Sweden is my 10th highest rated country with 207 beers, including a number of ciders, from 49 different breweries in 14 out of 21 regions.
My top ten seems to be dominated by Omnipollo, which paints me as a right old fanboy, but actually in recent years I’ve avoided the brewery in favour of other producers.
I’ve always looked forward to visiting Sweden, and like the general feel of the place even though areas of the major cities (Malmo, Stockholm, Goteborg) can be quite rough in parts.
Only visited once during my RB years on a Scandi city hop break in 2015. We flew in to Stockholm just after New Year to find all the bars completely empty, as in no one at all. Very odd, but apparently normal just after New Year. Hit up some of the main bars, there was a Bishops Arms near our hotel which I quite liked for an English-style pub. Surprised to see most of the customers drinking macro lager rather than sampling the craft. Oliver Twist was decent, was a shock to see Salopian on cask, brewed a few miles from my house. Akkurrat was unfortunately closed when we walked past. Monk’s Cafe had an insane bottle selection, probably the best I’ve ever seen for any bar, and an insane tap list to match, a shame to see they appear to have closed down.
Had a nice pizza at Omnipollo’s Hat, despite the rude service. Didn’t make it out to any others, think we ended up getting some beers from Systembolaget and chilling in our hotel.
Prior to this visit I travelled all over the country, furthest North being Umea where I almost got arrested (we had just bought 3.5% beers from a gas station and the guy I was with put his beers down to take a leak, splitting a can and spraying beer everywhere as he held it up. Cue a local old man on his bike reporting us to police for tagging the bus shelter and us being stopped and questioned for half an hour in Umea town centre. Still, police saw the funny side and we found out the policewoman went to school with the singer of the band we’d seen the day before - Dennis Lyxzen of International Noise Conspiracy / Refused.
Another memorable trip was getting a flight over to catch Breach reform for one show only at the Debaser in Stockholm. Amazing show. Caught a taxi to the airport after the show and flew straight back.
Got into Snuss through travelling in Sweden and touring with a couple of Swedish bands. Only lasted a year though, bit messy and got weird looks for my swollen top lip. There’s also a great Volvo museum in Goteborg I killed time in before catching a ferry.
Hope to return again one day!
My Rating
