The votes have been counted and the members of Sweden’s most active beer forum have spoken. Today we can officially announce the results of the BeerSweden Forum Awards 2014 – the country’s biggest online awards event organised by beer drinkers for beer drinkers!
A record number of BSF members voted for their favourite beers, breweries and beery personalities in 14 categories throughout January. All the finalists had previously been nominated by BSF members, with those attracting the most votes advancing to the final voting round.
With three new categories and some fresh names in the mix challenging previous category winners this year has been the most exciting and open competition to date. But enough talk – let’s see who scooped what, starting today with the Swedish categories and tomorrow with the International category winners!
Poppels Bryggeri has already carved out a reputation as one of Sweden’s best newcomers and here they are barely a year after launching grabbing top spot for Best Swedish Beer. It’s for their Double IPA brewed using 6 different types of malt and a heady blend of citra and amarillo hops, which featured in an extravagant four-stage dry-hopping schedule. Malmö Brygghus’s pop art inspired Canned Wheat was a close second.
Last year the Brekeriet brothers were celebrating being named Best Newcomer. This year they’ve gone one better and toppled Oppigårds from the top spot as Best Swedish Brewery.
In this new category we shine the light on the newest Swedish craft breweries. The international team behind Beerbliotek from Gothenburg have captured our imagination with a never-ending cascade of experimental beers – each one deliberately different. I loved the way they summed up their brewing philosophy on BeerSweden a while back – likening themselves to a library and pointing out that just as people don’t want to borrow and read the same book twice they don’t want to drink the same Beerbliotek beer twice either. Love it!
Despite a charge from The Rover in Gothenburg top spot for Best Swedish Beer Bar/Pub/Restaurant stays another year in Stockholm as Akkurat continues its dominance in this category. Will they be there next year or will the Rover finally catch up?
Another new category aimed at lifting up the latest players in the Swedish beer scene. BrewDog’s Stockholm Bar may have had some opening teething troubles but when it did open it opened with a bang (and a funeral procession) and has never looked back. Great to see Malmös Hamnmästaren break through in this category too. A future winner perhaps?
Brill & Co have been brilliant in this category in the past (see what I did there?) but they’re facing stiffer competition this year, with their 80% winning margin from last time around cut back to just under 50% of the votes. Galatea’s recent investment in craft beer brands certainly seems to have paid off and Constant Companion have clearly been making friends fast – having started up just months ago and already sitting in third spot!
No surprise here right? Well maybe not with the winner, but the SBWF team might have to look over their shoulders next year with the All in Beer Fest coming up fast behind them!
Bit of a catch-all category this one, reflected in the nominations. First place goes to trendy Copenhagen bar Mikkeller and Friends (the 40 draft beers and 200 bottles of craft awesomeness may have had something to do with it) while the glossy and informative beer magazine c/o Hops gets the recognition it deserves for mixing entertaining beer articles with stylish artwork and photography.
He’s gone and done it again! The irrepressible Manker along with BDM2 has taken top spot after a hectic year of beer blogging in which he has leaked, provoked and entertained us with his no-holds-barred approach to the Swedish beer scene. The mild-mannered Johan Lenner from the Portersteken blog has seen his analytical approach hit home among readers, coming from nowhere last year to take second spot!
Last year Henok Fentie (of Omnipollo fame) burst onto the scene and took this category. This time he’s going to have to share the honours, but I don’t suppose he’ll mind too much as the person he’s sharing it with – artist Karl Grandin – is also his business partner! Jens Skrubbe, defender of Belgium Beer No 1 is in second place, followed closely by Pelle Frost, a driving force behind All in Brewery and a familiar face for Gothenburg beer lovers.
Check back tomorrow to see who won what in the International categories!
Text: Darren Packman