Haandbryggeriet / Närke Unionöl

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

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Stein, Yard

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Bottle. Somewhat hazy brown beer with a beige head. Leather and a strange not nice aroma. This was one of the nasty badest beer I ever had :-(

Draught@Mikkeller Bar, Copenhagen. Amber colour with a small slightly off-white head. Aroma is fruity, floral, strong honey, smoked malts as well as some juniper. Flavour is a bit spicy, junipery, honeyish, mild smoked notes along with some berries. Pleasant mix of all the quite various ingredients...

For the life of me, I can’t understand some of the low ratings. Must be some spoiled batches out there. I thought this was solid. Aroma is a sweet tart smoke much like norwegian wood. Pours red brown (sienna?) with a frothy medium head. Taste is wonderful and complex with cherries, smoke, cranberries, smoke, spice, smoke, and toffee. Very thick feeling and a lovely brew. I was impressed.

Draft at Farmers Cabinet during a Philly Beer Week event. Never saw this one before. Similar to several of the other dark smoky funky sours Haandbryggeriet produces. This one is especially ascetic. Plastic. Band Aid. Very cloudy brown pour with a thick lasting tan foam.

Aroma smoked, some plastic. Taste also smoked but with a lasting watery finish. Taste is too smoked and not well rounded.

Very dark brown bear with almost no head at all. Smoked and malty, some slight sourness that gets trough. Not my thing.

Tap @ Mikkeller, Viktoriagade. Nice head with good duration. Color is amber. Aroma and taste are peat, smoke, malt, caramel and hops.

0.5l bottle. This is a clear dark brown one, really hard to get a head on this one, so after pushing it I end up with a transparent thin bubbly quickly sidesticking thing. Does not look all that to be honest. The aroma is definitely different and smoky. Peated salty leather and wild bushes with childhood memories of wet days out in the forest burning a campfire. Not sure what to say other than it’s really different. It has no carbonation this, unfortunately, and the mouthfeel in general is quite disappointing and actually sometimes unpleasant. I have to admit that that goes for the taste also. Smoky campfire with old salt- and licorice infused roap that has been lying in the cellar for decades on top of a honey beehive. Well, it has character though. Dusty with a bit of sour acidity as well. Could it be on its path to an infection also perhaps? I don’t know, but I can safely say that this has to be one of the weirdest and unfortunately not-best tasting beer I’ve had in some time. 20.09.2012

Tap. Pours clear dark red with a lasting frothy beige medium head. Aroma is intense honey, intense smoke, toasted malt, juniper, red berries, wood and tart berries. The honey and smoke actually blends quite nice. Taste is medium+ sweet, light bitter and light acidic. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. Finish is smokey, sweet with honey and light astringent. Quite odd, but very interesting beer, I’ll want to try this again.

On tap at Mikkeller Bar, pours a deep dark amber brown with a medium tan head. Aroma of lightly smoked malt, floral hops, and peat. Flavour of peat malt, floral hops, and smoke. Very smoky and peaty, full of way too much of the stuff to me for my palate. Not so impressive.