mattias-beer-experience

A new live writer

2009-07-11T01:58:00.001+02:00

Testing live writer again for the start of the SCXBT09 (South California Extreme Beer Tour 2009).

Lets at a picture here.

Test of Windows Live Write

2008-12-23T14:07:00.001+01:00

Test test test and this is link;

Google

New England Report 13:2008-07-24 (Greenfield -- Amherst)

2008-08-17T23:14:00.005+02:00

We left Greenfield in the morning and first decided to have some sightseeing outside the normal beer tracking events.

So we had a short drive outside Greenfield and went to the beatiful area of Shelburne Falls. The place is famous for its falls and also the so called "Bridge of flowers", a former trolley bridge over the Deerfield River that is now maintained by the Shelburne Falls Women's Club as a floral display from April through October.

It was raining quite much during the staty but we enjoyed the short stay and checked out the bridge plus the nearby falls with its famous glacial potholes that has been formed by the Deerfield River.

After this it was time to continue our beer trip so we started the GPS again and went south towards the city of South Deerfield and the "Berkshire Brewing Company" brewery.

As it was not much to see and it seems they had nothing opened for public we simply took some pictures to have it counted (all counts, :-)) and then continued south again.

Northampton (MA) and the "Northampton Brewery" was the next stop. This is a centrally located brewpub in Northampton and it was opened for business. It was opened for lunch we had not the time to test anything of their food. Instead we ordered in the samplers and even got a new beer from the brewer himself. The beer was not on but it was being prepared so we got a chance to sample his new brew, it turned out to be a very nice red ale that we really enjoyed.

The rest of the samplers included;

133. Blue Boots IPA

134. Raspberry Brown

135. Old Brown Dog

136. Blackberry Stout

137. Redheaded Stepchild Red Ale (the new one)

138. Sandshovel ESB

They do quite decent beers here and something to recommend. The ESB was really good and I also enjoyed the IPA. The place is quite large and they also have a outside terrace that you should check out. We sat as we normally do in the bar but I think a lunch at the outside terrace is also a great experience.

The place is located in downtown Northampton and suitably located on "11 Brewster Court", yes it is true the place is called brewster. Northampton has been around for quite a while, they opened up the doors already in 1987. They have a large variety of beers and it seems a very popular outdoor, rooftop beer garden.

Very friendly staff and having a conversation with the brewer regarding our visit to the Vermont brewers festival (that he had also visited) is always fun, and a free beer is always great. Great experience and something we can recommend.

Crossed the connecticut river and went east to the city of Amherst where we in downtown visited the "Amherst Brewing Company". It was pouring down with heavy rain so we had to walk in the rain from the parking lot. Time for lunch and some more beers was on the list. We had a great lunch and sampled the following beers;

139. Cascade IPA

140. North Pleasant Pale Ale

141. Seeing Double IPA (amarillo/cascade)

Very tasty beers and beers that was really big in hops, something that is mostly popular among us hopheads. Everything that has loads of hops in it is most often a hit for us.

The food is also great, an excellent pub menu with many daily specials. Both the Cascade and the Seeing IPA is normally available on cask and it seems they do it very well. A good place to hang out and have some beers in Amherst.

After lunch we decided to stick in Amherst for a while longer as we went down the street towards the bar "Moan and Dove". But that needs its own entry completely, so lets continue with Moan later on.

New England Report 12:2008-07-23 (New London -- Greenfield)

2008-08-16T00:17:00.011+02:00

The next day started south in New Hampshire and the city of Manchester. Fun to see that so many cities are influenced with English cities and you get names as Manchester, Dover, Gloucester etc, even more interesting that we just before New London came from West Lebanon, wonder where that name comes from. The goal for Manchester, which is pretty large town, was "Millys Tavern" and to sample some of their beers.

Millys is located in a large brick building at the river front (merrimack river) in central Manchester.

The place does their own handcraftet beers on site and most often has up to 9 different styles on tap plus a couple of seasonals. They have a 15 barrel DME system install and uses water from Massabesic with northwestern hops.

We came early and did not have time for lunch, otherwise it seems they had a good choice in food.

Decided to have the sampler and came up with the following result;

113. Manch Vegas IPA
114. Mt. Uncanoonus Golden Cream Ale
115. Tashas Red Ale Tail Ale

116. Hells Bells Belgian Strong Dark Ale

117. General John Stark Dark Porter

118. Millyes Oatmeal Stout

119. Bo's Scotch Ale

Good quality beers, not worldclass. What I remember is that I really liked the Hells Bells ale which was really a kick in the ass strong ale that made you warm inside out.

The official information tells you;

"Hell's Bell's is a Belgian-inspired Strong Dark Ale. You won't have to sell your soul for a taste of this devilish concoction of the finest imported malts and hops, Belgian Candi Sugars and spices. Fruity phenolics and a hint of vanilla enhance the flavor of this 9% ABV ale. Do Hell's Bells toll for you?O.G.: 1.083 F.G.: 1.018 ABV%: 9"

This beer was a seasonal so do not expect to see this so much in the future. From the standard choices I would recommend the outmeal stout. A rich beer in color, smell and taste and very traditional to the style.

We had earlier arranged at meeting with one of the brewers over at Pennichuck Brewery in Milford NH. We got some help from Jugge over at Oliver Twist in Stockholm as he had met the owner a couple of times. So through Jugges help we were invited to this tiny brewery located in a old workshop garage outside Milford.

As we finally found this place it was at start really difficult to understand that it was hiding a fullscale brewery. A brewery that is not much older that a couple of years, but already is making a name in the industry with big beers like belgian trippels or barley wines. When you talk about big you can also notice that they like to use large bottles influenced by Belgium, meaning 1 liter bottles. Nice to look at, but really a hell to get home in your bag, :-).

