Dark Night 2022

In late September, there’s been another festival happening in Norway before, namely the Zwanze festival.

However- when that stopped taking place in Oslo, Nøgne Ø grabbed the opportunity- and formed their now annual fest: Dark Night. Basically, the idea of having this yearly launch of (one of?) their most demanding beers to produce, has now presented both it’s facets; namely the brewery’s flagship beer Dark Horizon. This once-upon-a-time mythical proud take on an Imperial Stout has been brewed every second year since 2007 (? if I’m not mistaking) and still to this very day, holds high regards with many Norwegians. And not very surprising, as this beer has seen many slight changes/variants throughout the years- spanning from more bitter nuances to more super sweet.

However: as it is only brewed every second year, there’s been a gap to fill… until now, that is. Well, that’s not entirely true either, because the beer in question saw the light of day for the first time in 2021. It is of course the deliciously sweet strong ale under the name Nordic Noir. And as we’re rolling out of 2022, it is the latter to be released this year.

And boy, have they outdone themselves! Not one, not two- but three(!) types is what’s on this year. The base beer being brewed with chocolate malts, juniper and honey- and is tasting fantastic in itself. So, with last year seing a other version simply labeled «Barrel aged», it’s indeed upped some in 22: Sherry edition, as well as another one aged on Vouvray barrels. The first one being somewhat vinous for a split second and the latter emphazising sweetness, it is indeed getting more interesting for each year it’s arranged.

Not to forget the superbly cozy brewpub and awesome brewery-building of Nøgne Ø, the attendees got to taste smashing food brought to Nøgne by Kamil Krystjańczuk: the brilliant chef at Apotekergaarden & his assistant. On top of that- all kinds of years/variants of previous Nøgne beers, superbly executed art, in the form of an orchestra (!) – all in all, a splendid night.


Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen 2022

The annual trip to Beer Mecca is back on!

After pretty much recovering from Covid, as well as some other rather demanding circumstances, the report from this year’s legendary Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen is ready. Following the extensive challenge that bears the name Covid-19, the world seemed to have been put on hold for quite some time… Luckily, the agile bunch at Mikkeller knew when to strike last year and saved the day for many a beer geek-soul.

However: It was somewhat untraditional to head off to this (still) joyful event in the start of winter, rather than the classic season trade-off in spring. There’s something so lively about this happening, about the whole beautiful town, about the joyful spirits uniting in the name of high-quality craft beer, all the fun and laughs. So- for 2022 to bring MBCC back on track, with a raging storm of a line-up, there was no reason to look back on already somber times from the previous couple of years. Let’s face it: It’s all good with trying to recreate it all with some friends in the living room, but nothing really beats the authentic feel of entering Øksnehallen at this time of the year… Just- Magical!

Insaaane line-up

As usual, there was a bunch of cool activities going on, such as tattoo-stands, food, wine and much more. For variations sake, it is great that there are some other features, even though the fact that just short walks will take you to several great dining possibilities and whatnot in stunningly beautiful (& exciting) Copenhagen.

Some new stars on the foamy beer sky for me personally (and I know for sure many of my peers agrees), was amongst others: Pulpit Rock (absolute kings&queens!), LUA (which I’d never tasted anything from before- insanely great stuff!), lest not forget the highly anticipated stand from the folks at Moksa brewing- whom sure did not disappoint), as well as grand maestro-works from Forager, 3 Sons, Lervig, the mead-masters at Superstition to name a few. I also love it when I discover hitherto unknown breweries such Brazilian Spartacus (them lads & lasses all the way from down in South America doesn’t only have Sepultura making killer music- they make awesome beers too!) Mikerphone had some seriopusly tasty stouts going on and the sweet neighbor from up here in Scandinavia, namely Omnipollo knows how to stir things up with great exitement. (Gotta love a crazy queue, when there’s enough for everybody, right?) Which it absolutely was of most here this year.

As for them taste buds which are more lenient towards the sour on the palate: There was plenty for you too here. The Dutch legend Tommie Sjef was there with none other than his mum (she was really nice!), keeping levels busy with the hordes of curious beer-geeks ready to devour. And he was in no way alone here- a little further down the line of stands, you would find Bofkont, pouring at all cylinders. Really good stuff!

