Swedish beer
Most of the beer Swedes drink is lager, but the craft scene is big and experimental, with lots of hops, sour beer and dark stouts. At Hoptimaal you'll mainly find IPA, sour beer and stout from breweries such as Brewski, Omnipollo, FERMENTERARNA and Stigbergets Bryggeri.
- In stock now15 beers
- Breweries4
Breweries from Sweden 4
All beers in stock 15
From medieval beer to a tightly regulated market
From the Middle Ages until the 17th century, beer was Sweden's national drink. From 1700 it lost ground to spirits. Breweries had the sole right to distil and therefore invested little in renewing their beer. Porter came in from Great Britain in the 18th century, and in 1791 William Knox founded the country's first porter brewery in Göteborg.
In 1843 Fredrik Rosenquist brought the first Swedish lager to market in Stockholm, a bottom-fermented beer in the Munich style. Pilsner followed in 1877, but only became the dominant style after the First World War. In 1905 there were 240 breweries operating. After that, the temperance movement and state control took hold of the sector. In the 1970s and 1980s, Sweden had one of the most concentrated brewing industries in the world.
Mostly lager, but a big craft scene
Around 90 percent of the beer drunk in Sweden is still lager. Even so, a broad craft scene has grown over the past two decades: almost 400 microbreweries, and only the United Kingdom has more per inhabitant. If you want to buy the beer in Sweden itself, it goes through Systembolaget, the state alcohol retailer. Beer up to 3.5 percent alcohol can be stocked in supermarkets.
Styles range from pilsner, pale ale and wheat beer to coffee stout and wheat beer with raspberry, liquorice and vanilla, as Brewski makes it. Poppels shows how Swedish craft often starts: lots of hoppy beers, mainly IPAs. The brewery was named Swedish brewery of the year in 2022.
Swedish beer at Hoptimaal
With us you'll find beers from Brewski, Omnipollo, FERMENTERARNA and Stigbergets Bryggeri. The styles you come across most often are IPA, sour beer, stout and pale ale. We also have Swedish lager and pilsner.
Highly rated on Untappd are, among others, Omnipollo Late-Night Craving, Stigbergets Bryggeri MENACE TO SOCIETY, FERMENTERARNA SNACK PACK and Brewski Deep Cut. Each brewery has its own page with us, with all the beers we have from it.
Frequently asked questions
What is typical Swedish beer?
Most Swedish beer is lager. The craft scene is also broad, with lots of hoppy beers such as IPA and pale ale, and experimental stouts and wheat beers.
Which Swedish breweries are well known?
Spendrups is one of the biggest breweries in the country. In the craft world, Omnipollo, Stigbergets, Poppels and Brewski are well-known names. Breweries such as Jämtlands Bryggeri, Oppigårds and Sigtuna Brygghus have existed since the 1990s or the start of this century.
Why is alcohol so strictly regulated in Sweden?
Since 1900, the Swedish brewing world has been under pressure from the temperance movement and state control. Stronger drinks are only available from Systembolaget, the state alcohol retailer. Beer up to 3.5 percent can be sold in supermarkets.
Beer from other countries
- Dutch beer 175
- American beer 71
- Belgian beer 68
- Canadian beer 54
- German beer 37
- English beer 37
- Spanish beer 21
- Romanian beer 17
- French beer 16
- Norwegian beer 14
- Estonian beer 17
- Polish beer 11
- Irish beer 8
- Finnish beer 9
- Hungarian beer 7
- Latvian beer 8
- Croatian beer 8
- Danish beer 8
- Portuguese beer 4
- Welsh beer 5
- Scottish beer 4
- Brazilian beer 3
- Ukrainian beer 2
- Greek beer 3
- Slovenian beer 3
- Czech beer 3
