Brewery: Skellefteå Bryggeri
Country: Sweden
Size: 33cl
ABV: 7.3%
Price: 33kr
Systembolaget: 88003
As this was a tasting focusing on beers from Norrland, I began by looking at the breweries in the major cities here in the north of Sweden. I already had beers from Umeå and Piteå, so I wanted to take another beer from a different city. Skellefteå Bryggeri has been around since 2011 and has grown to become a well established player in the world of Swedish craft beer. I thought I would take one of their IPAs as it fitted nicely into the tasting, and so I decided to focus on the Levande DIPA as I had heard some interesting reviews of it.
When decanted it was a rather dull brown, muddy shade that was reminiscent of watered down coke. A bright white head held well and when swirled it exposed the medium to good body. It didn’t look the most enticing beer in the world but thankfully it smelt a lot beer than it looked. Big hits of fresh pineapple, mango, passionfruit syrup, moss and tree sap blended to produce a lovely scent. Once tasted, there was an interesting earthy combination of pine and moss that rolled around the mouth with a thick coating body. I was quite surprising because I expected a lot of the fruit from the aroma to filter into the taste. Instead it was more funky, almost swamp or forest like. There was a warming aftertaste, but not much lingering bitterness.
This was a beer of two different halves. It tasted completely different from what I would have guessed due to the nice fruity hits in the smell. It was smooth, but not the easiest beer I’ve tried in my life. I think I need to try this again a couple more times to really work out how I feel about this. Well made but slightly strange and unexpected.