Dec. ’16. A 0.5 l bottle at Birra+, Rome. It poured a pitch black body with a small brown head. Roasted malt aroma with coffee, caramel, raisins and some licorice. A bit peaty as well. Lightly sweet flavor, balanced with moderate bitterness, malty with lots of coffee, chocolate, dried fruits and peat to leather smoked notes. Quite complex, I should've elaborated this better but it was a rough day on my RB duty. Full bodied with round and smooth mouthfeel. Long finish followed the flavor with earthy and smoked notes besides pleasant roasted malty ones. No remarks on alcohol presence, but I remember it was warming. A pleasant, well crafted imperial porter.

From a 330ml bottle on 18/7/2017. Pours dark brown with little in the way of head. The nose features light chocolate, caramel and cola. It’s very sweet flavour wise - more chocolate and caramel, with a distinct sweet meatiness, followed by a very mild roasty bitterness. The texture is a bit syrupy and the carbonation soft. A very pleasant sweet sipper.

Bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck, with the new label. A Norwegian imperial porter, with moussy, thick, pale greyish beige, lightly lacing, irregularly shaped head, quickly showing a big gap in the middle but otherwise well-retaining, over a very dark chestnut brown, hazy beer, close to black in general appearance but still largely translucent, with deep burgundy hue. Aroma of beef stock cubes, old dusty fondant chocolate bars, dried blueberries, cold sugared tea, candied fig, cold cappuccino, soggy brown bread, some natural ’haemoglobin’-like iron, raisins, dried plums, brown rum, dry earth, dead tree leaves, hazelnut shells, hints of dry manure, walnuts, varnish, nutmeg, mushrooms. Full, sweetish onset, dried fig and candied date, some light candied banana and pear hints, residual sugars but not too cloying thanks to a ’deeper’ blackberry-ish sourish touch, beef stock cube-like umami side effects (not surprising considering this is the first impression in the nose), full and smooth, rounded, softly carbonated mouthfeel. ’Fluffy’ but lean, ’brown’ malt body makes up the core business of this beer, very toffeeish and (chest-)nutty, with a dash of diluted chocolate milk thrown in, bready as well - as in moist brown bread. The sugary, candied fruitiness continues well over this, some spicy notes show up here and there, but long before the finish, alcohol gets in the way and eventually dominates, with a burning, wry, cheap liquor-like effect that heats not just the throat, but the whole mouth cavity. Earthy, yeasty, ’brown’ sugary, bready and malt sweet finish with a dash of herbal hop bitterness, sweetness still prevailing, but again the alcohol interferes way too much. Heck, I had beers of a higher ABV that did not taste this boozy... I hate it when alcohol is badly hidden and that is certainly the case here. Other than that, this is way too earthy and ’dirty’, with FFF-like notes in the nose which are anything but flattering. Drinkable alright, but far removed from the great imperial porters of this world - a style very susceptible to heated style discussions, I know, but from experience and having enjoyed many excellent examples from both the Old (Molen’s Tsarina Esra) and the New World (Ballast Point’s Victory At Sea), I expect an imperial porter to be clean and certainly not ’dirty’ like a mediocre Belgian quad as is the case here, with more emphasis on vanilla- and chocolate-like sweetness and less on beefy umami effects. An important technical flaw and an important ’style flaw’ combined: this is a bit of a disappointment. I guess Aegir still has a long way to go to reach the quality standards of their fellow Norwegians at Lervig, who doubtlessly can present a top notch imperial porter if they want to (shame I missed their collab with All In Brewing, apparently their only attempt at this style so far). Needs finetuning as far as I’m concerned.

Keg at ecbf 2017. Pours deep brown, nose is caramel, chocolate, toffee, taste is similar bitter, dry.

Botella 33 cl en el Lúpulo Oviedo 24..04..2017. Sin lote ni fdcpref. (r228). Color negro intenso con espuma beige. Sabores más menos intensos maltosos tostados ligeramente quemados con toques de cacaos con algo de cafés y especias. Caramelos tostados algo ahumados al final al calentar. Cuerpo medio algo más líquido de lo esperado. Le faltaría algo más de densidad y espuma. Así con todo esta bastante buena. Para repetir.

Svart med fingerhøyt beige skum. Lukter brent karamell og kaffe. Fyldig. Noe alkohol, brent karamell med mørk sjokolade, kaffe og alkohol i avslutningen.