Beer Tasting in Championship Mode

I'm back in Sweden and I am once again being spoiled with the selection of Systembolaget. Some people may argue about the taxes and the high prices of the lower end wines but I have to express my thankfulness towards the monopoly. Having a Norwegian friend here visiting who is not quite as used to the selection I took him to Systembolaget at Regeringsgatan in Stockholm and we got into a little beer shopping spree.

We bought 16 more or less randomly selected lager beers in order to do a semi-blind lager tasting in championship mode. Semi-blind in the sense that we knew what beers that were represented in the tasting but had no insight in what beer was served each time. Maybe inspired from the world championships in football we decided to have a championship mode of the tasting in order to have a clear winner. We tasted two beers at the time and the winner of each round moved on to the next round.

The matches went as follows, we were three tasters but I've marked my own succession:

Bitburger (winner)
Stella Artois

Breznak (winner)
Becks

Gösser (winner)
Jever

Carlsberg Hof
San Miguel (winner)

St Eriks Pilsner
Brewdog Lager 77 (winner)

Amstel
Staropramen (winner)

Mariestad Prima Lager (winner)
Spendrups Old Gold

Guldkällan Vit
Dugges No 1 Lager (winner)

Quarter finals:

Bitburger
Breznak (winner)

Gösser (winner)
San Miguel

Brewdog Lager 77 (winner)
Staropramen

Mariestad Prima Lager
Dugges Lager no 1 (winner)

Semi finals:

Breznak (winner)
Gösser

Brewdog Lager 77
Dugges Lager No 1 (winner)

The final was consequentiality between the Czech Breznak and the Swedish microbrew Lager No 1 from Dugges. In the final it was not a too difficult victory for Dugges Lager No 1 but the price difference between those is also remarkable. Breznak sells for 10,30 SEK per 330 ml bottle (31,21 SEK / litre) and Dugges Lager no. 1 sells for 24,90 SEK per 500 ml bottle (49,80 SEK / litre). One might argue for that Lager no 1 did have a more difficult way to the final than Breznak but it should anyhow state an example of the quality of the low price Czech lager.

Interesting is that my Norwegian friend ended up with exactly the same final as I did after having chosen partly different winners in the first round. He also chose Lager no 1 as winner.

My girlfriend also participated in the tasting and she ended up with partly different results and a final between St Eriks Pilsner and Breznak. She chose Breznak as winner and with all the three of us having the beer go all the way to the final we concluded it as a winner in our little championship.

The main point of this post is to inspire you readers to a fun evening and a very easy going tasting that leaves little room for nerdy thoughts and tasting notes. Rather it focuses on pure appreciation and what one actually likes the best!

Enjoy a good evening!

7-Stern a Microbrewey Vienna with some weird beer

Recently I visited the 7stern (siebenstern) brewery pub in Vienna. For beer interested people it is close to an institution in this city even though its commercial focus tend to overwhelm the brewart that obviously is possessed by the brewmaster. With selection of 7 regular beers they occasionally leave room also for seasonal specialities such as a Maibock during the spring.

The pub is way much bigger than it looks from the outside and with the big polished copper mash tuns behind the bar it is a charming place to hang out an evening or two. If you don't feel attracted by the place but are curious about their beers there is a vending machine by the entrance where you can by their beers freshly bottled.

The Märzen is in my opinon the best beer in the selection. In a traditional Märzen style, far from these blonde light lagerbeers that are today sold as märzen (note Zipfer, Murauer, Gösser etc), this is a brown-reddish, cloudy beer, close to opaque with powerful taste. With an alcohol strength of 5,1% it offers a lot of body and lot of taste without being to heavy. There is a hint of sweetness that does not feel caramelly or sticky and a fruity hoppiness reminding strongly of rose hip.

The second most interesting beer represents a category that makes me happy to see around. Rauchbeer (smoke-beer, or smoked beer) is a German forgotten art today being more or less only sold by under the label of Aecht Schenkerla wich is hardly a commercial brew but still widely available all over Europe (in Sweden found at SB with the number 1359). At 7stern they brew and sell a beer with a distinct smell of smoke, as the sort of tone you would get from smoked salmon. It's dry with a little acidic aftertaste and a hint of liquorice. It's without doubt a beer to be accompanied by food, smoked or grilled with quite a lot of fat is probably the best.

Apart from these two they make a lager and a Prager Dunkles (Prague Dark - Černé) of good but not remarkable quality. They also make two less appealing flavoured beers. One is being brewed with hemp giving the beer a greenish taste that appears a little fat and reminds of olive oil. The other one is a chilibeer with a spice that kills everything else. It's a light lager and the burn is overwhelming everything else. Along with a grilled chicken with a mango-lime salsa I could imagine it as a good pair though. These, close to weird and bordering to unserious beers, could in my eyes very well leave space for someting more interesting, maybe a wheat-beer or a Chech Granate.

I have not had time to try their Maibock yet but I will have to go by and taste it before it's out of season!

So long
Lucas Spinnars

Links:

7stern brewery pub (English and German)

Černé (Swedish)
Oktoberfest med hela historien om Märzen (Swedish)