Haandbryggeriet Dark Force

Brewed by Haandbryggeriet (Norway)
Style: Imperial Stout
Drammen, Norway

Serve in Snifter

50cl bottle batch #271, bottled 19.02.2010, @ home shared with Dutchdrebus and Ansjelaah. Pitch black color, big full vast medium brown head. Smell malts, earth, coffee, mocca. Taste dark malts, coffee, mocca, some bitter, slightly hops. High, fizzy carbonation, a little bit too thin, medium body.

Pitch black with a lovely mocca brown head. Smells chocolate, coffee, roasty, sharp, glue and alcohol. Tastes roasty, coffee, chocolate and nice, but also watery. Crispy texture, bit thin but still an okay palate. Good, but not great.

Pours dark as night with a thick, bubbly, aggressive dark mocha head. Aroma is malty, creamy, fruit, berries, spicy, alcohol, licorice. Taste is dark chocolate, spicy, creamy, earthy, grass, long bitter coffee finish. Very clean flavored. Very drinkable for 9% alcohol. Far too carbonated. Aside form that, really good.

2010 Vintage 50 cl. bottle – bottled on 19.02.2010 – batch 271 @ home – purchased @ Alvinne: pitch coffee black with a lovely huge mocha head, smells like heavily roasted malts, frozen coffee, liquorish, touch molasses, ashes, taste is initial burst of lots of ashes, scalded, burned, roasted malts, coal, followed by molasses, liquorish, raw crushed coffee, beans, aftertaste is ice-cold coffee, burned coal, over-carbonated, slightly hoppy, ash/roast bitterness, wow this is heavily carbonated, harsh beer, unrelenting like an enemy

500 mL bottle. Opaque, with a medium, brown head which doesn’t last long. Aroma is a little different for the style, and difficult to place. It doesn’t have the big coffee and/or chocolate that many have. Rather, there’s a spiciness accompanying the roast. Kinda interesting. Chocolate, spiciness, and booze in the flavour. Not too complex, and not as big as it should be. Not bad, though.

AROMA:: no matter how hard I rolled this glass i could only get roast malt and some stinky feet in the aroma APPEARANCE: black with a fine brown head TASTE: Wheat, roast bitterness/astringency, sweet with a malty fine finish. PALATE: full bodied for a wheat beer. oily, with a soft carbonation. finishes slightly bitter. has that wheat linger. OVERALL: I expected better. Maybe i have been drinking too much Mikkeller lately but this is somewhat lacking.

13/05/2011 Brasserie 4:20 (tap). Nera, imenetrabile, con schiuma abbondante color cappuccino, abbastanza persistente. Aroma intenso di frumento, caffè, qualche leggero off flavour metallico. In bocca è caffettosa, amarognola, con punte di frumento e note lievemente metalliche. Corpo medio, carbonazione corretta. Interessante, anche se non è il mio genere di birra. Non credo fosse al meglio della forma.

500ml bottle. Pours a thick, opaque black, with a very small and short-lived dark tan head, which does not leave much lace. Bitter dark chocolate and mild coffee aromas mix with some earthier notes and a faint hint of cola. Mild herbal and spice hops lead into thick drinking chocolate and cream in the body, which is perhaps a bit less rich than most imperial stouts. The finish has notes of cocoa and bitter herbs. Make no mistake, this is a good beer, as would be expected from a brewer of this calibre. To me, however, it does feel a bit thinner and less rich than other imperial stouts, and I can’t help but wonder if a better beer would not have resulted from using barley malts, rather than straight wheat.