Thursday 25th of February 2010 09:38:31 PM

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Located on the main drag, just west of the river, easily missed if you're not watching for it. We were in town for Swedish Day, and I probably wouldn't return unless I was in the area for some other reason. I liked the place well enough, but the quality of the beer was terrible.

The interior was nice, dark cherry wood, a textured wood floor, black & white framed photos along the wall, and only two strategically placed flatscreens. A few Scandinavian knickknacks were around, Swedish Dala horses, carved viking gnomes and Scandinavian flags in the front window. There were a few groups in here on a sunday, and it wasn't too rowdy. A few patio tables in the back even, though we opted to sit at the high tables in the front that had wrought iron "feet". At the bar there were 11 taps, one was root beer, a couple were blended beers on their own taps. The wooden tap box had a handsome gold-leafed engraving of the bar's namesake.

Selection wise, they had a decent range of styles but quality was lacking, several beers (Porter & English Pale) had an infected sour character, unlikely by design (more likely a sanitation issue) that has been noted in several other reviews. The bottled selection was all macro, not one craft beer. The standout beers were the new seasonal Red and Witbier "Older but Weisser", sadly the rest were forgettable. Service was quick and efficient, but not especially amicable.

Food was the saving grace, the Reuben I had was tasty, with crisp fries. The gnocchi dish wasn't quite al dente and pretty heavy, but the sauce was nice and savory. Mixed greens salad was nice and fresh. There were a couple Swedish items, though the menu seemed to focus on sandwiches, Italian dishes, and assorted surf and turf entrees.

Overall I would eat here again, but wouldn't go out of my way to drink here. The beer seemed to be more of a novelty than anything...

Saturday 25th of July 2009 11:00:01 AM

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Walking into Stockholm's I got a nice vibe. It is small, but I like that... at least when it is not crowded. There is a lot of wood. The bar, chairs, and tables were all solid and comfortable.

We came to try the beer, so we ordered a sampler. They had the wide selection of beers split into two "voyages" of five beers each.

Voyage I:

Lorazz Weiss - crisp, I don't know if I would have guessed that it was supposed to be raspberry without being told, but it was tart.

Downtown Honey Brown - watery tasting; taste does not resemble the "brown" style. The hint of honey was interesting.

Blend of the Silk - they blended the Lorazz and Honey Brown together for this. I did not really like them separately, but this was actually a tiny bit more drinkable.

State Street Pilsner - tastes like slightly sour water

Mike's Blend - blend of Third Street Ale and State Street Pilsner. I thought the Pilsner killed this blend, but I later found out that it was all bad to begin with.

Although I tried to keep an open mind, by this point I was really underwhelmed by the beers so far. They all seemed to have the same sourness to them. I had high hopes for the second voyage because it beckoned me with names that were more my style.

Voyage II:

Doc's Porter - terrible!, sour. Other than the color, it did not resemble a porter in any way.

Older But Wiesser - more of the same sourness. As unbelievable as it may sound it tasted a lot like the porter.

Aegir's Ale - same sour taste. I could not believe it.

S.W.B. - blend of Doc's and Aegir's. Billed as as an English bitter style, but it really just tasted sour and watery like its component parts.

Third Street Ale - same sour taste

As we realized that all the beer tasted the same, we decided to do a blind taste test. One of us would hand two beers to the other who had their eyes closed. Tasting both, we would try to guess which they were. Over and over we found that it was IMPOSSIBLE. The most telling result was when my wife took a sip of the "porter" and confidently announced, "this is definitely not the porter". There is something seriously wrong if a porter tastes the same as a weiss. We actually abandoned ship on the second voyage. The beer was so bad that we could not bear to finish the samples. Stockholm's has a good selection of liquor, so I ordered a scotch to wash out the taste of bad beer.

Note: The only good beer that we had was the root beer. It had a nice taste and smooth mouth feel. I liked that it was not too carbonated.

While we were voyaging through the "beer", we also sampled some food. It was the high point of our visit.
Tenderloin Stuffed Portabella Mushroom - very tasty, cheese flavor dominates
Porcini soup - good! Reminds me of French onion with mushrooms in it.
Blackened Mahi sandwich - tasty

Overall, I would not recommend this place for beer. The food is good and the service was friendly, even as we started getting cranky about the beer. Since I am very much about the beer, I will not be returning to Stockholm's.

Wednesday 4th of June 2008 03:55:42 AM

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This past Memorial Day weekend, I packed up a lot of my interests and explored. I used one of my two-day CTA passes starting on Friday afternoon. I attended the Central Electric Railfans' Association's monthly meeting at Robert Morris College's University Center on Friday night.
On Saturday, we had a "Chic-A-Go-Go!" taping at Chicago Access Network studios at Jackson & Green Sts. at 12:01 pm. When that ended at 3:00 pm, I walked over to Oglivie Transportation Center, bought the Metra Weekend Pass, and rode the Union Pacific west line to Geneva. It is a six-block walk north from the Geneva railroad station to Stockholm's Brewpub at 306 W. State St.

