On Sunday it was my birthday. I turned the grand age of “nearly 30″ (quote Nico Nuzzaci) i.e. 28 years old. To celebrate I decided to mark the day a beerday. And what better place to celebrate beerday than in a drinking establishment that claims to stock the worlds finest beers and provides you with 23 draft, 150 bottles of beer and over 800 sorts of ale to choose from. Even if that establishment does have the rather unseeming title of Oliver Twist.

With a menu sporting probably the worlds most expensive beer, sold in Sweden, Samual Adam’s 25% Utopia*, our expectations were high. We started of the night with a classic - a draft Leffe. Then I went onto an IPA Twisted Thistle, and Nico a London Pride (oh the friends back ‘ome would be so proud!). Our lips were now puckered and suitably ready for the tasting sessions. We started with the bottom of the rung beers. Two Swedish beers - Hell and Jämtlands Christmas beer which were alright. Jack, which is brewed by the same brewery as Spitfire ale, so I wasn’t expecting much there, and then we moved on to some rippers.

Each beer went through a rigorous scoring process. The score table below shows the average score out of 5. The Ocean Stout was highly particular, with half the group scoring 3 or more, and half the group scoring 1 or less.

Ocean Stout, Oceanbryggeriet
Hay Stack, Left Hand Brewing Company
Hell & Jämtlands Julöl, Jämtlands Bryggeri
Canterbury Jack, Shepherd Neame

*While this beer will set you back a mere £56 in Britain, it costs the delightful sum of 3459 SEK here in Sweden (around £288).