Thorlákur
Brouwerij de HopHemel in Zepperen, Limburg, Belgium 🇧🇪
Collab with: Puffin BreweryBarley Wine - Barley Regular
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Score
6.85
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Strong, alcoholic amber-coloured top-fermented beer, infused with Icelandic coffee. Brewed together with our friends of Puffin Brewery.
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Alengrin (11609) reviewed Thorlákur from Brouwerij de HopHemel 1 month ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Coffee flavoured barleywine in an already endless series of one-offs by Limburg's HopHemel, named after the Icelandic patron saint as a nod to the collaborating, Iceland-themed Puffin 'brewery'. Thanks tderoeck for sharing the can! Thin and open, pale yellowish beige, shred-lacing, dissolving head on a clear amber robe with beautiful deep copper glow - the exact colour I want to see in any kind of barleywine. Aroma of 'green' coffee beans rather than actual coffee, dry biscuit, caramel, (cheap) whisky, dry straw, old teabags, dried prunes, rusk, dried persimmon, white pepper. Cleanly fruity onset, smooth dried apple and persimmon with a touch of raisin, sweetish but nowhere sticky, softly carbonated with oily mouthfeel (actually feeling thinner than the ABV would suggest). Biscuity and rusk-like malty middle, a bit on the meagre side for the intended style, though; soft bitterness follows, initially established by this whiff of coffee - but the 'real' coffee aroma I was hoping for, sadly remains almost mute. Its bitterness fades quickly too, making room for a more 'peppery' and floral bitterness of hops, highlighted by warming, vaguely whisky-like but generally well-hidden alcohol. If you are going to do a coffee barleywine, then I think there should be a warm, aromatic coffee presence at least in the nose: the coffee is there, but in an all too subtle, too 'green' and raw kind of way, an aroma I have encountered in many other (non-stout) coffee-flavoured beers before - yet usually stronger (!). Not too bad, in all, but needs a lot more 'oomph' for a barleywine in general and certainly a coffee-flavoured one; another proof that a collab is sometimes - and in my personal experience even quite often - less than the sum of its parts, as both HopHemel and Puffin have produced more enduring barleywines than this one.
Sloefmans (15389) reviewed Thorlákur from Brouwerij de HopHemel 4 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5.5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 5 | Overall - 5.5
No head to speak of; muddy orangey-brown beer. Cold coffee, coffeepowder, maybe some roasted malt. Again coffee with some faintly salty touches and a retronasal whiff of halogen. In the aftertase, maybe some water-welled raisins, and some cigarette ash. Alcoholheat, short of alcohol-induced flavour. Not very carbonated. Wanting, although it must be a feat to extract so little flavour from such a strong beer. This isn't a Barley Wine in any way.
Bierridder (4318) ticked Thorlákur from Brouwerij de HopHemel 5 months ago
nathanvc (6963) reviewed Thorlákur from Brouwerij de HopHemel 6 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Can from Hopduvel.
A: clear dark amber, small, foamy, off-white head.
A: coffee bean, raisin, red apple peel, dried fig, hazelnut, almond.
T: sweetish raisin & fig, bitter coffee bean, nuts, toast.
F: bitter earthy hops, nuts, coffee, dried fruits, some vodka-like alcohol.
P: medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation.
Good, a bit thin for the style, ABV and coffee element (which is quite powerful here); but have an extra point for the attempt at something new.