7.3

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

4/VIII/22 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ France Holiday, BB: X/2025, lot: L 191110 (2022-970)

Pretty cloudy orange beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, a bit adhesive. Aroma: oxidized, sourish impression, fruity, lots of dried oranges, funky notes. MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: alcohol, very sourish, lemon juice, bitter, quite some tannins, fruity, dry, a bit oxidized, some honey. Aftertaste: sourish, bitter, a bit resinous even, fruity, peach skin, a bit sweet, some raisins, grapes, nice and pretty complex beer!

7

Nice amber malt character and barrel aging. Sourness is very firm but not sharp. It’s good, not great, lacking something in the body to back the abv. Foeders ams

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle, 330 ml at Ambasada, Zagreb. Dark orange with small white head. Malty, vinous, caramel, fruity, quite sour and somewhat acetic. Medium bodied.

7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottled 330ml. -from Ambasada Zagreb. Dark amber coloured, small off-white head that went away fast, cherries caramel and alcohol in the nose. The taste is acetic, alcohol, light glue, cherries, some caramel and mild wood with candy notes.

8

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

Nose of lemon, pickles, wood, lactic sourness. Taste is tart, lemony, sweet fruity hints.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Small rim over clear red-copper beer, still. Acetic acid, solvent, old wood; sharp and vinous; pickled berries, hint at raw black chocolate, watercolour paint. Sharpish, sour wine, acetic but not overly so. Hints at human sweat, vinous - as fruit on wine and vinegar. Retronasal just a whiff of solvent; crab apples, lemon, and cacao powder. Aftertaste has a light earthy, almost muddy flavour. Light body because of acidthinning, puckering on the lips. Not very carbonated. Complexity, or how a harsh sour beer can be truly rewarding and loveable.

8.5

Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8.5

Conceived as a "Nordic sour barley wine", this is a (very) strong sour ale by Alvinne, developed in collaboration with Torbjörn Andersson and Henrik Carleson, two dedicated Alvinne fans from Sweden, quite the honour indeed; 3000 l was brewed, but 500 of it was transformed in yet another beer also honouring a dedicated Alvinne fan, Jakub Michalski from Poland - so in all, only 2500 l of this Torbjörn & Henrik exists, corresponding with roughly 7575 bottles if I calculated correctly. The crown cap states that the beer is best before October 2025, but I am confident that a sour ale of this strength can last (and perhaps even improve) for several years longer than that - the future will tell, I guess. Medium sized, notably creamy, irregularly shaped, nicely cobweb-lacing, slowly opening but generally very stable head on an initially crystal clear, deep and warm, pure amber coloured beer with deep 'metallic' orange glow, turning beautifully misty with sediment. Quite powerful, complex, 'noble' bouquet of not quite ripe loganberries, cooked blackberries, cranberry juice, calvados, fruit yoghurt, marmalade oranges, wild apples, strong wet old oak wood including a generous portion of that typical vanilla element, dusty attic, caramel, stewing rhubarb, unripe plum, candied orange peel, wood sorrel, wax and some other solventy effects when warming up (and only in the end), vague whiff of Speyside single malt whisky even if this is not whisky barrel aged. Strong, very fruity onset, crisply sour - even acidic, though in a fresh lemony way rather than a harsh vinegary way; lots of sour berries, sour apples, halfripe stonefruit and unripe citrus fruit spring to mind, with that typical Alvinne sweetishness at its core; still the sourness does pucker a bit, so this is one for the dedicated sour ale (and Alvinne sour) fan indeed. Carbonation remains refined and gentle, mouthfeel is supple and slick - a bit vinous perhaps, but still feeling lighter than its considerable ABV would suggest; a smooth caramelly malt core stretches over the palate but dried by the ongoing sourness, now turning a bit more 'sedate' and yoghurty, yet never losing its crisp astringency - and helping to carry the red and sour fruit notes onwards. The finish then is dominated by the barrel: a lot of tannic woodiness, with a drying effect that differs from, but seamlessly takes over from the drying sourness; an actual old oak wood taste, even more so than I had from most other barreled beers from Alvinne (and I lost count of how many of those I had since they first ventured in barrel ageing more than a dozen years ago), lingers on the root of the tongue for a very long time, highlighted by a very calvados- or eau de vie-like alcohol warmth, which manages to restrain itself enough to let the flavours reign free. The fruitiness by now has reached a kind of noble, dried fruit effect, as in dried orange peel, dried apple slices or dried sour berries, with a certain 'nonchalant' dustiness to it. Alvinne sours in general are a gem of Belgian brewing art - and frankly it comes as no surprise that it takes two Swedish top fans to create an instant classic like this, considering Alvinne's early ties with the Scandinavian craft beer scene, one of the first regions in Europe to adept the new American idiom and its enthusiasm in revolutionizing the concept of beer. This one is Alvinne sour ale to its core - more than barleywine, an association I frankly did not have during tasting, but did not miss either. Great sipper again, especially on a cold January evening like this.