had a release gig in Gröna Lund and an afterparty in the Hard Rock Cafe yesterday, but the threat of rain and untold kilometers walked kept me away. Turns out there’s been quite a few bands playing in the amusement park lately (with no extra ticket fee) – sadly this is not geographically contagious, it’ll be an astronomical while before the likes of Megadeth appear in Linnanmäki.
Arlanda had an unexpected disappointment in store: Bath & Body Works had disappeared, so the stash of foaming soaps at home remains sorely depleted.
FI: Lystiä oli, ja matkalaukullinen olutta riittää pitkäksi aikaa.
The morning of the last full day in Stockholm was spent roaming the museums in Djurgården. Junibacken was nostalgic, Abba-museum told the story of the band without much polish and Vikingalivet was smaller than expected (but nonetheless packed with interesting objects). Lunch at the Viking-museum’s restaurant was very underwhelming, and considering the amount of walking done thus far, almost dangerously so.
Abba museum
On the backswing took a serious look at the Systembolaget in the NK-huset, and was once again disappointed. The glory days of shelves bursting with interesting imports are clearly gone – the selection was mainly domestic, with very occasional american entries. Nonetheless, the shelves were far from empty and bought a suitcase’s worth of interesting beer.
For dinner in Södermalm we’d picked a couple of interesting restaurants from the travel guides and magazines. However, last year’s disappointment repeated itself, as every shortlisted place was either on summer vacation or otherwise closed. After a medium-length ramble settled on Signora Vecchia, the very first Juventus-themed restaurant thus far. The food was good, but took a seriously long time arriving at the table, but the taste was worth the wait. Södermalm had a “shops open until very late”-evening, took advantage of it in Urban Deli (cheese and bread).
K for Katarina
The way home went by Katarina Ölkafe, and there was no way to avoid dropping in. The selection was domestic and quite well established in the sour end of the spectrum. Tried out a pomegranate IPA whose taste was obliterated by Sorachi ace hopping and capped the trip with an unseasonal autumny stout.
Katarina Ölkafe
FI: Systembolagetin valikoima kapenee (ja hajautuu myymälöiden välillä).
Most of the second day was spent in the Fjäderholmarna. It’s an island in an archipelago located conveniently some half an hour away from Stockholm.
On account of the early hour (just after breakfast), neither the water taxi nor the paths on the island were too packed, but the warm day drew in a lot of folks later on.
The island contains a sleepy crafts-y village and a handful of restaurants. Restaurants that were uncomfortably full around lunchtime. Finally settled on the quickest alternative – self-served patio of Rökeriet on the waterfront. The smoked mackrel and prawns were and excellent stopgap for hunger, and the very local beers (from the brewery almost literally next door) a very good accompaniment.
Indeed, Fjäderholmarnas Bryggeri is a recent arrival on the island (wasn’t there on the previous visit in 2010-ish), and they served a wide variety of good beers.
Fjäderholmarna bryggeri tap list
The highlight of the tasting was the Östersjö porter, whose unseasonal caramelly roastiness stood out amongst the hoppy ales. The collaborated Desert Island was very trendily new england-y: cloudy and juicy.
Spent a few days in Stockholm, embracing the well-known and exploring new things.
The travel and accommodation were firmly in the former category (Norewgian Air, Arlanda Express and Royal BLU Viking), so apart from the hotel being late in delivering a room, no time was lost in getting acclimatized to the western neighbour’s capital.
Toast Skagen
Ate a very traditional (for the second year in a row) late lunch at Lisa Elmqvist’s, where the seafood takes precedence over exquisite beers. The fresh shellfish on the Toast Skagen-appetizer were a firm reminder that we were now in a country that was able to harvest its own prawns.
Pizza at Omnipollo’s Hatt
As the weather was nice, Tunnelbana was by no means a necessity in heading out to Omnipollo’s Hatt, the eponymous brewery’s restaurant south of the bay. The restaurant turned out to be small in size, packed to the gills, and hot from the pizza oven. Fortunately the turnaround was fast, and we landed a table well ahead of the pizzas for supper.
The pizzas were half and half on the usual and the very unusual – opted for one of each, without daring to explore the (apparently) vanilla flavoured chorizo that was quickly consumed in the neighboring table. The pizzas were served without utensils – only a wheel-cutter and fingers used in eating.
Slushy Noa
Oddly enough, the selection of Omnipollo’s own beers was limited to the commonly available IPAs, and the only member of the excessively dessert-y selection was the familiar Noa Pecan Stout. Noa that was served with slush foamed from the beer itself on top. The experience of drinking a very chilly imperial stout on a hot summer day was less odd than it originally felt like.
Since we were in the neighbourhood, walked home via Akkurat, whose tap-selection was once again awesome, but the service less so. Exited quickly after the first glasses and walked back to the hotel in the evening sunshine.
FI: Tukholmassa taas. Omnipollon hatussa oivaa pizzaa ja yllättävän kapea hanasto.
