Haandbryggeriet Norwegian Wood

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

Dark red with a good head. Smoky aromas followed by smoky taste. Highly carbonated. Not a lover of smoked beers and this doesn’t convert me!

Batch 70, brewed March 2007; Sampled January 2008. Pours to a deep hazy ruby body with a foamy head that looks like it came from a cola. The aroma out of the bottle was insane. Most smoked meat based aroma ever. But when it was poured into the glass, it has a salted light meat and juniper berries. The majority of the smoke went away when poured. The rough assumption is that this is a porter because it’s a lot like it with the chocolate malt. Juniper berries come through as well. Very unique and the smoke comes through. The palate is roasted and medium bodied.

Batch 70, brewed March 2007; Sampled January 2008
Smokey aromatics greet my nose as I pour this brew into my glass. It is very well carbonated and easily produces a tan crown of froth that is a full five fingers in height (including almost two-finger above the rim of my glass. The smoke is definitely the dominant characteristic of the aroma; the smoke is a mix of salt, meaty umami, smoked cherry, smooth phenolics and perhaps a hint of plastic. The aroma is pretty appetizing, but it is very hard to smell anything other than the smoke.

Still well carbonated the beer foams just a bit as it hits my mouth. It smoothes out considerably as the beer flows across my tongue and even picks up some chewy texture and almost creamy quality to it by the finish. The beer has a smooth, hearty smokiness to it up front, but picks up a touch of sharp esters and phenolics towards the finish. Up front the smoke character melds in with the malt sweetness so well that the sweetness is not overly noticed, but instead makes the smoke seem quite appetizing. Somehow the smoke balances this up front note in the finish with a bit of sharper phenolics, but there are also some dry, lingering, toasty grain notes in the finish as well. Touches of berry notes seem to be in the flavor as well, though it seems very hard to pick them out underneath the smokiness. The smoke combines quite well with the heft of this brew; it is just enough to be chewy, but not so much as to make this anything near a sipping brew.

An interesting idea, but it seems somehow not all that well executed. The flavor is wonderful if you like smoked beers (which I do), but I really wish more of the juniper could have come through. In the end it is a bit one dimension, especially considering I was hoping for a smoked beer with something else going on. Still this is a tasty brew and one that I am certainly enjoying.

Bottle 0,5 l at Tromsø Ølfestival 15 Aug 07. Dark golden colored. A tanned creamy head. Hoppy and fruity aroma. Juniper? Carbonated. Strong malty and fruity flavor. Dry bitter aftertaste. A bit unbalanced.

Bottle massive thanks to ang at cgarvieuk’s piers party jig. Aroma is citrus hop and smokey malts, pine also. Taste is smokey and pine and soap. Alright but not as good as expected.

Bottle at home with Tom ... Hazy copper brown ...woody slightly smokey hop with lots of pine notes in nose ... smokey malts over drying bitterness in linger some roast malt ...

Bottled shared by Blake. Salty, wood smoke and dry caramel in the aroma. Lots ’o smoke! Pleasant juniper berries come out in the flavor alongside chocolate malt, grassy hop bitterness & wood char - dry finish with char & dry malt. This is really good.

Pours a dark brown w/ a HUGE fluffy light tan almost off white head w/ good lacing. Definite lightly smoked aroma almost peaty then hints of salt very meaty. Nice full well coated palate. Smokey pork like flavor w/ light dry wood on the finish and a light sweet note in there too. Pretty good actually.