Over the two days that the festival spans over, it is indeed a longed for- event. Many that didn’t go for the last edition held in autumn last year had found their way this year, and something that should be just as intriguing for the arrangers especcially- was the fact that many of the breweries themselves expressed explicit joy over participating. Amongst others, I spoke to Adroit Theory’s representative here, who was astonished over how great the event is. And he was not alone as such- for instance the people at Ology, Transient and Voodoo seemed to have a great time as well, both behind the tap tower as well as out-and-about. So many styles, so many – this melting pot of beer related features really stands out as something of its own, for sure. Having just celebrated its 10th anniversary, MBCC have proved themselves to be a well-organized, oozing with professionality and agility- something which hopefully will help them maintain their position in the beer environment for years to come.

And with so many nationalities united in one culture, everything from the trivial everyday life to global challenges and struggles are put on hold for a little while. It really brings out the best for a day/weekend/week for those souls daring enough to extend the stay in magnificent Copenhagen at this time of the year.

A brilliant way to greet summertime welcome and to celebrate beer, joy & life.

NÄRKE «Stormaktsporter Kaggen! High Coast Peated 2020» (12%) 4/6

Dark and nice visuals, pouring small creamy head. Nose reminiscent of leather, Smoke, dried fruit and wet oak. Body is medium to light, enhancing the peated notes. Mouthfeel is fresh, sharp- a bit stingy, but comfortably so. Tastewise, it really embraces the whisky flavour, but also leaves behind room for other elements, such as distinct coffee-traces, figs, a hint of liquorice and almost rum-like aftertaste.

Old school with style: Närke never disappoints with their variants of this fantastic beer.

KRECHER «Phantom Resonator» (5/6)

new star on the relatively new Norwegian craft beer-radar, the excitement is great in this one. Created by the former founder & integral parts of already well-established Cervisiam, new born star Krecher picks up the thread and furthermore explores interesting paths/trends in the current beer scene. The particularly cool thing is that a great deal of passion is noticeably present in their first series of (high quality) beers, leaving no doubt that this is beer made by beer geeks themselves.

When it comes to the beer at hand’s impressions, it is mention-worthy to point out superbly deep yellow colour, pouring a subtle head and leaving creamy edges. So what about nose? Notes of citrus, pineapple and forest comes to mind. Lets put it to the test of taste then: Nicely carbonated and mild gentle lacto-sweet passage. Refreshing and rich. Copious levels of hops, providing both generous levels of fruityness, as well as smooth’n suitable bitter twist @ the end. F**king great to see this kind of beer coming out up here on Norwegian shores! Congrats, and welcome-you-is. Your sincerly, Yoda(rchaon).

 

Photo: M.K. Burheim

TRILLIUM «Daily serving» (4.5%) 5/6


Perhaps not the style that Associated style this brilliant brewery is known for, but none the less; what we have here is an esthetic, deep red berlinerweisse. Pours a beautiful light head in glass, mild nose of red fruits and berries.

Like a light fruitpunch, in contrary to the typhical smoothie-like sours. Superb texture even though so light.

Taste is mild for a split second, before evolving into a fruit-layered, intense Berrytrip. Boysenberries are most distintively active here. It all works very well for this style. Lightbodied, great carbonisation.

Aftertaste is lightly acidic, swiching in between that and sweet hints. Brilliant.

 

Photo: M.K. Burheim

BROUWEIJ BOSTEELS «Deus 2017» (11,5%) 5/6

With a sophisticated outfit looking more like a bottle of the finest Champagne, exitement-levels rocketskies until otherwise proven wrong. This extravagant fine brew started it’s journey in Belgium, and there’s no such thing as a rapid way to get these bottles out on the market. After a thoroughly long process- or more rightly put: a chain of processes, in both the homecountry as well as neighbour France, we have this fantastic brew to consume. 

At first it seems to have a lot in common with many fellow brews of Belgium, but soon it shows signs of more complexity than so. The nose giving subtle hints of spices and mateurity, the transparency reflects a very clean, undistorted profile. My tastebuds then reports of cinnamon features, a highly secrecy-spun web of anise. There’s caramellish undernotes and a subtle sour hint here, covered by a velvet of sweetness and a longlasting delicious almost nutty aftertaste.

