Yesterday I told you why I think BeerSweden had to change. Today I’m proud to announce news of how we are going to start transforming this blog into the first online Swedish beer magazine.

Notice I said we, not I, as the biggest change you’re going to see around here is that fact that from today I’m being joined by experienced drinks journalist Joel Linderoth who becomes BeerSweden’s first ever Editor.

Joel has spent over 12 years writing about food and drink for a wide range of publications including Expressen, Aftonbladet, Sveriges Radio and Dagens Nyheter.

Many of you will have already seen his regular column ‘Öl med Mera’ over at the ‘Allt om Mat’ website which is where I first discovered his writing and instantly liked his engaging, laid-back and informative style.

With similar backgrounds in journalism Joel and I felt we could really bring something different to the Swedish beer scene with a site that combines the look and feel of a quality magazine and the personality and pace of a blog.

We believe the Swedish beer scene has grown strong enough to support such a site; a site that covers the industry professionally, with objectivity, skill and passion.

Another major change is that all content on the new BeerSweden site will be in Swedish, with the notable exception of my posts. Any of you who have heard me speak Swedish will know this is a very wise decision.

On a more serious note we feel it is important to keep publishing content about the Swedish beer scene in English as BeerSweden has a large number of overseas followers and is one of the only sources via which the international beer industry can read about what’s going on here in this country.

So what else is going to change? Well we’re not going to tell you everything yet, but we can tell you that the new site will be going live at a glitzy* launch event on Friday; November 16^th at the Örebro Beer Festival.

Until then we’ll be releasing regular updates with details of exciting new site features, fresh new writers and a totally new ‘look’ for BeerSweden.

But to tell you a little bit more about all that, say hello and to share his vision for the new BeerSweden I’m going to hand you over to Joel, who will post his first words as Editor right here in the morning.

Ps: In the morning I’ll be opening a thread over at the BeerSweden Forum in which you can ask Joel and I any questions you want to about the new directions we’re taking. If you’ve got suggestions on what content you want to see, if you want to wish us luck or even rant at us then we want to hear from you!

Pps: A press release about all this is whizzing its way to newsdesks as we speak. If you want to you can download a copy here.

*There may be balloons. There may not be.