Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter

I wasn’t fully appreciative of the status this beer has on this site when sampling but perhaps a good thing? (helps to not be swayed by the numbers). Anyway, I’m mostly with the weatherman on this beer (see note from 31/10). A dead ringer in appearance to the Hr Frederiksen Amager. Nose is subdued with coffee, mild chocolate. Soft palate structure, actually quite seamless, with a woody, spirity note that’s not really adding to the beer. The fruitcake, zinfandel-like flavour is ok but the disjointed flavours from the spirity note mess with my head.

Bottle version 2006. Special thanks to Jack Pano from Sweden for bringing me this gift from the brewer. Pours a blacker than black beer with a solid brown to darkbrown head. The aroma is roasty with vanilla oak, coffee and fine chocolate and some notes of apples too. The appearance is simply superb with nice lacing. Flavour of slight peated malts, dark chocolate, coffe mokka, raisin bread and a hint of honey leaves this beer in a perfect balance. The use of noble hops comes out just enough in the taste but not overwhelming. The slight bitter aftertaste with notes of basterd sugar keeps on talking while some alocohol is well noticable but not attacking. N° 1, IMO a well deserved place and certainly not overrated at all and after all a superb brew and some left to stash away for quite some time :-) Nice to notice too that I am the 100rd RBian who rates this excellent beer!

Very attractieve looking beer, deep black with intens brown edges and with a thick whipped mocca like creamy head on top. Aroma is delicate and very fine. It has great aromas of mocca, black chocolate, sping flowers and orange boosems. All these fine hints are working well with the touches of honey, vanilla pods, fine toasted oak and delicate fruity sensations. The smell of fresh torrified coffee beans is not far away, it works so well with the caracteristics of the best roasted barley and some soft cara-malts. The taste is like the smell suggests, very intens and super elegant at the same time. The smooth mouthfeel is so refined and not heavey at all. Lots of fine coffee hints, black chocolate, vanilla, soft toasted oak, wild flowers, cammomille, honey, maple sirup, lots of cerials burnd raisins like in the baked crust of raisin bread. The beer has a great balance and a medium body with a super refined lingering afthertaste of hops and elegant and tasty bitters. I think this beer deserves to be the Nr 1 in the world. By giving this beer full marks I feel like Iconoclasting St Sixtus, but with the afthertaste of this outstanding Kaggen Stormaktsporter in my mouth I had no other option.

Bottle@Home, vintage 06, Mar 08, 4.7: I’m such a lucky guy to get to try this again. Thanks a lot Menno! Strong moccha, honey and whiskey aroma. Pours a thick black liquid with a dark brown head leaving nice lace. Sweet, chocolate, moccha, honey, whiskey and vanilla. Thick and warming mouthfeel. Wonderful balance, very flavorful. Bottle@Home, Jan 07, 4.5: Peaty, smoke and moccha aroma with a hint of varnish. Black as hell, brown head, good lace. Light sweet, moccha, peaty, coffee, roasted bitter, oily. The flavor doesn’t disappear. I guess after breakfast tomorrow morning it will still be there. Wow!

Royal Park Beer Festival. 2006 vintage. The emperor has no clothes? I’m not sure, he’s definitely not as well-dressed as he thinks, IMO. The aroma just screams coconut, to the point of not much else getting through. So bourbony - it’s completely dominant. Piney, minty American hops mixed with coffee and chocolate in the US stout style underneath. Bourbon doesn’t affect the flavour nearly as much - no noticeable saltiness or booziness, which I appreciate, but I didn’t detect any oak character either. The barrel-aging doesn’t seem to have added much besides the rampant bourbon aroma, it’s more like an imperial stout with a shot of bourbon. And the thing is it just doesn’t taste like good bourbon either, it really reminded me of white label Jim Beam. I dunno. I mean, it’s quite a nice beer, but obviously you’re gonna have high expectations with a beer like this. If this is what barrel-aged imperial stouts are all about then I’ll just stick with the plain ones I think.

(2006 bottle, at Konttori Tampere) Almost black colored, slight red colored. Little brown head. So, this is it. Aroma is excellently deep one: oaky-vanilla is dominating here, roastiness with nice hopped tone and licorice also here. Mild alcohol noticable too. Full bodied. Flavor is even better: same vanilla-oaks dominating in start, also licorice and chocolate here. Aftertaste is finely balancing with strong hops and dryness, vanilla lasts until I’m home. Alcohol covered in flavor totally. So, this was it.

2006 Bottle bought at GBBF 07. Black colour with a thin tan head. Intense choc aroma. Like the highest cocoa chocolate you can buy, plus a distinct heather aroma. A little bit of petrol and tar too. Opened with very little carbonation but carbonation is evident in the glass. I’ve had this twice before at GBBF and at RBESG and both times I was blown away by it. Serving temperature is very important. Too cold and you lose a lot of depth of flavour. Pours oily, clear dark brown. Heathery aroma is quite distinct. Lovely in mouth, but for me, the outstanding thing about this beer is the finish and is possibly the best finish I have tasted. Breath taking. It stops me in my tracks. As it warms up, the beer opens up and the aroma and finish are truly sublime. Gorgeous, lovely and I have another 2 bottles to hone my review. Heather gives it a final spicy kick. Worthy as my 4k beer.

275ml bottle (Porvoo Harvest/Dark Beer Festival 2007) 2006 vintage Jet black, espresso head. Toffee liquorice vanilla aroma soft but very powerful. Mocca and whisky taste - again very powerful, but quite mellow. whisky definitely dominates, quite alcoholic. Excellent sipping beer, not for glugging.