Hopefully @Blackhaddock will have his forum access fixed soon, but in the meantime I’ve agreed to take on doing his weekly country stat threads. I hope you’ll be as supportive of my threads as you were of his.
So. next on @blackhaddock’s list of countries is Sweden. Home of Ikea, meatballs, sensible cars, Spotify and more than 10 million descendants of Vikings. It’s also home to loads of great bands (yes, there are Swedish bands other than Abba!).
In line with the other Scandinavian countries, it’s got a great (if expensive) craft brewing scene. There are currently 540 breweries, 27 cideries, and 9 breweries on Ratebeer, although possibly the fake cider producers like Kopparberg & Rekorderlig shouldn’t count in that!
Unfortunately I don’t current have premium access (trying to get that sorted at the moment), so I can’t post the top raters for the country – maybe someone else can post that for me this week? I’m going to guess maybe @omhper and @fonefan are the leaders here…
I also don’t have premium and I don’t believe there is way to get back from what I’ve seen. You can click link to request free which I did last year but that doesn’t seem to work and no way to pay.
Been to Sweden a few times, can’t say it’s one of my favourite places to visit - mainly cos it’s so expensive! Have only been in a couple of bars in all my visits, though the Systembolaget (state-operated off-license monopoly) is actually decent enough prices and good selection (but ridiculously restricted opening hours) so bottles/cans on a train or in my hotel account for most of my ticks. Have done Stockholm and Malmo, should really do Gothenburg, and would like to do the train to the far north at some point. Also been to a one-horse town on the Norwegian border where I had 2 hours changing trains, and being Sunday the Systembolaget was shut.
Surprised to find I’ve actually had 476 ‘Swedish’ beers, though like Denmark a good chunk of them were brewed at Proef in Belgium
As already stated I have rated 8259 Swedish beers, from 528 breweries, which makes it my most rated country - for obvious reasons. The high average of 3.08 is a result of selective bias, ie. not actively searching out stuff I believe I will not like.
When I started drinking beers there were only 8-9 breweries left in the country, plus a few doing low low alcohol svagdricka. Despite brewers battling with alcohol retail monopoly system, as probably more hampering, big brewers lock-up of taps and beer sales in bars and restaurant, there has been a tremendous growth in numbers of producers.
My most rated regions are also the most populous. Still need a few more from some southernly regions to complete the mini-Travlr, ie. get to at least 100 ticks for all regions in a country.
#18 overall with 21 ratings. We tend to get fewer Swedish imports here vs Norway and Denmark. (Or used to at least.)
Top rated beer is Sigtuna Midvinterblot
9 of my top 10 were rated in North America (mostly Ontario with a couple from NY and one from the Mondial festival Quebec). One rating in the UK being the exception.
I have tried beers from 9 of the 21 regions, with Stockholm being the most rated.
You do not have to visit Norway then Norwegians frequently travel to Sweden to purchase cheap beer (alcohol…)
Most important for me: I have 88 place ratings in Sweden. Not in the top five list but close. My beer mate @cunningham have 107 place ratings and is number five. Respect! But, he can drive to the nearest Swedish town in about 30 minutes. My trip will be nearly 8 hours!
Is Akkurat still one of top beer places in world? I’ve never visited country but remember wanting to go there. I only have 14 rates and half are omnipollo, don’t see a ton of distribution here in states. Do have 6 regions though with those remaining 7 rates.
I’ve been to Norway twice. One time bought a few bottles in the state monopoly off license, the other I went to a brewpub in Trondheim, decided I’d bit the bullet and get the sample flight to at least get all the beers… only to be told they don’t do them at weekend. I’d resigned myself to paying double figures but at least tick all the beers, but wasn’t gonna pay nearly as much to only have one, cheerio…
It’s a miserly 2 Swedish rates from me, one of those was eons ago when I dipped my toe into the RB pool, so I do not have a wealth of experience here! Add to that I’ve never been there, closest I got was Copenhagen, and I so desperately wanted to cross that bridge, but the opportunity never arose, work got in the way. Suffice to say me and Sweden are not heavily acquainted - I have had IKEA furniture and did own a Volvo for a while. And I never knew that Spotify was Swedish, my new fact for the week
Below that there’s unfortunately some real dross pulling my average score for Sweden down to a lowly 2.62, with Kopparbergs Pear languishing in my bottom page of ratings at a meagre 0.9. I definitely need to try some more of the good stuff from Sweden!
I have visited Sweden once (long before I joined RB) - we had a day trip across to Helsingborg when we were staying in Helsingor in Denmark, just so we could add another one to our country bagging list! Given the price of alcohol in Denmark, we were amazed by the number of Swedes on “booze cruises” to Denmark - the whole boat was chock full of Swedes with trolleyloads of alcohol. Of course, when we reached Sweden & saw the price of beer in a bar there, we realised why! We had coffee instead… Nevertheless, like all the Scandinavian countries I’d love to see more of it one day.
I’d also like to mention how many great bands have come from Sweden (in addition to the mighty Abba). In my time I’ve loved music from The Cardigans, Roxette, Neneh Cherry, The Hives, First Aid Kit and I’m sure many others that I haven’t realised are Swedish. So, great work Sweden!
I am sitting on a measly 5 cider rates from 3 cideries, plus a mead. Want to expand on that of course. Have access to a lot of Frukstereo, but not a fan of their flavor profile.
I have spent about two hours in Sweden, we took the Kronborg ferry (Denmark) to Helsingborg and back, with loads of Swedes who had been or where going on beer buying trips in the opposite direction.
No bridges crossed and nothing else to add apart from thanking Anth for taking on the weekly thread. @wheresthepath, I am more than happy to let you carry on if you wish.
just been looking through my Swedish lists… I don’t keep scores but if I did my top scoring breweries would probably be Elmeleven, Brekeriet, Duckpond, Paranormal, Morgondagens, Fermenterarna and Brewski - all making very good sours. Also had some good sours from Omnipollo (and some not so good ones!).
Music-wise, Swedish bands I’ve seen live include Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Entombed, At The Gates, the Haunted, Deathstars, Ghost and Sabaton. Plenty more Swedish bands in the album collection (which does NOT include Abba!)
. I just emailed 
Norwegians frequently travel to Sweden to purchase cheap beer (alcohol…)
