The BeerCast in Sweden

Happy New Year from the BeerCast! We’re all back in our home alehouses of choice following the trip to Scandinavia last week. Sweden is certainly an interesting place to go and find some decent beer – and it can be done. The government-owned chainSystembolaget is the only place you can buy alcohol over 3.5%abv (other than bars and restaurants, of course). As a result, every time we went into one of them it looked as if an announcement had gone out that prohibition was returning, or something. Thirsty lot, the Swedes.

While there we managed to collect four real ales brewed in the country, so look out for a forthcoming Swedish BeerCast special, recorded live in Stockholm. To see the other side of the coin, we let Lagerboy go and do his thing on one of the mass-produced 3.5% Nordic brews available in any supermarket, away from the arms of government licensing. Finally, we discovered a real gem of a real ale pub in Södermalm – coming up we’ll have a worthy addition to our “In praise of…” Hall of Fame. All in all, a pretty successful trip…