Mikkeller Hoppy Easter new

Mikkeller Hoppy Easter (33 cl bottle) 6,6%
This is one of the Easter beers that where released at Systembolaget on the 15th of March. It's actually Mikkeller Drikkeriget GIPA. Now you might get as puzzled as I was when I saw GIPA, but it stands for German IPA and it's basically brewed with German hops.

Style: India Pale Ale
Cost: 34,90 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

□□□□■□□□----□■□□□□□□-----■□□□□□□---□□□□■□□□----□□□■□□□□

Appearance: 4/5
Hazy dirty orange liquid with a huge white head that left big chunks of foam on the side of the glass.

Smell: 7/10
Hops, grass, citrus and yeast.

Taste: 7/10
Fresh with hops and grass. The hops definitely feels more European then American.

Mouthfeel: 3/5
Medium smooth, dry with a medium thick body.

Comment:
A very interesting beer, I don't I've tried this style before. It definitely doesn't feel American and although I wouldn't have nailed German hops as the source it did feel very European.

The beer itself doesn't feel like an Easter beer, which is logical since it's another beer with a different label. I think the fairly high bitterness won't be a great match with the salty and fatty Easter food, but it feels suiting for the oncoming Spring weather. So go outside and enjoy this beer in the sun.

Total: 3,5/5

Fuglsang Easter Bird

Fuglsang Easter Bird (33 cl bottle) 5,5%
This is one of the Easter beers that where released at Systembolaget on the 15th of march. They have used European malts and American hops, Cascade and Simcoe are mentioned.

This beer is named Early Bird in Denmark and has just been re-labelled for Easter.

Style: American Pale Ale
Cost: 19,90 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

□□■□□□□□----□□■□□□□□-----■□□□□□□---□□■□□□□□----□□■□□□□□

Appearance: 4/5
Clear copper liquid with a medium sized white foam that left big chunks on the side of the glass.

Smell: 5/10
Lager-like smell, bread, malt, citrus and just a little bit of metal and hops.

Taste: 6/10
Grassy hops, malt, citrus and also some fruits. Can't quite distinguish which, but feels like a faint tangerine taste.

Mouthfeel: 3/5
Medium smooth with a medium thick body. Feels ok I have nothing to complain about really.

Comment: A fairly easy to drink American pale ale that I initially mistook for a lager. The only thing that made me think otherwise before trying it was the foam that didn't look much any lager I've seen. Even as I drink it I find some characteristics that I relate to regular Danish lagers. Not sure why I draw that reference, could it be the yeast? It's also very moderately hopped, which is a bit disappointing.

This beer might work with your Easter dinner, but I have a feeling it's better suited for that first Spring sun. Find shelter from the cool winds and I think this beer would come to it's best.

I'm not overly impressed, it's a decent APA, but there are better options available. Feels like they chickened out a bit when they added the hops. Or maybe it was the use of lager yeast... or both. Anyway here is the score:

Total: 2,9/5

Stensbogaard English Dark Stout

Stensbogaard English Dark Stout (50 cl bottle) 6,3%
This beer was part of the spring news release in the beginning of February 2010. It's the second beer I try from the same brewery. I tried their IPA and found it hoppy fresh just the way I like 'em. So lets see how their Stout is.

Style: Stout

Cost: 56,00 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

□□■□□□□□----□□■□□□□□-----□■□□□□□□---□□□□■□□□----□□□□■□□□

Appearance: 4/5

Pitch black liquid with a small light brown foam that left some lacing.

Smell: 7/10

Chocolate, syrup, boiled vegetables and a hint of coffee.

Taste: 6/10

Funky cellar, chocolate, nuts, hint of coffee.

Mouthfeel: 4/5

Medium smooth, dry, medium-thick body.

Comment:

A decent stout but it feels like it lacks something. Could use some more roasted notes and coffee. Also has some odd flavours like boiled vegetables in the smell and funky cellar in the taste.

Total: 3,4/5

Stensbogaard India Pale Ale

Stensbogaard India Pale Ale (50 cl bottle) 7%
This beer was released at Systembolaget in the beginning of February 2010. It's the first beer I try from this brewery, they also managed to get a Stout into the same release, which I will rate tomorrow.

Style: India Pale Ale

Cost: 56,00 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

□□□□■□□□----□■□□□□□□-----■□□□□□□□---□□□□□■□□----□□■□□□□□

Appearance: 5/5

Hazy dark orange liquid with a medium sized dirty white foam that left a nice lacing.

Smell: 9/10

Very fresh with lots of hops. Also grapefruit, citrus and freshly cut grass.

Taste: 7/10

Milder then the smell. Lots of fresh hops, grass, citrus and grapefruit. Med-high bitterness.