The brewmaster here is Michael __________. He was present on Saturday. He emphasized that all the beers brewed here are unfiltered and cask-conditioned.
I think you can sense what is the snag here.
There is nowhere on the premises where a barrel of beer can be cold-stored for any period of time.
This is going to sound strange; but it is the best comparison I can make. The beers I had at Stockholm's were reminiscent of the old Chicago POWER indoor soccer teams with which I was affiliated. The desire to provide a quality product, combined with the innovations which were engendered out of necessity (and a keen eye toward the "bottom line"), and the ingredients (| players) involved are | were present.
But the execution is | was entirely woeful.

I do not want to discourage Michael from brewing. But I respectfully scribe that were these beers entered into the American Homebrewers Association's National Homebrew Competition; they would not merely *fail* to advance to the second round, but they would get judges' scores of "20". [On a scale of 1-to-50; but in which no brew ever scores lower than 19.]
There are beer styles in which sourness _is_ part of the flavor profile. If Stockholm's cannot create some area in which its beers can be cold-filtered; it should concentrate on the styles in which sourness is ok. I thought the "best" beer here was the Lorazz Weiss, followed by the Iron Vice Weiss, and then the Doc's Porter (but that may have been due to catching a fresh sample of it).
There are other bottled beers available here, most of which are megabrews.
The venue is more reknown for its food offerings. I had its roast beef au jus. It was good. Prices are average. It has Dish Network dbs.

Iron Vice Weiss = Dark gold. Slightly cloudy. Wheat aroma. Not much wheat flavor. Served without a lemon. This was ok.

Aegir's Ale = This is supposedly in the "pale ale" style. Pale yellow. Cloudy. Sour. Sourness is not in the pale ale style guidelines.

Third Street Ale = This is supposedly in the "Belgian Dubbel" style. Bronze. Cloudy. Aroma ok. I perceived no hops.

S. W. B. = This is supposedly in the "English Bitter" style. Bronze. Cloudy. Sour. Bitters are not supposed to be sour.

Doc's Porter = Opaque black. On the thin side of the style, but there. No aroma. Slight malt notes in aftertaste. This was reminiscent of an "American"-style porter like Yuengling. This was ok.

Lorazz Weiss = A raspberry wheat beer. Pale yellow. Slightly cloudy. Tart and refreshing. Raspberry notes in the aftertaste. This was good.

Downtown Honey Brown = This is supposedly in the "brown ale" style. Medium brown. Cloudy. No diacetyl detected. Very sour.

State Street Pilsner = Pale yellow. Slightly cloudy. No aroma. Sour twinge in taste. Pilsners are not supposed to be sour.

~ combination drafts ~

Blend Of The Silk = Two-thirds Lorazz Weiss, one-third Downtown Honey Brown. The refreshment of the Weiss is buried underneath the unexpected sourness of the Honey Brown.

Mike's Blend = Two-thirds State Street Pilsner, one-third Third Street Ale. The sourness of the Pilsner pulls down the passable taste of the Ale.

Thursday 25th of October 2007 12:39:20 PM

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This person needs 3 or more reviews on the site for their scores to start counting.

I think most the reviews are sounding the same. The 3 beers I had all had a strong citrus taste and all tasted somewhat the same. The porter was not that great and the pilsner was tolerable.

Food was pretty good. The atmosphere and the service were great! The menu is not priced very high. I think that I saw a wine list there too. Parking is very easy to find along the street.

Thursday 30th of August 2007 08:32:44 PM

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I agree with the review prior to mine on the board. While there were a couple of beers that were okay, all the eight beers tasted similar. The porter was really sweet and tasted like the SBW and wheat. While the pale ale wasn't bad, but the driving theme of the beers dominated. The pilsner was actually poor. It fronted powerful citrus flavors then had a strong zinc (suckin on a penny strong) flavor in the middle. Something went wrong with the batch.

While the beer was so-so, the atmosphere was friendly, warm and open. The food was spectacular. My wife and I were there in the early afternoon, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The soup that she ordered with her sandwich was exceptional.

So, if you're looking for tasty food and good atmosphere, you found the right place. If you're looking for top notch craft brew, you may be left wanting.

Monday 23rd of April 2007 02:19:05 AM

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I am completely torn with the bar. I love the atmoshere, bartenders, food and backbar selection but the beer is a little iffy. The owner & brewer Mike, uses Coopers ale yeast on all of this brewpubs beers. Mike expressed how happy he is with how Cooppers yeast stays suspended and unfiltered tnroughout the fermenting, aging and kegging processes. My only comment about the qualty of this brewpub's beers is that because all the beers are made with Coopers dry yeast all of the beers seem to have a very similar over sweet flavor and taste. Impressively all the beer is naturally carbonated in the kegs and not force carbonated.