Nalle Puh Jul Porter

Nalle Puh Jul Porter (50 cl bottle) %
Me, Chrille and my father brewed a honey porter a while back called Nalle Puh Porter (Vinnie the Puh Porter). We plan to bring it to the Swedish Championship in Gothenburg at the end of April. When we divided the beer between us we noticed that we would get 3 small 9 litre kegs of beer. So we decided to experiment with those kegs, each person was tasked to spice their keg and we would later try the results. This bottle is from my father and he decided to add saffron and some extra honey to his keg. I have a completely different plan with my beer, but I will keep it to myself for now.

I tried the original Nalle Puh Porter a while back, see review here. I wasn't overly impressed and it had a very noticeable chemical taste to it. I later found out it came from the honey. I used some of the honey in my cooking and noticed the same flavour. So I think it comes from heating the honey. Hopefully this off-flavour will disappear over time.

Style: Porter
Cost: Material cost of around 9 SEK/litre.

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

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

Appearance: 5/5
It poured a pitch black liquid with a big brown head. The foam slowly receded and left allot of foam on the side of the glass.

Smell: 8/10
As I started to pour the bottle I could smell the saffron and sweetness of this beer. A closer sniff also revealed some chocolate and a dash of coffee.

Taste: 8/10
Very sweet with lots of saffron and honey. Also some chocolate, coffee, nuts and toasted bread.

Mouthfeel: 5/5
Smooth, creamy and mouth coating mouthfeel with a thick body and low carbonation. Great mouthfeel.

Comment:
Wow! This sure was something special. Very sweet with lots of honey and saffron, allot more then I expected. I honestly don't think I've tried something similar before. It's also extremely easy to drink and I keep interrupting my writing with a sip. The chemical flavour is also completely gone which is very happy news, hopefully it's gone from the original as well.

If I where to give any constructive criticism it would be about the high sweetness and almost overpowering saffron taste. I personally like both, but maybe it will get old over time. It would be interesting to lower the amount of honey and saffron a bit to let the other flavours of the beer come forward a bit. Not sure if it would improve the beer, but could be worth a try.

I say have this with most deserts and you won't go wrong. But it should be fantastic with chocolate.

Total: 4,3/5