Haandbryggeriet Dobbel Dose

Brewed by Haandbryggeriet (Norway)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Drammen, Norway

Oh, happy day! The combination of the beautiful orange amber colour, foamy head and the smell of fresh oranges and grain, with a hint of moist straw, reminds me of spring. The first happy days when the sun starts to warm your face after a long dark winter. The flavour is rounded, a mix newly juiced oranges, flowers and ginger. After the beer session 2.apr.09 I rushed to Vinmonopolet, Langnes to buy some more. (Thank you, Rune!)

I really like this beer. The first one I had, I sunk so quickly that didn’t even get a chance to rate it. So second time round I’m ready to pick it a part a bit. It looks the business for sure, wanted to give it a 5 almost, but settled on a 4, cloudy orange colour with massive expanding dense beige head. Aroma is full of pine, dried fruits, apricot, wild strawbs, nectarine, with a good whack of earthiness and mineral aromas, but a really unique characteristic is the familiarity of the aromas and flavours, quite UK in style, but I hate to say it, 5 times better in depth. Flavour is spot on, really silky, good balance between richness and bitterness, with a lovely just off dry quality balanced by the resdual sweetness from the alcohol.

(Bottled, BBE 01/2012) Hazy amber with a medium, firm and tanned, lightly lacy head. Aroma is piney-aromatic-hoppy with dark fruitiness and quite a bit of Belgian yeastiness. Flavor is very fruity and sweetish with lemony-aromatic hops, touch of licorice, and hints of mushy stuffiness. Hides the ABV well. Medium body, slightly fizzy carbonation. A bit homebrewish and boring Double IPA - but knowing the variation in this brewery’s quality, this may as well be excellent at its best. Didn’t feel like infected, though, and I liked the Belgian yeastiness + fruit.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a very large sized head of finely sized tan colored bubbles that were mostly diminishing and left behind a very hazy softly carbonated orange brown colored body. The mild aroma was mild piney and deep rich floral hops. The semi-flat mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start mediumly tingly at the finish. The good flavor contained notes of deep hops and deep floral rich hops. Delicious and one I would certainly buy again.

batch 206. 50cl bottle @ biergasthof schiffner. Sweet grassy hop nose, severly honeyed.Hazy orange brown amber, fine bubbled off-white head, no lace. Sweet flowery start, honeyed malt in the middle and a good steely bitter hop finish. Extremely well hidden alcohol, well balanced. not bad at all.

bottle from vinmonopolet. jesus god, I havent had a decent 9% beer in ages. It makes me want to cry. The nose is like an old friend whom I have missed and haven’t seen in years. Honey, herbs, white pepper. Resinous hops. OHhhhh. I’ve missed good beer. I wish norway could replace all of there shitty ’fri’ beer and replace it all with decent drinkable stuff. Europeans talk about American breweries making water beer that is mass produced and drunk by the public, but god damnit, we don’t have half an isle of vorterøl. thats for godamn sure. Mouthfeel is sticky like cotton candy. taste is tropical. piney. pineapple. it tickles my tongue. I feel like my senses are sharper from drinking so much piss water pilsner. White pepper in the finish. This is gorgeous. absolutely gorgeous. if you think otherwise you my friend are spoiled.

Bottle. Cloudy oroange colour with light beige head. Aroma and taste of fresh grass, pine and fruit. A bit dry mouthfeel and some warm finish. Fresh "stunt" by using wheat malts, making it cloudy and fruity. Nice but a bit dissapointing, being a double dose IPA. I guess the hops needs a bit more bite and power. At the end of the day: A very good IPA.

Bottle@Home. Fruity and grassy aroma. Light hazy, amber colour, beige head, good lace. Sweet, bitter, very fruity, grassy. Full and sticky. Flavourful, nice balance, easy going.