Haandbryggeriet Haandbakk

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

Bottled. Tnx to Caesar for the import. Aroma is fruity (cherry), has some vinegar. Dark red-brown coloured beer with an off-white head. The taste has sourness, citrus, cherry, oak, some sweetness. Okay.

Bottle at Henriks, Bergen. Pours almost pitch black with a small tan head. Aroma of wood, sour rasperry and cherries. Taste is medium sour. hints of wood, oak acids.

Poured brown with some ruby highlights. The head was short and light tan. Minimal lacing. The aroma is tart cherry, vinegar, oak and thin funk. The flavor is nice. Cherry, oak, earth along with some very thin malts and funk that helped give it some added depth. The mouthfeel was thin to medium in body but did serve as a palate cleansing delight.

Appearance: The Haandbakk pours pretty dark. In fact, it’s almost black with a very subtle warm red color when held up to a bright light. It pours into the glass with a decent sized light tan (with red hued) head that hangs around for a pretty good while. There is a really impressive amount of lacing that grips the sides of the glass nicely. Smell: As this beer begins to warm it opens up about as nicely as any beer I’ve had. There’s a very tart smell of cherries and sour granny smith apple that comes right at you. There are also some immediate aromas of red wine and sweet balsamic vinegar; the latter being a sort of typical flavor I get from dark sour ales. Somehow in the back of this one, too, is a nice bit of grape bubblegum. Taste: The tartness hits you right away and carries with it a nice bouquet of tart cherries and granny smith apple. It is followed soon by the vinegar components and the oakiness of the barrels this beer is aged in. In many ways, this is what I had hoped the Avery Brabant would have tasted like. I should probably mention that the 8.5% ABV is just kicking my tail right now. Pretty unusual if you ask me. Mouthfeel: Well, like most sour ales, Haandbakk just devours the tongue immediately. There is sourness, along with a very good balance of flavors that makes this a really enjoyable sour to drink. It reminds me a lot of the Jolly Pumpkin La Roja, but with a bit more funk on the backend. Overall: Admittedly, I’m just starting to get into sour ales. I can say that I really enjoyed this one a lot – more than the Avery Brabant. The major comparison I have thus far is that it’s very close to the Jolly Pumpkin La Roja I had a few weeks back. It’s fairly easy to drink, but is probably more suitable for sharing. The next time I drink this one I’d definitely love to pair it with some good soft cheese.

Courtesy of tytoanderso

Bottle: The aroma has lots of sour cherries along with some light vinegar. It pours a dark cloudy brownish-orange with small beige head. The flavor has a great sour cherry flavor with light vinegar. The finish has some faint oak and the sour cherries really linger in the aftertaste. Medium bodied with medium carbonation.

Sampled at hellbilly’s hellraiser 3 gathering. Bottle courtesy of rustychiles. Hazy reddish brown pour with a small foamy head. Tart fruity aroma , with a bit of vinegar and wood. Nice funky cherry flavor. Good stuff. Thanks Rusty!

Batch #49. Appearance: Pours a near opaque, deep, dark mahogany-hued body with a medium-sized, beige head. Smell: Aromatic nose of weather-beaten wood planks, sharply tart sour cherries, lactic acid, and soil. Heck, there’s even toasted caramel malts far, far off in the distance. Taste: Initial thrust of antique wood barrels and rich sour cherry and raspberry fruit flavors. A scoop of potting soil and a scoop of dark brown sugar. Drizzle of top-notch vinegar and lactic acid to get the ole mouth a-puckering. The flavors graciously ease up prior to the malty, lightly sour finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium-high carbonation. Drinkability: A fine, enjoyable, comparable sour. Recommend provided you’re a fan of sour beers.

OK I traded hopdog for this, and now it’s on the shelf at PP bottle shop. Bummer, but it’s still nice to try. Thanks! Very sour. acetic. Dark brown color. Thick body. A little harder to drink than other sours. Some oxidation, which I expect goes hand in hand with the acetic acid, which requires O2 to form. Very popular with others, but I like my sours a little lighter and little less oxidized.