(Exterior of the brewery, what happened to this poor car??)

The owner Phil Jewett was not at the brewery when we entered the place arround 14, but we instead were helped by the new headbrewer Damase Olsson (yes he has some connection with Sweden). They were in middle of brewing so we got a nice quick tour of the brewery during the same time as Damase were brewing and putting stuff in the brew. Fun to see. The brewery is not large but they already have 4 different standard brews plus a bunch of special brews that they package on 1 liter bottles.

(Brewery interior)

(Damase the headbrewer giving us a quick tour of the brewery)

Asking if they also did their own botteling the answer was of course yes and we got to see the very tiny and very manual equipment where all the botteling was done. Not large but very effective it seems.

We got to sample all of the standard beers including;

120. Halligan IPA (my favorite)

121. Fireman Pale Ale

122. Feuerwehrmann Black Lager (Schwarzbier)

123. Big O Oktoberfest (which was the new oktober beer that we sampled directly from the brew, great experience)

The visit was short but exciting and we thanked for the visit and bought some beers to get home to Sweden. Hope to see more from this brewery in the future and it will interesting to see how it will grow from the current limited quantities. Maybe we can expect some beers to turn up in Stockholm in a near future?

Continued to Westminster in MA and the "Wachusett Brewing Company". Had the standard beer tour and also sampled some of the beers. Wachusett seems quite large and uninspring, it says quite much when the breweries large seller (arround 80%) is a very boring Blueberry Wheat. It is difficult to do a good wheat and sometimes you do not understand why american breweries like to do it so much when the result is so bleak.

Maybe it is has to do with sales and warm summer days. Anyway it is very rare that you find a good beer when you have to sample a seasonal wheat in the US. Some times it happens but then you need to try to do it much more traditional belgian or german and it is much more interesting if you do a hefe wheat instead, good examples include; ÜberSun and Hop Sun from Southern Tier.

Sampled beers;

124. IPA

125. Black Shack Porter

126. Blueberry Wheat

After the brewery visit we ended up in Greenfield and headed for the "Peoples Pint" bar. Not much to say about this place. Quite good beers but I do not really understand the hype.

127. Pied pIPA

128. ESB (cask)

129. Provider Pale Ale

130. Helles Bock

131. Oatmeal Stout

132. Farmers Brown

Maybe it was the town itself or maybe the peanut wok (I can understand pasta with some peanut, but not cold peanut with some pasta, :-), better to get the burger at this place, probably a much better choice) that made it bad place. I did not like it much but it seems to very popular arround this area and the beers get quite good rating over at beeradvocate.

As Greenfield did not offer any more beer experiences (at least good experiences) it was just to get home to the motel and recharge for a new day.

New England Report 11:2008-07-22 (Leaving Montreal)

2008-08-15T00:50:00.007+02:00

The day after our short beer trail in Montreal started out with some more attempts to sample more beers from Quebec. This turned out to be very difficult and it seemed easier to just get back to the US and continue our New England beer adventure.

Through out the day we first went to Chambly and the Unibroue brewery. Famous for beers like "Trous Pistoles" and the my favorite "The Raftman". Great brewery but it seemed a bit big and closed for beer sampling visitors so we took a photo and then continued south to the US border. Seems that opened tap rooms is not discovered yet in Quebec, which is a bit sad for such a great brewery.

Next place on the list was a place called; BroueMont Pub & Brewery in bromont. Seemed to be a cool place but it turned out to be my worst visit ever. Ok it seemed they had some beers to sample, but it also seemed that the girl working (I am not sure if she really was working) at the place totally ignored us during 10 minutes. 4 people gets into a pub, gets to the bar and checks out the beers as we normally do as beer geeks.

What happens, well nothing, this girl simply goes around from bar to the table area and back and just talks in the phone with a friend or similar. She does not even blink to us and just continues to talk in the phone until we simply gives up.

For me this place should either decide to get rid of such awful people or consider closing down and do other stuff with their lives. Ok if the place maybe was closed, but could you not just get of the phone and simply inform us about that. If a place is opened and you can actually get to the bar my thought is that it is opened for business, or I am wrong?

This was one more example of the very bad attitudes we experienced arround Montreal. Do not understand the problem but it simply did not give any welcome feeling and you just wanted to leave.

Anyway enough talking about BroueMont, they might have beers but did not want to sell any of them, so I wish them good luck. Ever arround Bromont, just remember to forget this place and continue your journey, it is not worth the trip and you just waste valuable hours being totally ignored, simply crap.

We had a couple of more places in Quebec but decided after the bromont experience that we should give up and get back to the US instead, we had being travelling for hours and did not succeed in getting a single beer. Seems that Montreal and the actual city is the best choice for sampling beers from the area. If you go, you should probably have more time in Montreal and if you go you should not miss the amazing beers from DDC, they are at least worth the trip to Montreal.

Passed the border to Vermont and continued south to the "Trout River Brewing Company". Located in the beutiful area of Lyndonville this brewery has been on my beer map for a while. Unfortunately it was also closed for visitors and it turned out only to be opened for a couple of hours and on other days.

Nice place but sorry to say, we had not luck in getting beers at Trout either. Getting a bit desparate we decided to go for a safe place, so we header south and went down to the Long Trail Brewing company instead. This place was at least safe and we knew that it should be opened for business.

As for the rest of vermont this brewery is also located in a very nice area with surrounding mountains.

