Haandbryggeriet Haandbakk

Brewed by Haandbryggeriet (Norway)
Style: Sour Ale
Drammen, Norway

500 ml bottle. Pours a clear ruby brown with a very fizzy fleeting beige head that fell to a thin ring. The nose is sour and tart with sour cherry skins and pits, lots of oak, chocolate, and balsamic vinegar. Reminds me a touch of La Folie. I thought it was going to be all sourness, but there’s a good bit of funkiness in here too. Sour cherry and oak meld with a bit of chocolate malt and vinegar. Long lingering finish. Mouthfeel is fairly heavy and slightly syrupy with a good bit if fizzy prickly carbonation. Lingering oak and almond notes. Overall pretty solid, maybe a bit overly sweet, but it is interesting.

500ml bottle from State Line. Dark and dusky pour, with a crisp carbonation, all reminding me of a youngish oud bruin. Wood and sour berries in the nose, with green apple to give it some liveliness. Mouthfeel is full, slightly slick texture but it’s emboldened by the full carbonation. Tart cherry dominates the flavor initially and there’s a serious astringency all the way through. As the beer settles, the wood balances it out just a bit, but it’s a pretty intense and big example of the style. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but it’s a bit showy perhaps.

Pours brown with a faint ruby tint and it has a small off white head. It has the aroma of tart cherries and oak. Flavor is a mix of sweet fruits(I think you can taste the rhubarb from the wine barrels), sour and wood. The oak seems to have rounded out the sour edges a bit. A nice look at a traditional style.

Batch #49. Pours reddish brown with almost no head. Aromas of sour cherries, sweet malt and oak. Nice and tart with flavors of cherries and a lot of oak. The beer is totally flat and lifelesss, the only negative aspect. I really like this brew and would have scored it about 0.5 points higher if it hadn’t lost carbonation.

Small tan head and dark amber color. Aroma is a sweet sour, vinegar, aged barrel combination. Taste was an aged barrel oak, sour with very little sweetness to it.

Batch 49 Pours dark brown with a fleeting off-white head. Sour apple aroma, some molasses. Well balanced between the sweet and the sour with an acetic finish. Smooth and tangy.

Batch 49, brewed 10.10.06. Best before 30.04.11. Hand trade from johnmichaelsen..lugged from the Eastern US to the Pacific NW...excellent - and thank you! Dark reddish brown with a little head that leaves slim to no head. Smells of tart sourness Flavor brings along a nicely balanced sour that does not smack your face off, but still brings that sour tweak. Drinks easily and a nice brew for any sour fan. Excellent beer to pre-day pre-funk for a day of sours.

This was really pretty enjoyable. I loved the cherry aroma and the tart, malty front, though I didn’t find the finish entirely compelling--somewhat lactic rather than my favorite kind of sour. Lots of other flavors here, with a bit of complexity from the wood. We toasted "babies" with this (the first meeting of two of my best friends’ first-born boys).