A few weeks ago, I took the express bus to Gothenburg, a city about four hour's drive from Oslo. The event was a gathering of fellow beer drinkers who usually congregate at RateBeer, but on occasion meet to have a few beers and swap tall tales. I missed the main event - the grand tasting, but I managed to sample some of the best Swedish beers available - as well as a number of Belgian beers not very much to my liking.
One event on the programme - a bit too early in the morning for some participants - was a porter tasting held in the grounds of the old Carnegie brewery. Gothenburg is the main port of Sweden, and also has been an important industrial town. One of these industries was the Carnegie Porter brewery, with its main building, today a hotel, still towering over the harbour. The Carnegie brewery was established in the early years of the 19th century, and flourished together with the Swedish shipping of the period. Beer was useful as a ballast, and their porter was exported to the far corners of the globe.
In the 20th century, there were several blows to the Carnegie porter. Lager beers became fashionable, and strong beer was banned - the only way to get it was through a doctor's prescription. Though this was liberalized later, it was too late to save the brewery, though the beer is still in production, today brewed by Pripps/Carlsberg. There was a Carnegie Porter drinker's association in the 1930ies, and this was revived by students in more recent years. These guys arrange porter tastings in a prime location - a tun formerly used for storing porter. The tun, with a 93 000 litre capacity, seats about a dozen people, and you get to sample various stouts and porters, including the present day Carnegie Porter. Our tutor was Otto Lundell, who gave us a briefing on the history of Carnegie and other stouts and porters. The best beer served on that Saturday morning was, IMHO, the Imperial Stout from Slottskällan, a Swedish micro brewery.
This brief report in no way does justice to the event. They arrange tastings by appointment, so get in touch if you are in the area.