Long Trail Brewing Company is located in a place called Bridgewaters Corners and they have a large number of beers to offer. Both the IPA and the standard Long Trail Ale is great craft beers. Maybe not the most exiting brews, but they are well done and traditional to the style. The place is a large building similar to a winery of similar. They have a large bar area and with a complementary self brewery tour. We finally sampled some beers and went through the following beers;

96. Blackberry Wheat
97. Belgian White
98. Hefeweizen
99. Long Trail Ale
100. Double Bag
101. IPA

Where the Long Trail Ale (altbier) is probably my favorite beer. It has a very deep red color and a nice white head. Minor smell of hops and simply a very drinkable beer, not too much, but still a hoppy and bitter beer.

Crosed the border and went to New Hampshire again and the very famous "Seven Barrel Brewery" in West Lebanon. We sampled the following beers;

102. Quechee Cream Ale
103. Ice Rock Canadian
104. New Dublin Brown
105. The Red #7
106. Champion Reserve IPA
107. RIP Stout

Ended up in New London and after a short visit to our motel we walked up to the "Flying Goose Brewpub & Grill". A great place to end the beer day. The place is located so that you have a look a very beatiful view out over the mountains. It started to rain just after we came to the place so that it was really nice to sit inside and check out the rain during our dinner with beers.

Sampled beers included;

108. Crocketts Corner Oatmeal Stout
109. Perley Town IPA
110. Hedgehog Brown Ale
111. Flying Goose Pale Ale
112. Potter Place Porter

New England Report 10:2008-07-21 (Short trip to Montreal)

2008-08-14T01:18:00.006+02:00

After Burlington it was time to head north and our very short and limited beer trip to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

We had first a short stop and a local beer shop outside Burlington and extended the beer storage. Concentrated on Vermont beers so we only managed to get a couple beers from our new favorite brewery of Rock Art (link to the brewery). Rock art is new for us, but turned out to be a brewery that just turned 10 years this year. They do a couple of great beers inluding the amazing IIPA and the funky Jasmine Pale Ale (spiced with herbs), plus the barley monster of "Vermonster".

Also saw some local beers from Sweden that had travelled all the way to Vermont. Nice to see that Oppigårds is concenquring the world now days. One of my favorite breweries in Sweden, great to see.

After the stop at the beer shop it was just to program the GPS once again and head for Montreal, Quebec.

We arrived in the city after a few hours drive and very quick stop at the Canadian border control. We managed to find our hotel outside the airport and started our beer trail in Montreal.

The first and only big stop planned was the "Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel". We first heard about this place and brewery when Oliver Twist and Jugge served their beers at the Stockholm Beer Festival last year. So we knew that they do big beers compared to most other beers in Canada. The beers they have is a big mixture of beer traditions from US and Europe with a extra touch, something like mixing belgian beers with influences from the US.

They had a impressive list of own brewed beers, I think it included at least 15 different beers all on tap including a cask version.

Sampled beers included;

81. Voyageur Des Brunes (ESB) (Cask)

82. Grand Messe Ale (rousse)

83. Corne Du Diable (American IPA)

84. Mea Culpa India Cream Ale

85. Desse Nocturne Stout

86. Aphrodisiaque Stout (Cacao Et Vanille) (American Stout)

All great beers including the amazing Aphro beer that we also sampled in Stockholm last year. A jet black stout with very strong milky chocolate aromas plus the touch of vanilla on the top. A excellent stout.

After the visit to DDC we had accomplished the best of Montreal and probably Canada so did not expect much of the next couple of places. Walking south from DDC we visited the following places.

"La'mere a boine"

87. Hefe Weizen (should not call it hefe, awful beer)

88. Odense Porter (even worse, should get 1 from me)

89. Fin De Sieghe (red ale)

Nice place, but awful beers.

"Le Saint-Bock Brasserie Artisanale"

Much better place with comfortable couches that you can spend hours in. A good mix of local Quebec beers including their own. Also influenced by American and Belgian breweries and beer styles.

90. Route Des Indes maitre brasserie IPA

91. Du Chaudron Cobra IPA

92. Barberie Bitter (Cask)

93. 3M American Pale

94. Porter a Lerable Hopfenstark

"The Keg"

Last bar we found, not part of the plan and no more comments.

95. Rickards Red Ale

This beer is from the large Molson brewery, but is quite decent for a macro beer.

That’s it for Montreal and Quebec for now.

I guess you appreciate the city a bit more if you stay longer, but right now it was mostly an unfriendly place where people do not want to speak English and try to be so much French as possible.

Compared to a US brewery or brewpub the difference is quite big, meaning if you talk about customer service, or simply being friendly and appreciating the customer being at your establishment.

I am maybe a bit harsh, but the difference is so great compared to the US so being in Quebec 24 hours you simply long for getting back to the US.

At least DDC is world class place and the beers and even the atmosphere over at Le Saint-Bock was great for sampling Quebec beers. To summarize it, the beers were great, but the city probably needed more time for showing its better sides.

New England Report 9:2008-07-20 (Burlington, Vermont)

2008-08-13T23:20:00.009+02:00

We had planned a slower phase of the trip so the next day was a full day in Burlington and the same hotel as the day before. Burlington is a great city to stay at when you want craft beers from Vermont and you do not even need to leave central Burlington to find a couple of great local breweries and brewpubs.

After some shopping we started the first couple of beers over at "Magic Hat" in south burlington. We managed to get to the brewery tour at 13.00 and started with some samples in their temporary beer tent outside the brewery. Here I got to sample the following beers before the tour started;

68. Magic Hat Lucky Kat
69. Orlio Brewery IPA
70. Notion (sour beer)

The tour started and it turned out to be very popular so it got really crowded when got into the brewery. With the help of a great dude from the brewery we got to see the whole brewery from start to end and got loads of information from our cool guide. Magic Hat is quite big brewery and they are constantily growing.

