Tasting Notes: Haand: Cervisiam : Frontaal – Death By Disco

Haand: Cervisiam: Frontaal – Death By Disco (Norway: Imperial Stout: 10% ABV)

Visual: Black. Still. Lots of small brown sediment bits visible, especially if held to light. Creamy brown head.

Nose: Syrupy, artificial blueberry syrup. Bitter cocoa. Bitter coffee. Blueberry cheesecake. Strawberry jelly (Jello for non UK). Slight smoke. Sour dough. More natural blueberry. Aniseed.

Body: Thick. Alcohol tingle. Blueberry. Raspberry jelly. Caramel ice creamy syrup. Vanilla ice cream. Mild aniseed. Blueberry cheesecake. Honeycomb. Rough bourbon.

Finish: Blueberry. Lactose sheen. Bitter cocoa. Blueberry cheesecake. Slight bitter prickle. Sour dough. Slight smoke. Alcohol notes. Raspberry jelly. Rough bourbon.

Conclusion: What gets me here is how this seems to artificial when the aroma first slips out of the glass, yet very natural in the berry notes as time goes on. The whole beer feels caught in that dichotomy between natural and artificial feeling notes

This is a big beer with weight that brings a very blueberry cheesecake style, smothered in bitter cocoa style from the base stout. So there are definitely worse looks it could go for as the first impressions for the beer. There is a slight smokiness to the beer as well, a wisp that again adds weight.

So pretty good and very far from sickly sweet which was my first worry from the artificial aroma. At times it even feels like it leans a tad too heavily towards the savoury side, with bready notes becoming dominant – but it doesn’t happen often enough to hurt the beer.

What does hurt the beer is a strong alcohol feel that seems to emphasise the more artificial, syrupy blueberry notes and create a raw and artificial sprit character. These come late on an especially out into the finish where they are most evident.

There is a lot of good to this beer, even some good character in the artificial notes – for example the ice cream syrup, jelly and fruit notes are welcome as sweet bursts against the smokey offset. It feels like it is the alcohol, spirity character that really hurts it. It is a rough kind of neutral spirit to cheap bourbon kind of note that doesn’t ruin the beer, but definitely highlights the weaker artificial elements.

A good base beer, but one that needs to a lot of polish for it to pay off its promise. I can’t recommend it as is, but I do hope that they give it some work to make something really good from this.

Background: Yeah I know it calls itself a sweet stout as well as an Imperial Stout – at 10% abv I am happy putting it in the imperial stout side of things for a category. Anyway, mainly grabbed this as I liked the idea of blueberry sweet stout, and Haand have been interesting so far, if not quite having a beer I have tried yet that 100% wowed me. Another one grabbed from Independent Spirit. Had recently grabbed Rise Against – “Appeal To Reason” cheaply so put it on while drinking. Not quite formulated an opinion yet – seems solid so far but not really dug into it yet.

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Tasting Notes: Haand: Narke: Birrificio Del Ducato: #1000

Haand: Narke: Birrificio Del Ducato: #1000 (Norway: Quadrupel: 10.4% ABV)

Visual: Very dark brown. Thin brown head. Still body.

Nose: Bitter almonds. Raisins. Sour wine. Wholemeal bread. Malt drinks. Slight sulphur. Nutmeg. Light musty air.

Body: Almonds. Vinous – sour red wine. Seven Thai spice. Fruitcake and sultanas. Figs. Cocktail bitters. Earthy bitterness. Marzipan. Marmalade.

Finish: Almonds. Cocktail bitters. Malt biscuits and malt drinks. Port. Earthy notes. Slight funky yeast feel.

Conclusion: Maybe I need to walk away from barrel aged beers for a while. I keep feeling like I have to dig and fight through the ageing to get to the beer. Or maybe I don’t need to go that far, it is just on my mind after drinking this. I do have a lot of barrel aged beers in the cupboard right now, and it would be horrible to waste them. Anyway, as you may have guessed this is very barrel aged influenced, very vinous, with additional notes in cocktail bitters like character and bitter almonds taking the front.

Now time does help to get the beer out and about, with malt chocolate and fruitcake character coming out. Also the mix of base and barrel ageing seem to create a marmalade like character which I would more expect of cognac aged beer that I would expect to find it here.