The heat from the well-hidden ABV does not reflct negatively at all in the taste, just warming at wintertimes. Very clean tasteprofile.

Absolutely stunning.

 

Photo: M. K. Burheim

BUDDELSHIP/TO ØL «MAN O’STING» (4,9%) 4/6

It is always interesting to come across a brewery that one hasn’t tried something from before.

This German brewery has thus collaborated with Denmarks To Øl, in order to serve this bright-yellow beauty. For starters, it seems well carbonated with a great head when being poured- and the nose is nothing but splendid. According to the bottle information, this is a rose hip-infused sour rye pilsener, and flower’ish, mineral/fruity citrus notes does subtly emerge. Also acidic hints. 

When it comes to taste however, it starts off with a quick flirtation with sweetness before the acidity undoubtedly shows it’s presence… very sour for this type of beer to be. Very fruity middle with bitter high end to it. Also, it’s quite salty and I find hints of seaweed in here. Mildly sour aftertaste that evaporates quickly.

Very nice and fresh, this one.

 

Photo: M. K. Burheim

LINDEMANS “Cassis” (3,5%) 4/6

Photo: M.K.Brochs

 

I am familiar with this type of beer and this brew especially, but I haven’t tried this year‘s edition yet. What we have here is a fruit Lambic Belgian beer with a nose giving clear references to blueberry and blackberry, highly fruity and somehow sweet smell. It pours a big, deep red head- on the verge to red wine both in looks and colour. 

So, what does it taste like? For starters, it starts off mighty sweet before turning into that proper face-twisting Lambic-style, giving references to berries of the kinds red currant and black currant. I get real shivers down my spine midway through the mouthful here! A delicious, acidic twist to this fruit punch. Albeit and OD of fruity taste, it is easy to say that the beer though seems somehow young, in the terms of ageing. Perhaps it’d not lack much at all, had it been aged another half year in oakbarrels. Still, a very nice and summery drink which I could have again.

DE MOLEN «Molenbier» (7,5%) 4/6

MolenbierSo, another one from De Molen is what we are faced with here. The actual beer has a smooth wooden-brown colour to it and pours a small creamy head on top. I am usually very fond of their brews, at least what I have tasted from this brewery so far. This one is a lighter type though, so there’s some degree of excitement “in the air tonight».

With regards to aroma: There’s a fruityness of figs/fig jam, some oak and quite distinct malt character. I find some nuance of coffee too, even more so defined in the taste, which enhances the previously observed wooden impression. There’s also taste of roasted chestnut here, very suitable for this time of the year, at which it’s consumed. Santa would’ve sled right down the chimney for a taste of this.

At first, it’s got a sweet malt-orientated introduction and dried dates, before evolving into more powerful, dark roasted beans and at the end, rounded off with a very hoppy bitterness.

There’s not much bubbly action going on here, but that’s not missed either in this type of beer. Nice one, De Molen!

(Photo: M. Brochs)

FOUNDERS «Doom» (12,4%) 5/6

Founders DoomAs I am familiar with some of their other brews, expectations would be reasonably high from the start here. Adding to that, the fact that this is an Imperial IPA from the brewery’s Barrel aged-series, stakes are dangerously high… First off; the label design is cool. There is a tipsy reaper lurking beneath the beer bottle, all barely visible in this dark artwork. So, let’s get down to the real deal, shall we? A fine, smooth golden look, pouring equally esthetic head in the tulip glass- just a tad mirky… Like watching a still flame. Nose is an incredible blend of hops, resulting in foresty smells, including flowers, spruce and almost caramelish notes of sweetness. I’m incredibly eager to drink this! When the first drop comes in contact with the tongue, there’s maturity fusing with an incredible bitterness, vanilla hints comes into play in the background. It’s quite strong, as one would expect from an imperial IPA to be. Still, very very nice balance of each of the elements featured. The taste lasts for an eternity, like a dark long catacomb from here to the underworld. Pretty astonishing stuff, as I thought.

 

(Photo: M. Brochs)