Ragnarok
Draai Laag Brewing Company in Millvale, Pennsylvania, United States 🇺🇸
Belgian Style - Strong Ale Regular Out of Production|
Score
6.61
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The faint peat smoked malts and toffee tones balance the aromas of bread, spice, and briar fruit. The initial impression envelopes into a flavor profile of tart raspberries and black currants, intertwined with the darker spices from the elderberries and relative richness of black cherry, following by iridescent smoke. Ragnarök integrates multiple cultural ingredients, while finishing dry, fruity, and slightly bitter.
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8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
500 ml bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating. Pours hazy very dark ruby red/purple/brown color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a spotty lace cap that lingers. Light spotty lacing clings on the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the lace. Aromas of big sweet/tart blackberry, raspberry, currants, black cherry, red grape, raisin, fig, plum, date, pepper, brown sugar, toasted bread, light smoke, herbal, floral, light funk, and yeast earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of fruity/spicy yeast, cherry/berries, and moderate dark/bready malt notes; with great strength. Taste of big sweet/tart blackberry, raspberry, currants, black cherry, red grape, raisin, fig, plum, date, pepper, brown sugar, toasted bread, light smoke, herbal, floral, light funk, and yeast earthiness. Good amount of yeast spiciness and light fruit tang/tartness on the finish; with lingering notes of blackberry, raspberry, currants, black cherry, red grape, raisin, fig, plum, date, pepper, brown sugar, toasted bread, herbal, floral, and yeast earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/spicy yeast, cherry/berries, and moderate dark/bready malt flavors; with a great malt/tart/spiciness balance, and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Moderate dryness from carbonation and yeast spiciness as well. High carbonation and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, crisp, moderately creamy/grainy, and lightly slick/acidic/tannic balanced mouthfeel that is great. Minimal warming alcohol for 8.8%. Overall this is a great fruited Belgian strong dark ale! All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/spicy yeast, cherry/berries, and moderate dark/bready malt flavors; very smooth, crisp, and easy to drink for the big ABV. Big on cherry/berry fruit presence; but still has great balance with the Belgian base beer, and is not overly sweet/syrupy from the fruit. A really enjoyable offering.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Feb 2017
at 19:52
7.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle at the brewery: deep red purple body with a frothy head. Aroma is blackcurrant, wine, and maybe tree. Taste is fruity and very dry at the end. Blackcurrants are pretty dank in here. Nice complexity. Better than the rating implies.
Tried
from Bottle
on 10 Sep 2016
at 15:04
4.9/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 4
Texture 6
Overall 4.5
Bottle - pours purple tan head - nose/taste of medicinal notes, raspberry, black currant, cherry juice, dark berries and smoke. Some off notes. Touch of bandaid and saw dust. Gusher. Medium body.
Tried
from Bottle
on 12 Apr 2016
at 01:23
5.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 5
Sampled on draft at 99 Bottles this beer poured a dark brown color with a small foamy white head that faded quickly but left decent lacing. The aroma was tart and sour cherries. The flavor was bitter, tart and dry with vinegar, sour cherry, wood and leather. Long finish. Medium body but undercarbonated. Ok.
Tried
from Draft
on 09 Dec 2015
at 11:32
8.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
Yes, the best beer of the 3 I had at bocktown. An interestingly tart nose, you know its coming. Was fooled by the strong ale styling. If this is near 9% you’d never know it. The wild attitude about it hides tha alky oh so well, fun and easy, quite refined. Never in yer face. Good job on this one. A nice example of how a big kick sour beer can be done. Goes down way too easy. Pleasantly surprised! Overall good ratebeer experience.
Tried
from Can
on 02 May 2015
at 11:32
6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Draft at the brewery. Pours a clear dark red color with a thin tan head. Decent head retention.. Aroma of toffee, nuts, grapes, spice, mild smoke. The taste is stone fruits, toffee, nuts, faint smoke. Medium bodied.
Tried
from Draft
on 03 May 2013
at 20:22