Sierra Nevada - Narwhal

I seen this one on another blog a few months ago which inspired me to buy this. The price, which is double what you give for the normal sierra nevada range available in supermarkets here ie. pale ale, ipa, torpedo ipa(a steal at the price) and kellerweizen..so will this one live up to the high price tag ?.....

Aroma of roasted malt from the pour with coffee, licorice and dark chocolate covered raisins.

Narwhal pours pitch black with a tight creamy brown head. Heavily roasted malt on the intake with dark chocolate, licorice and a touch of coffee while the finish is hoppy, bitter and warming alcohol. The long aftertaste is more of the same but with a tannin/leathery tinge to it ? Yeah, there is a question mark there for a reason. Full bodied and low carbonation, the mouthfeel is creamy to being a tad oily. While you can certainly feel and taste the alcohol in this it does not detract from the flavours.

Maybe I have drunk too from the fermenting vessel this morning while checking gravity but this left me slightly disappointed. I'm left questioning while writing this post if the alcohol is overriding the flavours and the sweetish licorice through this is too much and spoils it totally for me. Saying all that, I still enjoyed it. However, I would not buy it again apart from to store it for another year as I think storing will really benefit it. No doubt some bottle shop with be selling 2012 which this is in a year or two for two times the price.

Summing up, bold malty imperial stout that if I had never tried it I would buy two. One to try now and one to forget about for another year.

This scored a generous 7.5/10 in the 'what's this about keeping beer for another year about ? It's not wine for gawds sake' Beerometer.

Alc : 10.2%
Where to buy CPH : Superbrugsen

Jacobsen - Høstbryg

Høstbryg = Harvest brew.

A new one from the house brewery at Carlsberg, this one being styled a vienna lager. I hope there is a bit more to it than the carly semper ardens weiner which was also just released. Being friday, less chit chat and get onto the beer in question eh ?....

Malt aroma from the pour with caramel and light citrusy hops.

Høstbryg pours a clear amber to copper with a white creamy head. Medium sweet very malty intake along with caramel and again light hoppy citrus while the finish is dry and mildly bitter. Can you guess the short aftertaste ?....yep, more malt which with the caramel is almost chewy butterscotch in taste. Light bodied, the mouthfeel is a tad watery.

Now I've had a pop at raters/fair isle jersey wearers using the saying 'one dimensional' , this one is a definite candidate for that saying to be used as it is a good chunk of sameness all the way through. However, it is a Vienna which is quite a simple brew so what do people expect ? Considering the brewer, to me this tastes like a luxury version of tuborg classic(bad comparison), with a different hop profile, which I've said before is decent when poured from a great height to knock all the co2 out ;).  Not one I would bother to buy again although I've no problem drinking another if offered. Summing up, an average simple and malty vienna.

This scored a generous 6/10 on the '+1 for all the malt/remembering me to get some oktoberfest beers in' Beerometer.

Alc : 5.9%
Where to buy CPH : Føtex

Flensburger x 2 - Pilsener & Gold

I've got a huge thing going on again gathering flip-top bottles, well any bottles for yet another homebrew which I have put over the past weekend and another two which I have planned for midway and end of the month. I have thought about buying new empty bottles but come on, when I buy beer bottles I want them to be full first !...I bottled the last batch just over a week ago, it is my christmas stout. Kegging would be a lot less time consuming....

I have tried these two once before along with quite a few from Flensburger though I did not make any pre-blog notes on them. I do like their Dunkel which I have drunk recently so let's see how they are...

Pilsener

Light waft of malt, hay, herbs and hops from the pour.

Pilsner pours a clear pale gold with a frothy white head. Herby/spice and grassy intake with malt while the finish is dry, bitter and hoppy. Nothing much going on in the light aftertaste apart from some malt, hops and grass. Quite softly carbonated for a pilsener, the mouthfeel is light and not too watery.

Clean and crisp, it is a pretty good example of a standard northern german pilsener. Pretty refreshing, I'd have no problem drinking this to quench the thirst on a hot summers day. I must be in a good mood as I can't think of any gripes apart from why do they use hop extract ? Summing up, decent standard and a good bit tastier than your usual macro eurosplosh.

This scored 5.5/10 on the '+1 for the swingtop' Beerometer.

Alc : 4.8%
Where to buy CPH : Føtex and Bilka.

Gold

Light aroma of malt, yeast and hops from the pour.

