Big brown lasting head. Deep barely translucent brown head with light carbonation. Body is clear until the very last bit of the bottle is poured. Sweet chocolatey licorice aroma with roasty, dark wooden, resiny notes. Soft, dry milky earthy licorice taste with deep notes of roasty dark tropical wood and chocolate. Clean, mild mouthfeel. Dry aftertaste of wonderfully distinct and clear roasty wood with minty notes lingers for a long time. Leaves sticky sugars on the lips. This is just excellent! (0.33l bottle from the wine monopoly.)

<i>A Mes rate: 33cl bottle thanks to Knut Albert.</i><br />I made a post on the thread for the Pigs Ear festival about it being my birthday during the festival. Knut being the very kind bloke that he is brought me this over as a present. Thank you sir, most kind! Deep dark mahogany brown with an impressive beige head. Really pleasing aroma of slightly smoky malt, rum, chocolate and spicy yeast. Lovely roasty flavour, plenty of nutty character with yeast and chocolate. Christmas fruit and alcohol and some lovely caramel in the finish. Creamy mouthfeel. Rich, complex and very enjoyable. Merry christmas Knut!

33 cl bottle. Almost black, lovely brown head. Dark, sweet malt, coffee, chocolate, a bit fruit and some bitterness. Creamy mouthfeel. This beer has a big potensial, if they reach 12% ABV next year, it can be really great.

Opaque brown. Small head. Malt aroma, and very good malt flavor with caramel. No malt presence. This is a doppelbock, and a fairly good one comparable to Optimator. Thanks to Akevitt for sharing.

Bottle. Yet another example of the hopelessness of the Norwegian ban on alcohol commercials. The beer suddenly appeared out of the blue, without anyone knowing. If it wasn’t for the fact that many Norwegian newspapers rank the Christmas beers, I don’t think anybody would have noticed it. This beer did very well in a lot of the tests.<br /><br />It pours a clear, dark ruby body under a creamy, but not lasting, beige head. Nice lacings are left as you drink. The aroma is quite strong, with lots of sweetness and dried fruits, some alcohol, port, some cocoa and roasted notes. The flavor is chocolatey at the first sip, and that continues all the way. It is joined by a roasted maltyness, a good sweetness, dried fruits and a not-so-evident bitterness. Towards the end, the bitterness is more pronounced, and there’s also a little alcohol burn that lasts. Full body, quite sticky in the mouth. Conclusion: I agree with the papers ranking this beer high. At least there’s not many Norwegian beers this classy and with that high ABV. I’m glad I bought some bottles to enjoy during the winter time. (071206)