330mL bottle, pours black with a small tan head. Aroma brings out lots of smoked malt, some peat, medium roast, and iodine. Flavour is full of peated smoked malt, some roast, and gentle dark sugars. Peaty, smoky, and lightly sugary. Excellent.

Some white lace.Creamy.roasty,chocolate.strong bitterness.sweet,but balanced with dryness and bitterness. Bbe:03/01/2026

Very strong stout even for one dubbed ‘imperial’ and one of Põhjala’s core beers, but somehow I had not encountered this one before. Bottle from De Apotheek shared with Craftmember. Pale brownish-beige, moussy, slowly opening head lacing in dots and eventually dissolving, black robe with waferthin mahogany edge. Intense bouquet of melting hot black chocolate, cappuccino, ‘drop’, rye bread dough, bayleaf, toffee, whisky, dried thyme, pipe tobacco, caramel sauce, walnut paste, mocha ice cream, hints of petrichor, porcini, black chanterelles and sweat. Dense onset, sweet with aspects of blackberry coulis, fig jam and vague pear but nowhere too sticky, softly carbonated with very full, oily to almost syrupy mouthfeel; thoroughly black-chocolatey, molasses-like and toffeeish middle with pecan-nutty edges but also a noticeably grainy core underneath all that heavy ‘blackness’, also ‘drop’ (liquorice) and some beefy umami, but not to the point where it becomes disturbing. Spicy accents in the end from growing alcohol, peppery hops and a roasty coffee note, but bittersweetness remains prevalent with perhaps a bit more sweetness than bitterness. Notes of black chocolate, cappuccino and black pepper linger, heated by whisky-like alcohol, which is nonetheless quite well absorbed by the malts. Powerful and intense as is to be expected, this stout is so solidly made that it needs no exaggerated sweetness, exotic ingredients or even barrel ageing to shine, contrary to so many others, and that fact alone is a testimony of how highly skilled Põhjala really is. Not far from a masterpiece for me.

Well stored bottle. Pitch black body under a short lasting beige head. Strong aroma of dark, roasted malt, chocolate, dry fruit and warming alcohol. Taste is very sweet, with a certain alcoholic balance. Dark, roasted, slightly peated malt, coffee, dark chocolate, dry fruit, warming alcohol and balanced bitterness. Full bodied with long lasting aftertaste. Feels very sweet and boozy at the first sip, but manage to get more balance after that, especially in combination with a bit of dark chocolate, a really pleasant sipper that handle the high alcohol level very well.

25/6/2022. Bottle from Beerdome online store shared at the Gorzow GP beer share. Pours thick, black, with a small frothy tan coloured head. Aroma is roasted malt, dark chocolate, caramel, coffee, vanilla. Quite sweet with moderate roasted bitterness. Medium to full body, oily, soft carbonation. Very nice.

Enjoy with this beer with Tomek in deepest spring evening. Jak na piane w tym piwie Pohjali mizerna, grubo pęcherzykowa, pachnie rumem, daktylami, ciemna gesta czekolada, w smaku nugat, belgijskie praliny, mozzarty, kawa, wanilia, spora palonosc i spora goryczka, wszystko to podkreca te czekolade, super piwo, gladkie, sprawia wrazenie ciezkiego, ale takie nie jest.