Sweden’s old beer cafés largely disappeared when the British-style pub arrived. Now bartender, author and drinks personality Emil Åreng wants to bring the idea back — in a modern form, with Swedish craft beer, cocktails and an ice-cold pint of Three Towns on draught.
In Sweden, the classic ölcafé – literally “beer café” – was once simple and unpretentious: cheap beer, coffee, sandwiches, and no spirits. By the 1970s and 80s, many of them had faded away as British-style bars came to dominate Swedish pub life.
But what might a Swedish beer café have looked like if it had survived into the present day?
Something like Pubsson, hopes Emil Åreng, who will open the new bar in central Umeå, in northern Sweden, in mid-October.
Åreng is one of Sweden’s best-known bartenders and drinks figures, closely associated with the acclaimed Facit Bar in Umeå, a Swedish craft cocktail bar. With Pubsson, he is now turning his attention to beer: a Swedish beer café, updated for today.
“If Sweden’s beer café tradition had lived on until today, I think it would also have had wine, cocktails and more food,” says Emil Åreng
The name Pubsson is deliberately Swedish-sounding: a playful way of giving the pub a more local identity. The food will sit somewhere between Swedish home cooking and pub food from around the world.
“Imagine a Scotch egg, but made with meatball mixture instead. Exactly what the menu will look like is up to head chef Emil Gredmo to work out, but it won’t be snacks or small plates – with one exception. Since the premises used to be a Chinese restaurant, the first starter will be ‘four small dishes’,” says Emil Åreng.
For many Swedes, that last line needs little explanation. “Four small dishes” is a nostalgic staple of old-school Swedish-Chinese restaurants, the kind of menu item almost everyone recognises.
The cocktails, meanwhile, will be classic in style, with an emphasis on craft and Swedish ingredients. There will be no pre-mixed shortcuts. Beer, however, is at the centre of the idea. Pubsson will have ten taps: one for “stor stark”, one for Swedish craft cider and eight for craft beer, including at least one stout.
“Stor stark” literally means “big strong”, but in Sweden it has long meant something much more specific: the standard large draught lager ordered at the bar. At Pubsson, that role will be filled by TT, or Three Towns, a Swedish beer brand with roots in the 1950s.
“It will be Swedish beer all the way, of course – not just local beer, but beer from across the country. I’m thinking Stigbergets, Dugges, Omnipollo, Närke, Snausarve and Fermenterarna, as well as Bryggverket and This is How. And the stor stark will be TT, so we can serve a cheaper beer without ending up with the same Carlsberg and Spendrups taps you find everywhere else,” says Emil Åreng.
He adds:
“I want to be able to serve beer for under 70 Swedish krona. You can’t do that with craft beer, but in an ice-cold handled glass, TT does the job. It is probably the beer most similar to what people drank in the old beer cafés. What I personally think of the beer is beside the point – I’m not the one who’ll be drinking it anyway.”
Umeå already has a lively beer scene, though not a beer café in this sense. Åreng believes the city stands out in Sweden.
“Umeå has perhaps Sweden’s most unique beer scene. Not only because there are many venues that are completely free from brewery agreements, but also because many bars only have around 50 percent big-brewery beer. I think that has to do with the fact that both Spendrups and Carlsberg have salespeople here who used to work in bars themselves. They understand the guests and know that it isn’t attractive to offer the same big-brewery beers everywhere — and they still sell beer anyway, since the price gap is so large,” says Emil Åreng.
That comment points to one of the more important dynamics in the Swedish on-trade. Independent craft beer is now firmly part of the scene, but big brewery agreements still shape what many pubs and restaurants are able, or willing, to pour.
As Pubsson opens, Åreng is scaling back his involvement with nearby Facit Bar to focus fully on the new venture. He owns 40 percent of the beer café. Andreas Hellgren joins as managing director and property developer, alongside three further investors. For now, the focus is firmly on the opening in Umeå, but there are already thoughts of taking the concept further.
“We will evaluate the first three years, but we are already looking at places such as Sundsvall and Östersund, both a few hours south of us,” says Emil Åreng.
Pubsson will have room for around 100 seated guests, a tasting room for just over 40 people and what Åreng describes as Umeå’s only inner courtyard with food and drink service. There will, however, be no table reservations.
“Drop-in only — so first come, first served,” says Emil Åreng.
Read the Swedish article here.
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Every month, Beernews selects an article to publish in English – for readers outside of Sweden who want to follow the Swedish beer scene.
