Drink Swedish And Swedish-ish Beer To Raise Money To Rebuild Andersonville's Water Tower
By Melissa McEwen in Food on Oct 11, 2014 7:00PM
Next Thursday, October 16 at 7 p.m., The Swedish American Museum will host Skål: A Celebration of Swedish Beer. Attendees will learn about Sweden’s beer industry and recent cross-pollination between the Swedish and American beer scenes. They’ll also get to sample beers from Sweden and those that have been influenced by Swedish and the larger Scandinavian culture in some way.
Beers include Sweden’s classic Carnegie Porter by Carlsberg and Hammarby Syndrome by Brooklyn Brewery, which was created to celebrate the opening of their own sister brewery in Stockholm this year. Organizer Jenny Pfäfflin, a certified cicerone (it’s like a beer sommelier) says “My interest in Swedish beer stems from some data the Brewers Association released awhile ago, stating that after Canada, more American beer was being shipped to Sweden more than any other place in the world. That is a pretty impressive statistic, considering the whole of the Swedish population is about the size of New York City. The Swedes have always had a lively home-brewing culture, but it wasn't until the mid-90s, when Sweden joined the EU and alcohol regulations were lessened and commercial beers could be more than 5.6% ABV, that its craft brewing industry started to take hold. This, coupled with the influence of the US's brewing culture, makes for a really interesting beer scene”
But the most exciting beer to try is a collaboration between our own Andersonville Brewing and Metropolitan Brewing called Vattentorn which they created to support The Museum's Water Tower Fund to restore the Andersonville Water Tower.
Proceeds of Skål, which roughly means “cheers” in Swedish, will also go to that fund, which aims to rebuild the historic water tower with the Swedish flag painted on it that proudly overlooked the neighborhood until last year’s brutal winter rendered it unstable. “I hope people who come out to Skål take home some cool Swedish beer facts to impress people with at cocktail parties. But really, it's an opportunity to support the neighborhood—the event is to raise money for the Swedish American Museum's Water Tower Fund. As an Andersonville resident for more than 7 years, I miss looking up at it each day—because not only was it a symbol of Andersonville's Swedish heritage, it was a symbol of my neighborhood's, well, neighborhoodiness” Pfäfflin says.
Tickets are $30 and can be purchased on the museum’s website.