As a brewery they are fun with a large number of beers each year. Not my favorite brewery but they do decent drinkable beers and sometimes they show that they can do big beers. If have nothing else to choose from it is always a great choice to pick up the Magic Hat #9 or a Lucky Kat.

We learned the story and history of the brewery and it was one of the better beers tours so far, simply quick and loads of information (sometimes these tours can be so long and boring, meaning that a brewery works in the same way, so you have listened about how you do beers many times).

After the tour and Magic Hat we programmed the GPS and went outside the city to Waterbury and the very popular "Alchemist Pub & Brewery". Popular was very easy to see as it was the longest queue ever in the history of beer samples (at least what I have experienced) at the vermont brewers festival.

As we did not have the time and strenght to stand in the queue during the festival we simply figured out that it must be much easier to actually get to the place. It turned out that we were early as they did not open until 15.00 plus that it started to rain. So 4 beer geeks were standing outside in the rain for at least 15 minutes until they let us in, must have looked quite fun as it seems that Waterbury is not a big city to do much more in.

The Alchemist is a pub and brewery and they simply do BIG beers in all type of categories, some might thing they are simply to extreme but that actually do great beers with a extra touch. Most of the beers include different american styled pales, IPAs and IIPAs but they also experiment with styles as Dopplebock and Saison (american style). As we had to wait for the chef to get to work we sampled some beers before "lunch" including;

71. Pappys Porter
72. The Crusher Imperial Pale Ale (cask)
73. Holy Cow (IIPA)

I like this place, both as place to get great food and seconday get the opportunity to drink some amazing IPAs and IIPAs.

I must say that when they finally got the Holy Cow on a free tap it turned out to be one of the best beers of the beer trail and definately the best beer from Vermont. It was a amazing experience and the Holy Cow should be on my beer list, only problem is that you need to get to Vermont, through that it will probably not make it. But its is something to check for next time you get the opportunity.

Bought a cool T-shirt and also managed to meet the brewer over at Cape Ann in Glouchester, MA. This was a really nice guy that had also been to the festival the day before. He did not remember and neither did we, but we actually met him over at his brewery a couple of days earlier (so I have their bus in a picture both in Glouchester and Waterbury, Vermont).

To summarize, if you ever go to norhern Vermont, you simply have to get to the Alchemist and try out these amazing brews, it is worth the trip and it is once in a life time beer experiences.

After a quick trip up to Stowe and Ben'&'Jerry ice-cream factory we turned the car back to Burlington and night out in the city.

Visits during the evening was concentrated on the breweries and places we did not have time to visit after the festival.

"Three Needs Brewery and Taproom":

74. IPA

A fun place were we met both the brewmaster of "3" and a brewmaster from "MOUT Brewery" in North Conway, NH. Moat Mountain is a brewery that I liked to visit but simply did not have the time, at least very nice people and we talked a bit about beers and other stuff about brewing in both US and Sweden.

"American Flatbread" (Zero Gravity)":

75. T.L.A India Pale Ale (American Flatbread Burlington Hearth)
76. Rock Art I.P.A (cask)
77. Trout River Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
78. Orlio Organic IPA (bottle)
79. Magic Hat Chaotic Chemistry (plus 5)
80. Zero Gravity Boognish Brown

American Flatbread is both a restaurant and brewery (Zero Gravity), so that both have their own beers here but also a large amount of other Vermont based breweries. So this was a good place to stay a couple of hours, you did not need to travel all over Vermont to get the beers, instead you could sit in the bar and enjoy everything that beers is about in Vermont. Great place.

Due to the nice bar at American Flatbread it turned out that we did not get further in Burlington and the beer storage was full for us. What can you do, it must simply end and it was time to get home to our hotel again.

The area arround Burlington was great and the day included loads of great beers where the 2 winners went to the Holy Cow from the Alchemist and the Chaotic Chemistry from Magic Hat.

What more can you wish for.

New England Report VIII:2008-07-19

2008-08-13T23:03:00.004+02:00

The report from our New England Beer Trail now continues, the trip is already finished, but I need this for the future, so lets continue.

The day after the festival in Burlington ended up in central Burlington with a visit to "Nectars".

Recommended by BeerAdvocates that we often turn to when you need a good place. This time it maybe turned out a bit wrong as the place was a club that describes it self as; "the club is a sultry, down home juke joint providing cocktails, dancing, live Blues, Boogie, Groove, Soul, and straight up Rock SEVEN NIGHTS A WEEK!".

As we are not the club-people anymore (probably never been, :-)) we sort of did not like the place too much.

They have a impressive amount of craft-beers (probably why BeerAdvocate had it on the list) but that does not matter if it takes ages to actually get the beer and had to sit in a extremelly loud environment. We had some food and at least got a local craft beer, but then left the place in a hurry.

67. Magic Hat Circus Boy

After that it was just to get home and have some rest so that you could load your batteries for a new day in burlington.

New England Beer Trail: "The Result in pictures and locations"

2008-08-06T00:55:00.007+02:00

More information will come and as usual it seems I had the normal problem with the internet so my goal to update everything during the trip failed.

Anyway I think we achieved most of the things we planned for a added some new fun stuff a long the way, when the original plan proved to be impossible to follow (you are always so optimistic back home, but often forget that you also need to spend some time at each place, not only travel between them, :-)) and we had to change a few things.

Vermont Brewers Festival: The Beers

2008-07-28T23:27:00.000+02:00

Complete list sampled at this years beer festival in Burlington included;

67. Long Trail Blackberry Wheat
68. Long Trail Traditional IPA
69. Pennichuck Engine 5 Red Ale
70. Rock Art IPA (II)
71. Rock Art Jasmine Pale Ale (RA)
72. Stone IPA
73. Stone Arrogant Bastard
74. Stone Coast 420 India Pale Ale
75. Switchback Unfiltered Ale
76. Wolavers IPA
77. Vermont Pub & Brewery Forbidden Fruit
78. Woodchuck Draft Cider Dark & Dry
79. Woodchuck Draft Cider Pear
80. Woodstock Inn Pemi Pale
81. Zero Gravity 07 Nights (Belgian Pail Ale)

Thats it.