Bought my first ever “out of a few hundreds”-type beer. A can of Filip’s Gose by Cool Head Brewing / Brewdog Helsinki.
A sharp gose, but I’ve got to admit that I bought it more for the novelty value rather than the actual beer. Ratings-wise this is a 3.75, which in my books is high indeed for a gose. The lemon is present, but not annoying and the minerals creep up in the aftertaste as well.
The list of breweries included Omnipollo, whose products I’ve been quite righteously impressed.
However, their reputation turned out to have preceded them, and by Saturday they had ran out of all of the more extreme beers (i.e. only the more traditional IPAs were available). That simplified matters quite a bit, juggling several 12+ ABV sweet imperial stouts was not my idea of an ideal warm July day.
This time (like on quite a few events on Rautatientori) Radbrew was the first brewery after the entrance, but this year bravely skipped the post-apocalyptic ales and opted for something different. The first surprise about Jakobsland Brewers was that it was not from Jakobstad, but from Santiago de Compostela. Their two pale ales, Dumbstruck and Na Terra Dos Xigantes, turned out unevenly chilled, with the former at a closer to freezing temperature taking the top spot. A good start for the shindig indeed.
The Omnipollo stand, which, despite the shortage of dessert stouts, had pretty much the only queues of the day was easily skipped and so were the Brewdog (very pedestrian offerings) and Founders (likewise, no Mango Magnifinique available). Stone/Arrogant had inequal naming policy: Who You Callin’ Wussie was a very good modern pils, and Imperial Brown Ale delivered a plummy bomb that was not very brown.
Fat Lizard’s stand was the first domestic one sampled. Raspy Mary was highly hopped and a lot drier than expected (with the raspberry never coming out of hiding), Mu Isamaa was hopinatored, and on the warm side, so I’ll refrain from rating until a second encounter.
Mu Isamaa was a collaboration with Tanker. And a far better collaboration than the second one tasted: Silly Juice (co-produced with the usually very reliable Hiisi) was simply terrible – a saison overrun by berries. Had to resort to emptying the glass to a bin halfway down, the sweet and sour saison rubbed me the wrong way from the very start. Fortunately the second Tanker beer, Skeleton Force was a far better one: a piney IPA was a welcome relief after the berrymonster.
Malmgård had also succumbed to the sirens of sourness, and their Proto #14 was a disappointing wit that had some extra berriness in the mix.
8-bit Brewing, on the other hand, successfully atoned for the pretty terrible Ocarina of Lime with Mogul IPA, a very well-done west coaster.
I had never previously encountered United Gypsies, and both beers sampled from them were good indications that repeat visits would be required: Snake Charmer was a DIPA bursting with hoppy goodness and while my notes on Pohjoisen Jättiläinen are curiously empty I do recall it having been a seasonally somewhat inappropriate but well-done barley wine.
Following a miscalculation of funds on the charge card ended up queuing for a hamburger without the ability to purchase it. Instead of recharging said card opted for a couple of quick fills and a burger that could be eaten sitting down.
Käbliku Pruulikoda was a previously unencountered brewery, but both their sampled products proved that this relationship needs to be kindled to a far bigger flame. El Mosaico was a fruity IPA served mightily cold and Penumbra, their imperial stout ended up being the best in show despite being a dark and hefty imperial stout instead of anything seasonally more appropriate.
The last beer of the day was a Mufloni CCCP, the kid brother of the almighty CCCCC. By no means bad, but lacks the heft of the original.
My high hopes were mostly fulfilled, the beer selection was good, organization smooth, and all in all this was, again, just the thing to kick off the summer holidays with.
Looking forward to a repeat performance in 2018!
FI: Onnistuneet kyöstit tälläkin kertaa, Omnipollon erikoisuuksien missaaminen harmitti hetken, mutta IPAisella terapialla olo parani oitis.
Second AnniversaryHooray! It’s the second birthday of the blog.
The blog that has slowed down considerably and got very single-minded in its content during the year. It’s been a hefty year on multiple fronts and that’s clearly reflecting the the quantity and quality of updates.
Ootab ArmastusThe best beer of the month is the random “I need one more bottle to fill my bag”-pickup from Uba ja Humal last week: Õllenaut’s Ootab Armastus is a low-voltage New England IPA – fruitful, sweet and profoundly unfiltered. I so hope this baby gets imported properly, I could mainline this all summer long. And since quite a few of the brewery’s beers are in K-shops, I don’t think that’s a far-fetched thought.
The summer’s been slow to get going, and some evenings have been righteously chilly. Hence a stiff Vuorineuvos aged in Bunnahabhain a cask is my domestic pick. Even though the smokiness (par for the course for an Islay-originating cask) makes the stout a bit one-dimensional, it’s nonetheless a very pleasant warmer-upper.
FI: Uuden englannin IPAa ja Islaylaisen tynnörin savustamaa stouttia, kiitos.
brewnardo 