Mouthfeel: 4/5

Medium smooth with some harshness. Medium carbonation. Med-light body.

Comment:

I just loved the look of this beer, a very appealing hazy orange liquid with a nice looking foam. When I smelled it I got hit by a fist full of fresh hops. If you have ever opened a bag of frozen hops and crunched them together in the bad, then you know how this smelled.

The taste of this beer didn't hold the same quality as the smell and appearance. Allot milder and with a fairly light body. It's basically the only thing that is holding it back. Still a very fresh and nice beer though.

It feels like this beer has the hoppy aroma of a Double IPA but not the body to back it up.

Total: 3,9/5

Hornbeer Carribean Rum Stout

Hornbeer Carribean Rum Stout (Bottle) 11%
This beer was part of a news release at Systembolaget at the end of 2009. By the looks of it they are all out of stock at the moment. However I heard that you can import single bottles from this company: TWC Dryckesutbildning. However you have to do it through Systembolaget and the minimum amount of bottles is 12. What makes this beer interesting is that they added some rum and then stored it on oak barrels.

Style: Imperial Stout

Cost: 69.90 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

□□□■□□□□----□□□■□□□□-----■□□□□□□□---□□□□□□■□----□□□□□□■□

Appearance: 4/5

Black liquid with a medium light brown foam. Also some sediment in the bottom.

Smell: 8/10

Not very intense but interesting. Booze, chocolate, coffee, nuts and some roasted notes.

Taste: 8/10

Quite strong and puckering taste. Chocolate, coffee, nuts, wood, roasted, some sweetness, hint of dark rum and an alcoholic finish.

Mouthfeel: 5/5

Smooth, creamy and thick mouthfeel, the liquid coated my mouth and stuck around for a while.

Comment:

Very nice and interesting beer. Felt complex, yet still balanced, none of the different flavours take over. It had a good mix of chocolate and coffee as I expect from these kinds of beers but there where also some roasted notes, nuts, wood and the hint of rum is what combined the beer. The alcohol was well hidden and the mouthfeel was really nice. A nice beer to sit and sip at for a while. I tried this with some truffles and it worked great, definitely a beer to combine with chocolate.

Total: 4,1/5

Midtfynds Brygghus Double IPA

Last friday I had a couple of bottles of IPA. Starting with Midtfynds Brygghus DIPA, then Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA and finally Death By Hops 2 (DIPA). I have reviewed Torpedo and DBH 2 here before but Midtfynds was new to me so here we go:

Midtfyns Bryghus Double IPA (Bottle) 9,2%

This beer was part of the December news release at Systembolaget and cost 66 sek. There are still available bottles in many stores.

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body
□□□■□□□□----□□■□□□□□-----□□□■□□□□--□□□□■□□□----□□□□■□□□

Apperance: 4/5
Hazy amber liquid with a medium dirty white foam that left a nice lacing with lots of foam.

Smell: 3/10
Hops, butter, buttered popcorn, melted butter, alcoholic.

Taste: 3/10
Hops, lots of butter in different varietes, buttered popcorn, melted butter and alcohol

Mouthfeel: 4/5
Smooth and creamy with just a little bit of sting. Quite enjoyable mouthfeel.

Comment:
This beer was clearly infected and the taste of butter was very strong. It efficiently hid most of the flavours and only a hint of hops managed to break through. Not a beer I would recomend and I almost poured it out. The only reason I didn't do so was that it was still drinkable and it had a nice mouthfeel. But if you are expecting a hopped up monster you are going to get very dissapointed, I had been warned by other bloggers about this beer so I wasn't that suprised. Hopefully I can get my hands on a bottle that hasn't been infected.

Total: 2/5

Beers tried over Christmas, part 2

I tried some more beers during Christmas.


The Lost Abbey Interno Ale (Bottle) 8,5%
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a big white foam that left chunks of foam on the side of the glass.

It had a smell of yeast, fruits, pepper and apples.

A bit stingy and rough mouth feel. Medium-thick body with a low bitterness. The flavour was strong and I noticed yeast, fruits, coriander and apples. It was quite dry and didn't have that much sweetness.

A nice beer and even my grandfather enjoyed this one. Well he enjoyed it so much he was finished before I got a chance to try it ;)
Total: 3,9/5

Mikkeller Fra Til (Bottle) 8%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a big brown foam that left lots of lacing.

It had a smell of chocolate, hops, coffee and something burned.

The mouth feel was a bit stingy and dry with a thick body. Lots of Christmas spices in this one, the commercial description is fairly spot on when it comes to the spices, the star anise, coriander, cinnamon and cloves are all noticeable. Specially the cloves. It also has a taste of roasted nuts, coffee, hint of hops and some burned caramel. It has a long after taste that really digs in and stays there.

