Beer in Sweden

Beer in Sweden has a history that can be traced to the Viking period.

History

Ale brewing has a long history in Sweden, predating written records. It is known, through old writings such as Hávamál and others, that the Viking culture used brewing to produce ale and mead. Through the centuries since and up until the 19th century, brewing was mostly a matter of production for household needs. The beer was usually weak in alcoholic content and used as an everyday beverage. For celebrations and feasts, stronger "feast-beer" and potent mead was brewed. With the advent of industrialism, all this changed. As the cities grew, home brewing became impossible for most people, and so the Swedish brewing industry arose.

In the mid-19th century, a multitude of small breweries grew into existence in all the larger cities of Sweden, and every town had to have at least one brewery, if nothing else for sating the local patriotism. In the beginning of the 20th century, a trend of consolidation with mergers and buyouts began, which culminated in the late 1970s and the beginning of 1980. This led to the formation of three large brewery conglomerates; Pripps, Spendrups and Falcon, and pushed the smaller breweries to the very verge of extinction. This led to a strong stereotyping of the Swedish beers available as easily drinkable lagers, more often than not lacking in taste and character.

In the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, largely through consumer awareness, a new generation of small breweries began to grow alongside the large companies. These companies offer customers more in the way choice and many of the beers now produced in Sweden are of the very highest international quality, produced with carefully cultivated brewing yeasts (often imported from Germany, Belgium or Britain).

Economy

The modern trend is toward consumers increasingly choosing stronger beer than the 3.5% abv brands, generally referred to as folköl (people's beer) sold at grocery stores. Any stronger beer is sold exclusively at the government owned retail monopoly Systembolaget. [cite web
url=http://www.euromonitor.com/Beer_in_Sweden
title=Beer in Sweden
publisher=www.euromonitor.com
accessdate=2008-08-23
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Breweries

*Ahlafors Bryggerier
*Dugges Ale och Porterbryggeri
*Gamla slottskällans bryggeri
*Grebbestad Bryggeri
*Hantverksbryggeriet
*Helsinge Ångbryggeri
*Jämtlands Bryggeri
*Kinnekulle Bryggeri
*Kopparbergs Bryggeri
*Krönleins Bryggeri
*Mora Bryggeri
*Nils Oscar Brewery
*Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri
*Närke Kulturbryggeri
*Oppigårds Bryggeri
*Sigtuna Brygghus
*Skebo Bruksbryggeri
*Spendrups Bryggeri
*Åbro Bryggeri, located in Vimmerby founded in 1856 by Per W Luthander. [ [http://www.abro.se/about/history/ Åbro website - history] , retrieved on November 9, 2006 sv icon]
*Ölands Gårdsbryggeri

These are brewing companies, not brewing plants. The largest brewing plant in Sweden (Falcon) is owned by Carlsberg, which is Danish, and is therefore not in the list.

References

Notes

External links

* [http://www.abro.se/ Official Åbro website] sv icon
* [http://www.nilsoscar.se/ Official Nils Oscar website]
* [http://www.ratebeer.com/findbrewer.asp RateBeer]