Haandbryggeriet Nissefar

Brewed by Haandbryggeriet (Norway)
Style: Old Ale
Drammen, Norway

Bottle. Pours a dark brune body with a tan head. Sweet woody cherry and coco malt. Has an utterly delicious aroma, just killer! Chewy chocolate and coco body with a light coffee bitterness and a lightly smoky maple oak with licorice accents to finish. Nice lingering mineral porter like character as well. Awesome brew.

Batch 191 Medium dark-beige head over practically black beer. Coffee, blackcurrantleaves, valerian, caramel and burnt sugarsyrup, chicory extract. Dry, nearly dusty coffeetaste, Haagse Hopjes (kind of coffee sweets). Generally roasted and quite sweet: liquorice in the finish. Warming up, more hopflavour. Very well bodied, bit spritzy, creamy-viscous MF. A bit... predictable.

Bottle@Home. Cocoa, black chocolate and allspice aroma. Sweet, bitter, hint of lactic sourness, allspice, chocolate. Medium body. Flavourful, highly drinkable, unusual.

Pours a transparent dark mahogany with a well-lacing beige head. Aroma of sweet, smoky dark caramel malts and some lightly tart fruity notes. Body starts with a light toasty caramel sweetness and some earthy vinous woody character with a touch of berries toward the finish. Has some lingering roasty coffe flavors. A pretty good and interesting old ale.

This black ale poured with a decent tan head and a fruity aroma. There is an intense roasted malt flavor with some chocolate and a coffee finish. This is a fairly complex brew that is pretty earthy, yet quite enjoyable.

Interesting. I get that strong ale taste. Very X-Masy in flavor. Fruit. Hops. Malt. Some caramel. Maybe the last X-Mas beer of the season for me? Nice overall.

This beer is delicious I don’t know what the gripe is. Excellent example of an Old Ale. Bottle from winter 2007. Pours an opaque dark dull brown with a fine beige small dense froth. Slight aroma of hard roasted malt, coffee, and lacto. Flavor is quite mellowed, a bit woody, dark hard roasted malts, coffee, dark bitter chocolate, very similar to a porter, a tad smokey, then comes sweet and sour lactic acid. The acidity sticks around your lips ones you’ve swallowed the bitterness from the hard roast. Touch of hops and dried dark fruit in the finish as well, quite woody seemingly. Medium/full bodied with a creamy oily mouthful and basically no carbonation, just a very faint fine sizzle to keep it from being completely flat. Aftertaste is dry of roasted coffee malt. A lovely beer and perfect example of the style, should definitely be allowed to age a bit. [This beer fits right in-between Black Jack Porter and De Dolle’s new Cosmos] 8.5.9.4.17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [rerate] 7.4.8.4.15 this sample didn’t seem to have the sour lactic thing going on... which is a shame because that really made it stand out in my first sampling.

Haand is a very small brewery with a very large imagination and set of balls, and this beer is yet another from them that I enjoyed greatly. The pour is very deep brown, with 1-finger off-tan head. Nose is charred dark malt, dark chocolate, mild coffee, dusty basement, slight rauchy notes. Tastes dark malty, with dark choc, figgy brown sugary fruit, x-mas spicy notes, mild rauchy, plummy, and earthy, peaty notes. The palate is complex and pretty dense. Not for everyone, but I found it enjoyable, and would gladly buy this one again.