And the winner? Well the best new brewery for me was probably "Rock Art" and then it comes to the IPA. Plus that I really learned to enjoy the ciders from Woodchuck, that is really a great cider that we should get to Sweden. A second great beer and also a new brewery for me was "Switchback" and the Unfiltered Ale

New England Report VII:2008-07-19

2008-07-27T07:17:00.008+02:00

At 17.00 it was finally time for the "Vermont Brewers Festival" that we had all been waiting for. After having some problems getting a cab from the hotel (seems everyone in Burlington was heading for the Waterfront Park at the same time) we finally managed to get there almost on time.

The park was packed with people in very long queues and the sun was extremelly hot. So it was really a struggle for the wait before we actually go into the festival area. But it went quite smoothly and it was organized very well.

Each brewery we located in different white tents and also a lot of food were provided. Talking about beers almost every known Vermont brewery were there, plus a good selection of external breweries like Stone and North Coast.

Getting to the list of sampled beers included; (you got 10 beers included in the price if you had the more normal beers, all connected to the ABV so some of the stronger counted as 3)

"Long Trail Brewing Company"

*. Blackberry Wheat
*. Traditional IPA

"Pennichuck Brewing Co"

*. Engine 5 Red Ale

"Rock Art Brewery" (a new favorite that I have not heard about before)

*. IPA
*. Jasmine Pale Ale

"Stone Brewing Co"

*. Stone IPA
*. Arrogant Bastard Ale

"Stone Coast Brewing Co"

*. 420 India Pale Ale

"Switchback Brewing Co"

*. Switchback Unfiltered Ale

"Vermont Pub & Brewery"

*. Forbidden Fruit

"Woodchuck Draft Cider"

*. Woodchuck Draft Cider Dark & Dry
*. Woodchuck Draft Cider Pear

"Woodstock Inn Brewer"

*. Pemi Pale Ale

"Zero Gravity"

*. 07 Nights (Belgian pail ale)

"Wolavers"

*. IPA

Scene outside the festival area, quite nice huh?

New England Report VI:2008-07-19

2008-07-27T06:36:00.006+02:00

Due to the bad Internet access you often get on the motels and probably due to late activities connected with beers these reports do not come out as expected. Anyway right now the report comes from a dreary bestwestern motel in Fall River, Massachusetts. Missed the opportunity to live down in Newport, RI as we so of did not understand that we really needed to book in advance. Due to that we simply had to rearrange the plans a bit so we simply ended up here instead. At least we got to the decided places in Newport and Middletown, RI and were happy with that.

Getting back to the report it is now 080719 and the trip continued from Bethel Maine to Burlington Vermont.

We stopped first at the "Italian Oasis Restaurant & Brewery" in Littleton.

This is a nice place located in a stylish tree house on the main street. We were early so as it had not yet opened we did some limited sightseeing (+ the longest candy store in the World, at least according to shop) by the river side. Sampled beers included;

59. Black Bear Stout (first of many black bear beers)
60. Cannon Amber Ale

As these beers were not really much to say about we can simply continue with the next stop.

Second place and just before we started our trip up to Burlington we stopped at the "The Shed Restaurant & Brewery" in Stowe. Original plan was the "Alchemist" in Waterbury but we could not find the time (solved later). The Shed is located in big red building and is also located in a ski resort area so much was connected to skiing and it felt like a nice place to be for a ski holiday. We had lunch and add the following beers to our list;

61. West Branch Golden
62. Shed Amber Ale
63. National IPA
64. Mocca Porter
65. Mountain Ale
66. Raspberry Wheat

(had samplers, so that is why it became so many)

After that it was just to hurry to Burlington and the planned "Vermont Brewers Festival"...

New England Report V:2008-07-18

2008-07-24T05:15:00.012+02:00

Now the report come from a very rainy Greenfield, MA. It is pouring down and we have to see how the travel will work south tomorrow morning. We finished the day in the Peoples Pint in central Greenfield.

Coming back to the normal report where the goal is mainly just to write some points down about the places we visited it is now down for day II outside Boston.

Second day in outside was supposed to be a brewery tour outside Portland.

We started out early with a visit to the Allagash Brewing Company. A brewery that was for me most connected to belgian inspired strong ales and tripples. A bit surprised the girl at the beer shop helped us with a very short and informal tour of the new brew house, and we were very happy with the information and tour we got. As the normal tour was 15.00 and we came to the brewery just after 11.00 it was great to have a couple of beers and a quick peak at the brewery.

Sampled beers included;

45. White (5% ABV)
46. Trippel Ale (9% ABV)
47. Black Stout (Belgian Stout), this was a great beer and something new for me, showed that they can do beer outside the standard belgian styled strong ale, great stuff and something we took with us from the brewery.

(Kegs at Allagash with the oaked barrell "Curieux", that we sampled at Sunset in Boston i couple of days ago)As the Casco Bay Brewing company had been closed down and that all brewers at Stone Coast Brewery were all occupied with the Vermont Brewers Festival (1 of 3 was not a great result) we instead continued to the Sea Dog Brewpub in Topsham. Time for lunch and;

48. Pale Ale (cask)

The beers are not really to exiciting at Sea Dog but the location in Topsham is worth checking out, has a large outdoor terrace along a small river.