Very nice beer!
Total: 4,1/5

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel

This beer was released in the beginning of November at Systembolaget. It is an imperial oatmeal stout that was brewed at Nögne Ö in Norway. The special thing about this beer is that they used a luxury coffee from Vietnam called kopi luwak (or ca phe chon). A civetcat, which is a weasel-like animal, eats only the best and most ripe coffee berries. It is then digested and broken down in their stomach. Workers then collect the droppings and extract the coffee beans.

I don't drink coffee but I hear this one is quite tastey. Närke also made a small joke about this coffee on their sticker for Pannknektarnas porter "Inget skitkaffe! - No crap coffee!".

Mikkeller Beergeek Brunch Weasel (Bottle) 10,9%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a huge brown foam. The liquid was quite thich and it looked really appealing.

The smell was quite intence and it had some noticable flavours: coffee, chocolate and soy sauce.

The mouthfeel was smooth and it had a thick body and medium bitterness. It had an intence taste of chocolate, coffey, spices and "julmust". It was also a bit salty and dry. A very complex beer with lots of different flavours. A very nice beer!
Total: 4,2/5

An Australian in Stockholm, part 1

An old friend from Australia, Dave the Bushman, visited Stockholm for a few days. Of course we had to celebrate this with trying some beer. We started out by walking to Monks Café on Wallingatan. They had an american festival going but the real reason for going there is their own beer. I quickly spotted something new:

Paulines Hoppy White Ale (tap) 5,8%
It poured a very cloudy golden liquid with a small and creamy white foam. It both smelled and tasted of foam banana, citrus and a bit of coriander. It was smooth, mild a bit watery with a low carbonation and an alcoholic finish. Pretty nice a summer time beer.
Total: 3,4/5

Since they had an american festival I asked for the beer menu to see if we could find something interesting. Dave reacted to some of the prices which I agree are a bit over the top. He was also suprised to see that they had allot of beer from south america. I was personally suprised to find so many dutch and belgian beers in a list of american beer. However they did have a few on sale and I spotted Struise Mikkeller at a reduced price of 99 sek. We also figured we should try an american beer and I wanted to try Lagunitas a Little Sumpin' Extra! Ale. But they where all out of it. Instead the bartender recommended Maximus from the same brewery.

Struise Mikkeller (bottle) 9%
It poured a hazy dark golden liquid with a small foam that lasted a while. It had a strong smell of caramell, vanilla, something sweet and it was all covered in some warm alcohol. It had a strong taste as well of fudge, caramell, vanilla, apples and something sweet. It had a smooth and thick moutfeel, very enjoyable. Nice beer, but I'm suprised to see it labeled as a DIPA, it felt more like a barley wine. Well not exactly like a barley wine but not that far off.
Total: 4/5
Lagunitas Maximus (bottle) 7,5%
It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium sized white foam that left very little lacing. It had a medium heavy smell of hops, fruits, caramell and bread. It tasted mostly of fruity and flowery hops and just a bit of grassy hops. Also sweet of butter scotch and caramell. It was smooth with a medium-full thickness and tickled the top of my mouth. Also had an odd kind of funky taste, not sure what that was. Not one of the better DIPAs I've had but still a decent beer.
Total: 3,4/5

Mr and Mrs Frederiksen

Besides the beers from Southern Tier we also tried some beer from Amager Bryghus. These are the first two beers I try from this brewery. But looking at their score at ratebeer they seem to be solid around a high grade, most beers are between 3-4 average score. After browsing their website for a while I also found out that it was started by two home brewers. They brewer their beer in an air-raid sheleter not far from Copenhagen.

Amager Fru Frederiksen (bottle) 7%
It poured a pitch black liquid with a small light brown foam that left just a little bit of lacing.

I was a bit suprised to sense some grassy hops in the smell. However there where also some chocolate, and coffey. I liked the smell.

The taste was a bit watered down though, I would have liked it allot heavier, even for a stout. It had a taste of chocolate, coffey and burned toast. A decent beer.
Total: 3,1/5 Amager Hr. Frederiksen (bottle) 10,5%
It poured a pitch black liquid, with a medium sized light brown foam, that lasted a while and left some lacing.

It had a strong smell of chocolate, coffey and nuts. Very nice.

It had a heavy taste of chocolate, coffey and burned toast. Smooth mouthfeel and thick body. A very nice beer I really enjoyed it.
Total: 4/5

Visiting Oslo, part 3 - The Beer

As I wrote earlier I bought 6 bottles. My intention was to go all out norwegian but I had already tested several of the Nögne Ö they had stored so I felt more in the mood to try something new. I started out testing two belgian beers. They where very similar in taste and quality. Not sure why they had two so similar beers when the supply was so low.