Gold pours clear golden (once the chill haze had cleared, oops) with a creamy white head. Sweet malty intake with some grass and dulled hops while the finish is dry and very very mildly bitter. This has a short aftertaste of malt and dull hops. The mouthfeel is thin and watery.

While more malty than the pilsener I wonder if they forgot to put anything else in or the hop extract injector was blocked as there is not a whole lot going on with this. I won't say duffer as I like the malty taste but there is practically no other flavours reaching the palate....yes I did allow it to warm up a bit after being over-chilled. Summing up, I should have bought 2 pilseners, avoid.

This scored a lowly 2.5 on the '+1 for the swingtop...you can subtract it yourself' Beerometer.

Alc : 4.8%

Where to buy/avoid CPH : Føtex and Bilka.

Carlsberg - Semper Ardens Porter

On offer in Netto of all places this week marks the return of the Semper Ardens range from Carlsberg. Why it went away, Christmas Ale excluded, I don't know but perhaps they were concentrating on the Jacobsen brand. So I picked this one up along with the weiner and kellerpils. As a lover of stouts I was a big fan of Criollo Stout which I thought was bloody excellent. For me, it was one of them beers that if blindfolded you would never have guessed it came from a huge industrial brewer. So, how will this replacement ? porter live up to that ........

Light aroma of malt, chocolate and licorice coming from the pour.

This Porter pours black with a dark ruby tinge and has a creamy beige head. Quite sweet on the intake with dark roasted/almost burnt tasting malt, dark chocolate and a dab of licorice while the finish is bittersweet. This has a pleasant long-ish aftertaste of malt, licorice and milky coffee. Smooth mouthfeel though a bit oily with no alcohol shining through.

Summing up first...decent one bottle only porter that is worth a try. The reason I say one bottle only is mainly personal as I drank two bottles of this while writing this post (I did have other things going on) but during the second I thought it was beginning to be a bit dull, your own mileage may vary of course. While pretty good value for money, bought for 10 dkk, it is not a patch on the afore mentioned Criollo Stout. I don't know if it is a capacity thing but I've always wondered why the Semper Ardens/Jacobsen line do not, to my limited knowledge, get exported ? Answers on a postcard please. I have no problem buying and drinking this again.

This scored 7.5/10 on the 'oh, a macro brew, I must mark down' Beerometer.

Alc : 6.8%
Where to buy CPH : Netto

Mikkeller - Beer Geek Brunch Weasel

With all the Mikkeller posts someone asked me about this one and if I would blog it. Well here we go, much hyped and rated in various places in the top 25 beers in the world. Not that I have much time for ratings sites as I am very skeptical of beer tickers, the numbers game and comments of 'one dimensional' and 'boring' 600 times but hey, if that is how some people get their kicks out of beer then fair play to them.

Onto the beer in question. I can't say I am going in blind as I have had this before pre-blog. Blurb first...

This imperial Oatmeal stout is brewed with one of the world’s most expensive coffees, made from droppings of weasel-like civetcats. The fussy Southeast Asian animals only eat the best and ripest coffee berries.Enzymes in their digestive system help to break down the bean. Workers collect the bean-containing droppings for Civet or Weasel Coffee. The exceedingly rare Civet Coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma.

Big aroma of coffee, heavy roasted malt, chocolate and light hops from the pour.

Brunch Weasel pours pitch black with a creamy light brown head. Heavy dark roasted malt on the sweet intake with strong coffee, bitter dark chocolate and a touch of pine while the finish is quite hoppy and bitter. This has a long lasting aftertaste of malt, coffee and dark chocolate. Softly carbonated, the mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. While you can certainly feel the warming presence of the alcohol it does not shine through to impair the flavour.

For quite a miserable monday..what a start to the week ! Now I am not the greatest fan of coffee in stouts as some can be overpowering and in some cases I'm left wondering if they chucked it in for the sake of it however with this I can only come to the conclusion that the world needs more coffee bean eating weasels ! I really really, no really enjoyed this one and it was a total pleasure to drink. Definitely one you could drink as a treat for yourself. Summing up, if I had only 25 beers to drink before my lights go out this would be one of them. Hunt it down and give it a try.

This scores a perfect 10/10 on the 'did you expect anything lower on this, the 'raters' got it right this time ?' Beerometer.

Alc : 10.9%
Where to buy CPH : Kihoskh, Ølbutikken, Fish & Beer & Høkeren all stock it.