Continued just as the very tiny Oak Pond Brewery opened up for visiting and free samplers. This brewery is actually just a one person operation.

We met the owner and brewer himself (see pic) and sampled;

49. Pale Ale
50. DoorYard Ale
51. White Fox Ale (best one)
52. Nut Brown Ale
53. Oktoberfest (biggest seller)

Coming to Bethel during we evening we also managed to find the brewpub in the ski resort, meaning the Sunday River Company and then finally ended up in central Bethel and the Suds Pub.

Sunday River Company:

54. Black Bear Porter
55. 420 IPA (also served here as the brewpub is owned by the people at Stonecoast brewery)

Suds Pub:

56. Magic Hat #9
57. Long Trail Ale
58. Gearys London Porter

Need for sleep now so I say goodbye with M and S saying goodnight from Suds and sunny Bethel, cheers to all.

New England Report IV:2008-07-17

2008-07-23T03:40:00.016+02:00

Reporting from the Fairview Motel outside New London NH. Here the trip also can continue on the web.

We have had a couple of more amazing beer days with loads of New Hampshire and Vermont beers, including the Vermont Brewers Festival (more about that later on).

If we continue with the actual trip and after the Cape Ann brewery (I later actually got a cap from the brewer himself outside burlington, thanks) if looks like this;

We took the car and continued back in the country from the coast and took us all over to The Tap in Haverhill, MA, a bit north or Boston. The was a natural spot after several pints of the amazing Leatherlips IPA.

(Tap handlers at the Tap in Haverhill)

The Tap has several great beer and is really a nice little town outside the Boston area. They are located in a town that was ages ago very famous for the shoe industry. Therefore they use the old shoe samples as part of the tap handlers.

Sampled beers included;

25. Rejuvination
26. Haverale
27. APA
28. Leatherlips IPA (amazing IPA at only 5% ABV, but in hops tastes like a double IPA, we even got a six pack to go)
29. Fresh Roasted Coffee Stout

After Haverhill we took the car up to Smuttynose Brewing Company in Portsmouth NH. We got the great opportunity with some talk with the bartender to be able to get a short brewery tour. Very fun to just have a quick browse through this brewery. As Smuttynose and especially the IPA is one of our old US IPA bit was really fun to check out the brewery. We got to see all of the production and even some of the future oaked barell experiments they are playing around with at the hidden corner of the brewery.

Sampled beers include;

30. Pale Ale Shoals
31. IPA
32. Portsmouth Lager
33. Old Brown Dog

The list expanded and as you see some people takes the beer list very seriously;

After the samplers and the brewery tour we had to continue and with some free samplers given to us at Smutty we went down to Portsmouth Brewery (sister brewery for Smutty) and sampled the following beers;

34. Bottle Rocket IPA
35. Black Cat Stout
36. Imperial IPA

After finally coming to Portland, maine we got rid of the car and headed down to downtown Portland. Portland by night included;"Grittys"

37. Bitter (cask)
38. Pub Style Pale Ale (cask)

"Sebago Brewing Company"

39. Fryes IPA
40. Boathouse Brown Ale
41. Roadhouse Red Ale

"Great Lost Bear" (Best bar in Portland, just sorry that it was the last place for the night and so far away from everything else, took us 40 minutes to walk between Sebago and the lost beer)

42. Stone Coast 420 IPA
43. Gearys Porter
44. Gearys Ale (cask)

At least you could understand that if you only need one place in Portland, the Great Lost Bear is the place. A cool place with loads of beers and atmosphere. But as always this should have been the first place to visit instead of the last place after a very long beer trail.

New England Report III: 2008-07-17

2008-07-21T06:12:00.005+02:00

First day if we talk about breweries and the beer trail took us to the "Cape Ann Brewing Company" in Glouchester, MA.

Sampled beers included;

20. Fishersmans IPA
21. Fishermans Pumkin Stout
22. Fishermans Brew (lager)
23. Fishermans Tea party Barley Wine

24. Bavarian Wheat

New England Report II: 2008-07-16

2008-07-21T05:49:00.007+02:00

Day II in and still in Boston. So this is the day that we need to show our beer friends the best of greater Boston beer scene.

The beers and places that we succeeded in getting to during the day includes (the weather was sunny and sunny etc)

"Beer Works", Canal Street

7. Fenway American Pale Ale
8. Back Bay IPA
9. Victory Red (cask)

"Bukowski Tavern" (during the wait of the Stone beer 12th anv.)

10. Lagunitas IPA
11. Sixpoint Bengali Tiger IPA
12. Cambridge Brewing Company Porter

"The Sunset Grill & Tap"

13. Bear Republic Racer 5
14. Boulder Beer Hazed & Infused
15. Moylans Double IPA
16. Allagash Curieux (cask)
17. Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard
18. He'Brew Lennys RIPA

"The Deep Ellum"

19. Ipswich Mild Brown

New England Report I

2008-07-21T05:30:00.003+02:00

Hi,

Yes we actually came to the US and started our New England Beer Trail 2008. The problems with my internet access has continued so a few days has passed with many beer experiences that you could talk about.

As always it is getting a bit late and I really hope that this one is a good choice to try something out on the net. Couple of the last attempts has ended with giving up and instead going to sleep.

So lets get some facts so far.

2008-07-15

Arrived in Boston and our hotel; "Midtown Hotel.

Straight to our favorite bar in Boston; "Bukowski Tavern" on Dalton Street.

1. Stone Arrogant Bastard
2. Cisco Whales Tale Palse Ale
3. Smyttonose IPA

"The Other Side Cafe"

4. DogFish 60 Minute IPA

"The Lower Depths Tap Room" (owned by the Bukowski team)

5. The Tap Leatherlips IPA (amazing IPA at 5% ABV)
6. Otter Creek Copper Ale

Yes and then it was Stone...

