0,5 litre Bottle from Vinmonopolet Hamar. Dark brown with little head. Spices, malt, and aquavit aroma. Aquavit, liqorice, malt, spices and hop taste. Smooth.

Bottled 500ml (Vinmonopolet)
Dark ruby color, small beige head. Perfumic apple aroma. Medium-bodied. Light toastyness, fruit cake, apple, alcohol finish. I am not a big fan of akvavit and this is no exception.

Bottled. Deep coppery brown colour, mediumsized off-white head. Aroma is wooden, some spirit, alcohol, mild chocolate. Flavour is mild toasted notes, some alcohol, some chocolaste and mild sweetish malts. Quite wooden aftertaste.

50cl bottle @ Norski tasting, Vaasa. Poured dark brown color with a thin white head. Aroma has spices, mostly cinnamon like, some chocolate, malts, some earthy notes. Flavor has roastedness, licorice, spices, sweetness, caramel. Spice bomb.

Bottle. Has a dark brown colour and a small beige head. Has a complex aroma and flavor of oak, liquor, dried fruit, coffee, leather and hints of spices. Has a slick mouth feel, full-bodied and light bitterness. An interesting and complex ale.

Brown with low off white head and low carbonation - Malt and spicy aroma - Malt body with a good spicy flavour with some wood in the back - The malt and spicy flavours goes into the finish and there is some hints of good warming alcohol - This was good

500ml bottle, batch 1021, bought at Vinmonopolet Sentrum Tromsø. Shared with fellow historian Ingebjørg. Almost black in the glass with a deep ruby glint. Low fawn-coloured head. Spotty lacing. Smell of oak vanilla and dark malts. Blending elements of chocolate, oak, and brittle caramel to the taste buds backed by dark fruits and berries. Drying malt-fruity ending joined by a touch of aquavit. Warming alcohol on the swallow. Fine bodied. Likable (Aperitif before Julebordet at my workplace, Tromsø 21.12.2016).

Rødbrun klar med fingerhøyt beige skum. Lukter kandis, vanilje, trevirke, brent karamell, svisker, dadler og noe kaffe. Middels pluss i fylde. Smaker kandis, brent karamell, trevirke, vanilje, krydder og noe mørk sjokolade. Søtlig noe stikky avslutning.

Fra flaske på Smakselv 10 Des 15. Delt med mange. Takk til Haandbryggeriet som hadde med denne godbiten. Ekstremt dyprød. Filmskum med litt farge. Lett søt fruktaroma. Mest svisker. Smaken balansert. Smaken minner mest om sherry & madeira med et lite innslag av treverk. Skikkelig koseøl.

Bottle from batch 643, bought online; apparently already brewed two years ago but since this is a strong, bottle-conditioned beer, I do not expect this to be any problem. Slow gushing upon opening the 50 cl bottle. Very dense but still opening, pale yellow beige, creamy head leaving lacings on the edges of the glass; colour is a murky mahogany brown, cloudy from the start, which, in combination with the gushing, worries me a bit. Weird spicy aroma totally dominated by caraway in first instance, very ethereal and medicinal, and penetrating the nostrils rather vigorously, reminding me of my grandmother’s collection of dried medicinal herbs and old spice seeds. Other impressions involve baker’s chocolate, brown rhum, wet pine wood, juniper berries, gingerbread, chocolate cake, brown bread, baked banana, earth, rotting autumn leaves, moss and something vaguely sulphuric, as in fried eggs. Soft fruity onset, banana, raisins, overripe pear and medlar, sweetish and a bit sourish, very rich, ’fluffy’ and filling body with soft carbo; bready and caramelly malts with more ’chocolateness’ in the end but more in the form of added chocolate bars than bitter chocolate malts, though there is some toasted malt bitterness for sure (as in a Scotch ale, the beer type traditionally used in Belgium as a basis for dark, heavy winter ales). Needless to say, the caraway from the aroma comes in as a resiny, ethereal, somewhat wry spiciness, too much for my taste, as is not seldomly the case with spiced winter ales. Finish is a continuation of this resinous, very sticky, bittersweet spiciness (I suspect a big dosis of coriander is at work here as well), along with juicy malts, chocolate, some herbal hop bitterishness and indeed a touch of wood, but only subtly so, without the drying tannins which could have made this beer better; I get warming alcohol as well, but not particularly an aquavit flavour (fortunately perhaps). Big, bold winter beer, perhaps I made a mistake by tasting this on a warm day in mid summer, but on a cold winter night too I would find this too overly spiced. I have nothing against caraway seed, but it should have been applied a lot more subtly in this case as it dominates the bouquet way too much. Needs more subtlety, but then this goes for a lot of other (I’m thinking primarily Belgian) spiced winter beers of the Scotch or quadrupel type as well.