Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter

Bottle 2006 (Generously given as an extra by oh6gdx, thanks!) Pours an opaque black with a dense brown head. Huge tarry nose with lots of licorice/anisette boozy notes, but smooth. Salty dark chocolate is evident as well. Slick and peppery on the palate. Boozy and warming but not sweet or cloying. Has a a lot of licorice flavors and anisette-like qualities, but not overly sweet. Some molasses notes and peppery phenolics come through with a piny character (not piny as in hops) and lots of rich smooth coffee roast later on. There’s also a burnt marshmallow flavor which describes the smooth tasty sweetness and charred character. Unique and tasty. Has some subtleties that make it stand out from other barrel-aged giants. Nice stuff.

On bottle at Akkurat and Bishops Porterfestival, 2006 edition. Dark colour, aroma of chocolate, christmas, bourbon, coconut, ensialge. The flavour is sweet, round, butter, licorice, elderberries, bitter shocolate, metallic.

Bottle RBESG 07 ... Deep Deep black ... rich malts rich and fruity little bit meaty ...thick syrupy rich malts lots of depth and character rich fruityness and lots of roast malts. 4.0

TK 2 Bottle at home ... Deep deep black ... rich roast malts ... rich chocolate and coffee ... not as viscous as Dark Horizon and not such an alcholic spirit burn ... deep fruit malts in amongs the roast. This is a great sized bottle to settle down with. A beer this nice should be small and slowly savoured.

This beer sums up all that i didnt like about RBESG (though it was still a great day) Bottle stored at home allowed to settle well, served and savoured over half and hour on a much cleaner palate. At RBESG i could see the potential of the beer but dont think the beer was given the respect it was due or the time needed to full apreciate and savour this beer. 4-> 4.3

Tk3 TOMS Ultimate Glasgow tasting ... On reflection and compaired to th other on the day , while this is still a stunning beer it didnt hold up for me to some of the others. 4.3->4.2

Tk 4 : Quick swallow at RBESG No notes but 4.1

TK5 Draught at EBF Copenhagen 08 ... Deep black ... toffeee roat malt nose ... rich tofee ... sweet molasis ... rich sily and smooth ... little tobacco ... little honey 4.1

Interesting that its higest rating was in the Comfort of my own home. I do find that i tend to enjoy my beers more when im relaxed at home, not frantically looking at whats comming next at a tasting or beer festival

Tasted at EBF08. It’s dark, it’s heavy. Oily and bitter. Served a bit too cool, and with too little head.

(Bottled vintage 2006). Sampled to celebrate my 40th birthday. Courtesy of oh6gdx (who brought this bottle from GBBF 2007). Pitch black color, good dark brown color. Oak (oak barrels), tobacco, dark malts, vanilla, some licorice in the nose. Full-bodied. Main flavor is licorice, dark roasted malts, molasses, dark chocolate. Then nuances: oak, vanilla, honey in portwineish palate. Very very complex and highly drinkable. Kick of alcohol in the atfertaste. Long mix of roasted malts and vanilla in the aftertaste. Normal Stormaktsporter is one of my favourite beers and this even tops it.

On tap at EBF 2008, Copenhagen. 2007 edition. Finally, I get to sample this again! I had a couple of bottles of the 2005 version at GBBF 2007 but then lost my notebook that evening and my lack of a rate for it has been chafing ever since. Black with a small tan head and a perfumy aroma. Velvety smooth and highly drinkable, with the alcohol utterly hidden. Rich roasted malts, molasses, prunes, liquorice and chocolate combine for a sublime flavour but without a hint of stickiness. A classic.

Two samplings 1:st at Stockholm beer festival, from a 4 cl shot glas (pored into a sniffer). Litle foam. Small aroma of chocolate. Taste of chocolate liqrich and port wine. Big body 2:nd Draught at Akkurat. Big brown head that lingers, thick enough to eat with a fork. Aroma of chocolate and dried fruit. The taste is overpowering with loads of chocolate, liqrish and vanilla. A perfect body with just as perfect bitterness.

Draught at EBF 2008. Black colour with a small beige head and some lacing.Complex aroma and taste of roasted malts, chocolate, fruit with a nice hoppy touch.