Silenrieux Sara Blonde (Biologique) (Bottle) 6%

It poured a cloudy golden liquid with a huge foam that slowly receded and left a nice lacing on the side of the glass.

It had a smell that leaned towards white wine. Fruity with some sweetness and yeast.

The first taste was very smooth in my mouth and not as fizzy as I would have expected. It tasted of white wine, yeast, sweet and fruity, with a hint of orange. However the flavor was quite weak and quickly dissapeared in my mouth.

Total: 3,1/5

Leireken Special Spelt (Leireken Witte Spelt Ale) (Bottle) 5%

It poured a cloudy golden liquid with a big foam that left just a little bit of lacing. There was also some small bits of yeast floating around in the liquid.

It smelled fruity with some yeast. Not as strong as the above beer.

This one was also very smooth, but had a much weaker flavor. Had some fruits and yeast. But besides that it was a bit watery.

Total: 2,9/5

At this point we left the appartment to go to Huk. When I came back I was craving hops and my mouth watered when I thought about the two IPAs I had in the fridge. I started with the american.

Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA (2008 and later) (Bottle) 7,1%

It poured a clear golden liquid with a big foam that left some lacing.

It smelled of grassy hops, grapefruit and a hint of pineapple. Very nice!

On the first sip I noticed the high bitterness. Then I tasted the grassy hops, citrus and a hint of grapefruit. It felt like it lacked something though, it doesn't really "attack" the entire mouth as I would expect it to do. But besides that a very nice beer.

Total: 3,4/5

Nøgne Ø India Pale Ale (Bottle) 7,5%

It poured a hazy copper liquid with a huge foam with big bubbles that left allot of lacing on the side of the glass. It also had some yeast floating around in it. It looked very appealing.

It had an aroma of grassy hops, citrus and grapefruit.

The flavor was filled with grassy hops, citrus, grapefruit and a hint of some other fruits. Felt very smooth in my mouth. A very nice beer and was very well recieved by my friends.
Total: 4,1/5
Haandbryggeriet Odin’s Tipple (Bottle) 11%
It poured a pitch dark liquid with a small brown foam.

The aroma was filled with chocolate, nuts and coffey.

It had a taste of dark chocolate, nuts and coffey. It was also sour and sweet, something that I didn't expect. The alcohol was well hidden and I didn't expect to see 11% on the label.
Total: 3,5/5

Haandbryggeriet Norse Porter (Bottle) 6,5%
It poured a pitch dark liquid with a huge dark foam that quickly dissapeared.

The smell was very weak and I had a hard time distinguishing any aroma at all.

The flavor was similar to their Odin's Trippel, but allot weaker. With chocolate, coffey and nuts.
Total: 2,7/5

Barbecue and beer

My brother brought his girlfriend along to the barbecue and it was fun to meet her. Seems like a nice and friendly girl.

The evening was so warm and nice that we sat outside until late in the night drinking beer and talking. We tried a couple of Harviestoun beers but Im gonna present them later on.

Herslev Midsommer Bryg 5,5% (Bottle)

It poured a hazy pale yellow liquid with a medium sized foam. It smelled fresh and sweet with some banana. The first sip was fresh and very fizzy. Had a sweet flavor of citrus and banana. I wrote down belgian wit, which turned out correct.

Total: 3,3/5

BFM Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien 2008 11% (Bottle)

It poured hazy red-brown liquid without foam. It also had some yeast floating around in the bottle. It had a strong sour smell with something chemical in the background. Similar to how it smells inside a barn full of cows that has pissed and shit all over. I honestly didn't look forward to the first taste. It tasted sour with a strong chemical bitterness at the end. Which ones again reminded me of old cow piss, not that I've ever had any to drink but I recon this is what it would taste like. Overall this beer got the same reaction to all four testers. Did I finish it? Sure, it's still beer. But two of them just sipped it and then gave up, considered it undrinkable. I got the feeling this needs 1-2 years to settle and age a bit.

Note: Apparently my score is below what is average for the beer and therefore not acceptible. How odd, I guess that is why it has such a high score.

Total: 0,9/5

Stone/Nøgne Ø/Jolly Pumpkin Special Holiday Ale 9% (Bottle)

It poured a dark brown liquid with red tones and a small foam that left just a little lacing. It smelled spicey and christmasy also something that I related to pumpkin seeds. Now that I see the name at ratebeer I realise that must be it. It had a complex spicey flavor that I had a hard time placing and a hint of nuts and a warm alcoholic finish. Very nice!

Total: 3,9/5

Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca 4,8% (Bottle)

It poured a hazy pale yellow liquid with a small foam. It had a fresh and sour aroma with some citrus. It had allot of fizzyness with a sour flavor of oranges, citrus and some spices that I couldn't place.

Total: 3,4/5