Hej from Sverige! American expat brewing like mad man

I've been lurking for a couple years off and on and went serious all-grain this summer and haven't looked back. The forums here have been tremendously helpful in getting me started. I am a marine biologist by training but my wife and I decided to escape North Carolina and raise our 2 kids close to family and in one the most family-friendly countries on Earth. I am loving living in Sweden! Any expats here or other swedes on this forum?? We are on the east coast, near Västervik.

I use the ole 20L mash tun cooler and 30L boiling pot set up. My pale ale is to die for. I have porter aging in bottles, coffee stout in secondary, and an amber ale, honey brown ale and MOAR PALE AIL!!! in primaries right now. Tomorrow I plan to ferment some local cider and will give my first hand at a pilsner soon as well as a rye IPA.

So, basically, I live in a small obscenely idyllic swedish village with about 80ish people in a 20km radius. I already have the reputation as the beer guy and people are offering to buy from me (to avoid going 40km to the state-run alcohol monopoly)! So I wrote a business plan and shopping it around right now to hopefully open up a local microbrewery with 200L capacity (4000L/month). Hopefully I'll find a taker!


My beloved pale ale.

Valkommen!

Swede here but obviously not there.... hmmm...

Hi! My wife is from Malmo. I'll be visiting Sweden again in October! That picture has forced me to consume a beer!

BradleyBrew said:

Hi! My wife is from Malmo. I'll be visiting Sweden again in October! That picture has forced me to consume a beer!

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Oops! Did I make you consume a beer??? I am soooooooooooo very sorry ;p

That is a great picture. I rank it in the top 10 homebrew(ingredient and final product) pics I've seen.

damn it... just had to consume another. I'm officially retiring this thread.

509inc said:

That is a great picture. I rank it in the top 10 homebrew(ingredient and final product) pics I've seen.

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Thanks! My wife is a photographer.

I was telling someone the other day that if I were 20 now instead of 50, I would seriously consider emigrating to either Sweden or Denmark.

We spent a few days in Kalmar two summers ago, beautiful area. I spent a day with some nanobrewers in Ribe, Denmark, but have the sense that the laws in Sweden are more rigorous.

We named our current IPA Midnattssol http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/Midnattssol-IPA.html

And welcome to HBT!

Well, I'm in my 30s and dropped a life as a research scientist to move my family to Sweden so we don't have to pay 1000s of dollars in medical bills the next time my son gets pneumonia... among other reasons of course It's never too late to take charge of your life!

Hi Kevin,
Another Swede here. Living in Gothenburg and homebrewing since the last five or so years. Took the step to AG and BIAB two years ago and haven't looked back since.
So, Sweden is that much better, huh? One gets kinda home-blind I guess...

Hi Olefattguy, if you come to the east coast bring a homebrew and I can tell you about it lol. There is good and bad everywhere. Coming back to Sweden made my swedish wife remember all the things she hated about living here and miss stuff in the US, but while in US she longed for the things she liked about Sweden. I miss some things about the US, but the balance of benefits to costs weighs over to living in Sweden. You just can't beat the social safety net here. I have a masters in marine biology and many years of research and science communications experience and lived in poverty my whole adult life because no jobs in my profession hire permanently, so never any benefits for myself and family. Finding a job wasn't too difficult in some aspects, but I could never break the 150-200% poverty barrier. Which, was a good thing cause I made more than 150% poverty level my children would have been off medicare and I could never afford independent insurance or even partially subsidized employer insurance for my family.

Anyways, long story short. You got a good thing going on here, don't **** it up! If you think it sucks, live somewhere else for a while and try to make it on your own as a self-employed or temporary-employment person!