Cheap furniture, cheap dishes, cheap Swedish meatballs... what's missing?

Cheap beer!  Ikea truly does have it all.

Back in September on our second visit across the Belgian border to our favorite Ikea (all of 15 minutes away) we were walking past the little Swedish food market inside the store, and a certain green bottle caught my eye. "Well, well what do we have here", I thought to myself.  I naturally had to purchase a bottle each of their regular lager and dark lager.  However, after the bottles made it home I have to say the Triple Karmeliett, Kwak, Maredsous, Leffe and even Bofferding (local Lux brew) made the Ikea beer seem a bit, well, low brow.  So there it sat in the fridge.

Enter last weekend, at which point we were on a usual marathon shopping spree at Ikea picking up some last-minute home furnishings for Thanksgiving Luxembourg.  Naturally a trip to Ikea is always planned around lunch - who can resist a €3 euro plate of meatballs, a €4 plate of smoked salmon, a €0.50 ice cream cone?  Well now there's another item to add to the list - the €1.50 Swedish beer.  With a delicious plate of Scandinavian salmon and a bowl of frites on our plastic lunch trays we needed something to wash it all down - and there sat the bottles with sketches of wildflowers (hops?) on them.  So why not?

Ikea has two options to choose from - regular lager...

...and dark lager...

The regular is pretty light (but of course full flavored) and has a little hoppiness, a little tangyness and definitely something floral.  It's nice, but I wouldn't rank it up there as a favorite.  Perhaps a 5.0 on the 10 point scale.

The dark, however - now that was a real winner (especially considering the price).  Think of a light nut brown - such as Newcastle.  Refreshing, tasty, clean on the palate and light on the wallet.  Especially considering the price to quality ratio I'm giving this one 8.0 / 10.0.  Maybe it was just the euphoria of the fries and mayo on my plate, but I really do think this was a standup dark lager.  I'll be picking up a few bottles on our next trip across the border.  

What's not to love about Ikea?  Oh, except for the furniture that falls apart...  Maybe that's where the beer comes in to help you forget about it all?