7.9

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8.5

Tap at Boreft Bier Festival 2010, Bodegraven. Dark brown coloured ale with an chocolate, coffee, roasty and subtle hints of Bourbon-whiskey due the barrel.

8.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

25cl bottle recieved as a gift. Pours pitch black with a rather modest, beige head. Probably poured a bit to cold, but I'll sip it for a long time so it will be even more flavourful in the end. Rich, complex, roasty aroma with wooden notes, dark fruits, cocoa, vanilla and hints of coffee. Smooth and flavourful, but still surprisingly fresh for being matured on oak and then several years in bottle. Sure this will still develop nicely for years to come. Very nice, desserty and a pure pleasure to enjoy. Wouldn't mind having more of these stocked up for the future....

8

keg at Borefts 2023 Friday ...dark black ..thin tan lacing ...soft sweet caramel toffee roast meaty chocolate roast malts nose ..heavy meaty chocolate roast malts

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Keg at borefts. Pours black, nose is chocolate, toffee, meaty, taste is similar, some liquorice.
Earlier Rating: 9/12/2014 Total Score: 4
Bottle at Craig’s. Pours black, nose is roasted chocolate, little oxidised, taste is quite sweet, soy, dry, chocolate, meaty. A little past its best but thanks Craig!

7.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

20/IX/24 - on tap @ Borefts Day 1, Brouwerij De Molen (Bodegraven), BB: n/a (2024-961) Thanks to the Brewver crew for sharing today’s beers!

Clear dark brown to black beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: very oxidized, earthy, roasted, malty, some caramel, coffee. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: roasted, earthy, bitter, good roast, alcohol, lots of coffee. Aftertaste: bitter, caramel, coffee, meh, not so nice, too bitter!

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

20/1/2024. Bottle shared at CLBF/IKL. From Nisse666, cheers. 2016. Pours black with a small beige head. Aroma is chocolate, nut, caramel, roasted malt, chocolate spread, slight meaty edge. Moderate sweetness and medium roasted bitterness. Full bodied, soft carbonation.

9.8

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 10 | Flavor - 9.5 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9.5

Here we are then: the barrel aged version of one of Sweden's most coveted beers, the honey-flavoured Stormaktsporter by family brewery Närke, the fame of which is due in large part to this very website - as is the fame of this Kaggen version, coming in second on the list of the "best beers of the world" (and holding a similar position on both Untappd and Brewver). Needless to say, I just had to taste this one when I unexpectedly got the opportunity, as the 2019 vintage (one of several since the first one appeared in 2005) has, since this year only, been sold through a selection of specialist shops in several countries including the Netherlands and Denmark. No doubt the 'whale' value of this legendary beer has waned a bit due to this very fact - several online shops still stock it today and ship internationally - but it remains one of those bucket list beers I have been dreaming of for years, and now a bottle finally reached my tasting table. Medium thick, dense and creamy, lightly membrane-like lacing, greyish beige, stable head very slowly breaking over an opaque black robe - showing a burgundy red hue only at the very end. Dense and initially somewhat 'closed' aroma, gradually unfolding an array of beguiling scents: cocoa nibs and high quality dark chocolate, pronounced oak wood (still including a vanillin touch), molasses, whisky, ground walnuts, cold espresso, dried prunes, roasted almonds, aquavit, freshly crushed black peppercorns, dry caramel, warm brown bread (crust), fudge, dried figs, dark brown honey, dried heather, some light notes of reduced beef stock, bayleaf, clay, cinnamon rolls, burnt blackcurrants, old ebony wood, Japanese soy sauce, dried beech leaves, wet leather and salmiak. Dense onset with a perfectly tuned, i.e. somewhat restrained and 'noble' sweetness (dried fig, dried blueberry or blackberry, touch ripe blue plum) with a faint hint of beef stock- or gravy-like umami surrounding it, softly carbonated with immediately thick, heavily oily, 'viscous' mouthfeel. Thick malt slabs of dark chocolate, black cocoa, brown bread, fudge and cold black coffee ensue, piled on top of each other but working as one compact bittersweet whole filling the entire mouth cavity - as any decent imperial stout or imperial porter should, of course. The subdued sweet dark fruit and umami beef stock accents travel along this huge dark maltiness, which increases in bitterness as the roasted effects build up and a robust amount of peppery hops, well hidden under all that dark maltiness but adding considerable bitterness 'behind the scenes', starts to set in; dryness is achieved by a pronounced woodiness (bringing back those wonderfully noble oak aromas retronasally) but also by the booze, which was noticeable early on already and grows in the end - with whisky- and gin-like effects. The alcohol puts up a fight against that massive malt bittersweetness and almost wins, but things get balanced again in the finish and aftertaste, where this alcohol warmth and spiciness makes the malt bittersweetness glow up in the dark rather than brutally scorching it, as it sometimes does in conceptually similar beers. Glimpses of praliné, bayleaf, liquorice and marmite subtly and briefly pop up in the aftertaste. This is indeed high nobility, a beer to contemplate in serenity and in earnest, and even though the booziness is perhaps just a tad too strong for me (I really must find the basic Stormaktsporter one day) even after three years of maturing in the bottle, there is no doubt that this brew fully deserves its near-mythical status, with an old-fashioned roasty bitterness, perfect mouthfeel for its style, utterly solid structure and density of flavours. The perfect accompaniment to a chilly evening in late December and with whales like this, I cannot but give a 'symbolic' score of near perfection. Another one off the bucket list, and worth every penny.