Before Sweden became part of the European Union, production of beer was regulated by the state, resulting in just a handful of breweries producing mostly 'stor stark' (big strong), which is the equivalent of a pint of lager.
But when Sweden became part of the EU, it was no longer possible to prevent other breweries from popping into existence, until there were more physical breweries per capita than Belgium, and an equal amount of beer lovers, with a thirst for interesting flavors.
Compared to the rest of the EU however, Swedish Breweries have some unique hurdles to overcome. After Finland, Sweden has the highest alcohol taxes on beer (about 10 times higher compared to Germany), and unlike other EU countries it doesn't have reduced rates of tax on beer applied to small independent breweries.
Setting up a brewpub is also more challenging, since you need to offer a variety of three course mails when serving alcohol. And direct sales to the public as a producer of alcohol is restricted to 3,5% ABV or less.
The ownly retail store in Sweden allowed to sell alcohol above 3,5% ABV, is the state owned Systembolaget. Once created in an attempt to regulate alcohol consumption, it is now one of the world's largest buyer of alcoholic beverages. Systembolaget maintain strict rules when it comes to label design, and has long and complicated procedures to get beer on their shelves. They also determine what product ends up in which store and don't allow promotional offers, or an dialog between producer and state-shop. This makes Systembolaget a huge bottleneck for many microbreweries.
During my time as a brewer and owner of a Swedish Microbrewery I discovered that many others just like, who started brewing for the passion of beer, found it very challenging to overcome all these hurdles.
Be informed, get involved! Be awesome, win some freebies.