Malmo Brygghus (Malmo, Sweden)

12/29/12

Narrow downstairs bar area next to brewhouse.  More tables
are upstairs looking down on the brewery. 

Sitting at Carlsberg after the tour, we researched online that Malmo Brygghyus wasn't open on Sunday, so we decided head over yet that afternoon.  Taking the train from Copenhagen to Malmo is just over a half hour ride over a bridge to Sweden.  At mid-afternoon, the sun was setting on the horizon but we still had a beautiful view of wind turbines and water under multicolored clouds.

Nearly dark when we arrived, the mile plus walk from the train station through Malmo's heart was made easy by the Christmas lights up and down the shopping district.  In the main square, multi-story trees were decked out for the season as well.

First round at Malmo Brygghus

Malmo Brygghus is a small, two-story bar with tables top and bottom in a U shape around the brewhouse in the center.  Ian ordered the best beers of the stop, starting with Cacao-Porter made with cocoa from a local chocolatier and the False Dmitriy, a Russian Imperial Stout, that lived up to its name.  Check out the website for more information all of their beers.

I started with the Beersson's DIPA and followed up with the Simcoe Pale Ale.   I initially described both as "muted" somehow.  Chatting with the bartender Hampus, he said Swedish homebrewers, which he was one, tended to add more caramel malt.  Both leaned towards a toffee and caramal sweet rather than a bite in spite of sizable hops in both.  I jokingly called it a Swedish IPA as I was trying to explain a Bell's Third Coast ale or how Masala Mama is a Minnesota IPA.

Main train station in Copenhagen.  Can you find Ian?

We finished by sharing the Witbier, which had a great nose full of coriander and it drank as a strong representative of the style in a sweeping glass that got extra marks for presentation.  After drinking most of the beers on tap, we headed back with recommendations for drinking Copenhagen, especially the Mikkeller Bar.

Admittedly, for me initially, a partial reason to hit Malmo Brygghus was to bag another country with the short trip to Sweden (up to thirteen countries now).  However, I was rewarded with some well crafted, tasty beer and excellent discussion of a burgeoning beer scene in Sweden with Hampus.

I've been drinking craft beer (microbrew back in the day) since about Y2K.  Showing up to the US beer world just after the shake out of the 90s, I feel like I've lived the future of Sweden and other countries that are budding breweries from their homebrewers.  At Malmo, I felt the same energy, the same excitement that when I tasted my first great brews, my first beer adventures.  Skål Sweden!