The Liffey - Good food, poor beer selection

Over the last week I have twice visited the Irish pub The Liffey in Stockholm. It is situated in the old town (Gamla Stan) at Stora Nygatan and has in just over a year gained a stable crowd. Every night they play live music and show sports after the well updated weekly schedule available in the pub. At fridays and Saturdays the place gets truly busy as the party people seem to assembly here.

I really enjoy the atmosphere at The Liffey. It is nice and clean and laid back. All of the staff speaks pretty much only English and it feels fairly genuine. The food quality is far above what you can expect from an Irish pub in this style. It is classical pub food but well made and extremely affordable. The fish and chips plate is one of the bigger I've had and the fish is well done. So are the Sizzling-fajitas and the Nacho plate. The gambas starter is also sizzling hot and has a powerful garlic taste which is truly enjoyable. There is also a sweet deal for bbq-ribs and beer.

There seem to be a group of regulars hanging in the bar and I can really understand them coming there repeatedly. The music that starts around 10 pm is not to loud anf the place is hence talk-able even though you can enjoy the atmosphere with live music.

As you may have guessed I really like the place. Anyhow there are things that could be better! Of a gastronomic perspective it lacks some quality. As mentioned the food is really good in relation to what is expected of an Irish pub and especially to the price. But, if you're in Stockholm to have a gastronomic experience you'd better try out Frantzén Lindeberg just around the block. Thus I don't think the food is the problem at this place. The problem is the beer. And the beer is fairly crucial at an Irish pub. The selection is highly commercial with nothing that sticks out. There is Guinness, Kilkenny, Staropramen, Stella Artois, Carlsberg etc. on draught and not a single interesting beer. With the strong beer-trend coming up and growing in Sweden it's not acceptable and I hope they will change it soon!

If you are a budget traveller visiting stockholm for the first time or a thirsty local doesn't matter. You can drop by The Liffey anyway.

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Lucas Spinnars

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)