2008-07-15T02:41:00.003+02:00

Just if you missed it, it just happened to be a amazing beer tasting with Stone Brewery over at Oliver Twist, Stockholm last Thursday.

With personal brought beers by Greg K himself we simply had a amazing beer journey and sampling, including the very very new Stone 12th Anniversay oatmeal stout.

Quite fun that I planned to have that particular beer over in Boston on July 16th when it was supposed to be introduced there. But who needs to go to the USA when the CEO himself brings his beers to us.

Cheers and thanks very much for all the beers and information Greg. This was a very good start of the summer and all the beers we are supposed to enjoy arround New England.

10! beers were sampled and all brought directly from the US.

And yes I was actually there, here is the proof, thanks BK for the picture...

Yes I am still here!

2008-07-15T02:19:00.009+02:00

If anyone is still reading this blog except myself I just need to inform that our New England Beer Trip 2008 will just start in a couple of hours.

Hopefully I will have access to some kind of network and hope to make at least some comments about the trip.

It will start tomorrow (actually in a couple or hours) with going over to Boston, MA and end on July 30th.

We will probably not finish everything as planned but here is at least the main plan and where you can check were we probably are on this little beer trail.

New Spring beer from Sam Adams at OT

2008-05-19T00:22:00.003+02:00

Not that I like american style weiss\wit beer much but at least I need to give Oliver Twist some credit when they serve new beer from the US on draught, and even on the standard list of beers.

This beer showed up a couple of weeks ago at my favorite pub i Stockholm. It is called a "White Ale" and is a seasonal spring beer from Samuel Adams. So to categories it in style I would say simply a "Sam Adams"-style beer inspired by belgian witbier, meaning more Sam Adams instead of a normal witbier.

So if you like the taste of Sam Adams beers (as I do) and want to try something different this is your beer.

I like Sam Adams in the sense that it is a great starting point for people that usually drink international lagers. It is a beer that you can give a ago and often people like it and through that can learn and understand that a beer can actually taste something without being too much.

Often you hear that I want a beer, but it should not be dark, as to say that all dark beer would taste to much and different compared what they normally drink. Is that not strange?, why would just a dark beer taste more, at least you can not generalize like that. It is like say that a red wine would always taste more than a white wine, just because red is more color than white!.

According to Sam Adams this beer "has clear malt & wheat notes, and dominated by 9 spices and dried fruits". Personally I would say a beer with light orange color with a white head for a short while. For a wit-bier it has the lemon and orange you like in a beer like hoegaarden, quite refreshing as a summer beer and at the end very drinkable.

Not great and nothing I will drink much of but at least I will recommend it to people who wants something different and like to sample a US-beer.

In average I would give it a 4/10.

Tribute to my favorite pub; all categories

2008-05-18T19:54:00.007+02:00

What should a great pub\bar be?

Many beers? From many countries? Quality beers? Friendly Staff? Good food? Great location? Large? Small? Modern? Old?

Well that is a tricky question. But at very few occurences you just feel that this is it, this is something I like in pub, and this is a place that I like to return to.

This little tribute is such a place.

Barcade located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York city started out as a car workshop that was bought by a couple of micro beers & arcade enthusiasts in 2005. The place opened up in September 2005 and has quite quickly developed as a beer heaven for US-micro beers on draught, also recently on cask that is being more and more popular in the state.

So what about the hype, lets start with the actual building.

When you first arrive to the place it is really not easy to understand that this is a pub and a place where you should actually get close to. It looks like something that should actually been teard down ages ago, but that is part of the charm.

It is a rought place that just with its little sign saying "Barcade" shows directly what the place is about.

A place where you primarly drink beer (no food is served except beer nuts and chips) and can enjoy it with others also liking the beers to be based on quality and love to the craft brewing industry.

When you enter the place you will notice the exposed brick walls and the 25-foot ceilings, on the

left side a row of arcade games from the 80s, on the right hand side a long bar that strechtes out from start to end of the place.

And this is also one of the key things with a great bar, meaning the bar, you should be able to sit at the bar and not just get the beers from it. For me beers should be consumed at the actual bar, through that you can really get the atmosphere of the place.

So to summarize so for, it needs to be rough, meaning a place with a built in athmosphere and soul that shows that the place is primarly for beers and not just a place that has been heavily designed to be cool and classy. Secondly we need a long bar, either on the side or placed at the end of the place.

Barcades primarily serves micro beers through out the country and almost always on draught. The beers are handled with care and served with a understanding of glassware and suitable amount of beers (bad example of that is an other great place but that has no understanding of amount and glassware, at Mugs Ale Hourse also in Williamsburg I was served a Weyerbacher Double Simcoe India Pale Ale in a English pint!, great bargain but without understanding that you can not drink a English pint of a beer with arround 10% without loosing your touch and the touch of the beer), so you get a double ipa or a imperial stout in snifter or tulip, a american pale ale in a american pint glass as it should be.

One of the strange things that I have noticed the last couple of years in NY is the trend to replace the glass from american pint to english pint, why?, you should keep the glass that it should be not try to copy the english tradition.

Becuase if so, you are missing one thing, english beers are often light beers with ABV between 3 and 4%, american micros are often stronger in taste and ABV, so it is not a good idea to serve a 6-7% ABV Pale Ale or IPA in a larger glass, you just get drunk people not enjoying your beers.

Other things you notice is the staff, who has the knowledge and love of beers. They know what they are serving and they can talk about what the beer is about. If you do not know what you want they can help you out, and they have that special ability just by asking a couple of question can get the beer you really like, or just by knowing your last beer can spot out the next you should have, just before you realize it yourself.