While it is always very vinous dominated, I did soften to the beer over time. For one, what seemed like a slightly thin mouthfeel early on develops into a light, creamy thickness as you get used to the vinous element that seems to block the feel of the main body. Similarly the aroma gains a slight sulphur, bready thickness to it as the vinous element simmer down – calling to memories of a hand pulled real ale in some ways.

The latter half of the beer still has a heavy, bitter, sour wine influence, oddly mixing with the sweet marmalade base. However with more hop character and earthy bitterness coming out, matched with more dark fruit below that, which gives a more satisfying beer base.

I think a lighter touch on the oak ageing would benefit this a lot. That is presuming the base beer is good, it seems so, but it is hard to tell at this point. If the base beer is not good – well good job blunting it with the vinous notes then!

So, basically, if you are interested in the barrel ageing this is reasonable, if not massivly influenced by the base beer – it leans on an eathy, yeast influenced base more than anything else. If you are more interested in the beer it loses much of that, so it is probably not for you.

Simple, eh?

Background: So, a quad aged in Amarone casks, done in collaboration with the awesome Narke, and Ducato – who I didn’t get along with the last beer I encountered from them, but generally have a good rep. Also I don’t think I have ever tried Amarone , so don’t expect any wise comparisons to the original wine from me today. This beer was grabbed from Brewdog’s guest beer section and saved for when I wanted something big and booming to try. So, on going with awesome music for backing my drinking – went with Anti-Nowhere League – “We are … the League. May not be everyone’s choice of punk, but I love their over the top stylings.

Tasting Notes: Haand: Brewdog: Stone: Inferno IPA

Haand: Brewdog: Stone: Inferno IPA (Norway: IIPA: 10% ABV)

Visual: Caramel brown to ruddy red body under an inch of caramel brown touched head.

Nose: Kiwi, grapes and hops. Shreddies. Ovaltine malt drinks. Brown bread. Dried apricot.

Body: Thick, prickling hops. Nettles. Good bitterness. Hop oils. Toffee. Thick texture. Low hop burn. Sticky apricots. Cream. Kiwi yogurt. Sticky mouthfeel.

Finish: Caramel. Dry hop bitterness. Low hop burn. Brown bread. Good hop character in general and good level of bitterness. Sticky hop oils and resinous. Palma violets.

Conclusion: This is fairly “dank” in its hop use. Yes I am putting quotes around that, I still find the current meaning of the word “dank” to be odd. Anyway, this is sticky, resinous with lots of hop oils and a pretty solid level of hop bitterness. That really seems to be the core of this beer – Thick, sticky and hoppy.

To back that up the malt load is heavy, thick and sweet – almost fondue impression giving thick feel that gives what would be a big sweet character to back up the hop oils. Not too sweet in reality though despite that, with the hop character coming through it ends up as a big bready to shreddies malt style – very stodgy, thick and quite savoury when everything comes together.

Hop flavour wise is a more subtle deal – there is creamy fruit with some kiwi and some apricot that are present but mainly as backing notes. There is a touch of hop burn with it that adds a mild acrid note, but it is low enough to only add a prickle below this heavy beer rather than damaging it.

It doesn’t have a huge flavour range – the sticky hop side of things really dominates. I would by lying if I said I didn’t enjoy thus, more for the feel than anything else, that sticky hop resinous feel makes a very pleasant sensation as it goes down.

However it could do with more to it than just feel. It has a good mouthfeel, but needs to do more with the hop flavours. Still, a sticky hop experience is an enjoyable one. With work this could be the basis of an awesome beer, it just isn’t there yet.

Background: So, as always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers, best get that out there first as they are a collaborator for this beer. I am an unbiased actor on Stone beers, unless you considerer thinking them an awesome brewery for the quality of their beers, especially their hop forward beers, is bias. Don’t know much about Haand, but always happy to try more beers from Norway. It just feels more metal. So, with metal on my mind I drank this while listening to … No Doubt again. Listen, I only thought up the metal link later on, ok? Anyway this was grabbed from Brewdog’s guest beer selection.