Amount and number of changing beers is on my list of a good place, but is not the most important thing you look for. But anyway here you have a large number of taps and that is constantly changing in line and a great collection of beers from both the east, west coast and the rocky areas.

For example in this particular moment I could have enjoyed the following beers (unfortunately you can not be in NY every weekend, :-);

Allagash Four, Avery Karma, Blue Point Oatmeal Stout (cask), Middle Ages Kilt Lifter, Rogue Shakespeare Stout (Nitro), Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale, Sly Fox Saison Vos, Southampton IPA, Victory Prima Pils etc etc.

So this place is on my number one spot, it can not be any better, only pity is that NY is so far away. So I have to enjoy most of my beers locally. But at least everytime I am in NY Barcade is the number of spot.

Thanks to the folks at Barcade, thanks for giving me the ultimate beer experience.

Beers from Argentina enjoyed in Sweden

2008-05-18T01:41:00.008+02:00

Monks Café on Wallingatan 38 Stockholm/Norrmalm speciality is large number of beers, estimated to 1200 different bottles and arround 16 on the tap. I am not there so often (you can not visit every good place in Stockholm) but at some occurences we get up to the place and to try out some new brews from around the world.

This time I like to get the opportunity to give some credit to beers from Argentina. Maybe not a country that is famous for the beers, but why not, if Sweden can produce great micro beers why not Argentina.

So we sampled some of the beers available (Monks had a little Argentina beer festival, but I am sorry to say that I do not know the rest of the available beers) and discovered the beer from Antares. This is a small Brew Pub/Brewery located in the city of Mar del Plata (located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the Buenos Aires Province) brewed at the New Patagonia Brewery.

Antares beer is one of the fastest-growing premium beer in Argentina and has recently started to be available outside the country, exported to countries like Canada, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Japan.

Even in May month it has been announced that the beers (at least the lager) will be available in the US through the distribution of Aladdin Beverage (Brooklyn , NY). The lager seems to be the largest beer when talking about sales but we instead concentrated on the more interesting styles of port and stout.

First one was the porter that at start due to the cold storage did not taste much, but when the beer was warmed it turned out to be a very well made porter. This is a classic porter with aroma of toffe, coffee and and the end some roasted malts. It has has a quite thick beige head and quite oily in the mouth. Not a favorite in porters for me but at least very drinkable.

Second one was the stout (Antared Imperial Stout) that also comes with a deep dark brown color with a similar brown\beige head as the porter. This is of course something else compared to the porter, simply because of the storage and ABV. It has a very strong roasted malty character with quite smoky tastes. Not a favorite in imperial stouts (like Bells Expedition Stout and Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter) but it has the standard characters of a imperial stout and can be recommended to at least try out.

Always interesting to learn new beer countries and it will be interesting what the planned beers from Brazil that Monks is going to provide for us.

For the interested, here is a complete list of beers from Monks that are or at least have been available;

Antares Barley Wine
Antares Imperial Stout
Antares Kölsch
Antares Porter
Antares Scotch Ale
Aracuana Bock
Aracuana Doppio Malto
Aracuana Pale Ale
Aracuana Weizen
Otro Mundo Golden Ale
Otro Mundo Nut Brown Ale
Otro Mundo Strong Red Ale

The Beer Summer in Stockholm has arrived

2008-05-18T01:06:00.006+02:00

Last Saturday the summer finally arrived in Stockholm and took us all with storm. Seems that everyone was out enjoying the short opportunity to get some sun. Stockholm looked like a enormous beach area and you could not understand that we had snow just a couple of weeks back.

So it was a good time to get together and drink some great beers. The normal beer meeting with the The Swedish Beer Consumers Association had this time been transformed to picnic in the park.

We all met at tantolunden on Södermalm and had a great time with some sampling of beers and chocolate.

It felt a quite interesting experience to sit together and drink great quality micro beers from all over the world, when people at the same time arround were enjoying the maybe more "normal" fizzy yellow macro lagers in large scale. It was like a little island thrown out on a big field of international lagers and cheap wines.

Most of the beers came fram Anders H and Lasse and from one of their many beer trips to Copenhagen, so the quality was great and we were lucky enough to get some great beers from escpecially the USA.

How about the beer list that I personally enjoyed, can it be any better, micro beer and summer in Stockholm,

1. Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale

2. Oskar Blues Old Chub

3. Green Flash Double India Pale Ale

4. Närke ?

5. Runöl

6. Guiness export 7.5% (from a stach of beers that Carlsberg wanted to throw away due to the date, 2004!, very sweet beer and not really what you think a Guiness should taste)

7. Oppigårds Påsköl

It was a good day and I think we should do this more often, it is not always you get such great beers at a park in Sweden. Thanks to who ever came up with this brilliant idea, instead of just sitting inside in a dark pub sampling beers that we usually do when we have such gatherings.

Beer mayhem at Oliver Twist

2008-05-18T00:55:00.003+02:00

After some problem with the distribution (due to the cheap dollar everyone wants to buy, so it was difficult to get a free container) the beers for the US-beer Mayhem at Oliver Twist has finally arrived.

At least the menu is ready and we are all waiting to get the opportunity to get hold of some draught US-beer again.

It was a while now and I have not got the opportunity to drink some great US-micros since the NY-trip at the end of March. Looking at the list it seems that we can return to the "normal" line of US-micros from all over the country.

Also seems that Jugge has also got some beers again from the Fort Collins Brewery (hope they know about that this time, :-)), hope it will be as good as when we visited the brewery last year.

Hope ya all turn in, at least you that has the opportunity!

All you need in a fridge..

2008-04-29T23:07:00.004+02:00

Yes what can it be except a couple of canned Imperial Stouts and Imperial Porter!