Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter

Brewed by Närke Kulturbryggeri
Style: Imperial Stout
Örebro, Sweden

250. Thanks, Thewolf!
This is the best beer I have ever had.
Jet black. Brunt tan, dense, creamy, thick head. Huge roast, chocolate, plum, vanilla nose. Creamy body just a little higher than medium. Roast, chocolate, oak, plum, and vanilla on the mid-palate. Long backing chocolate finish. Some beers just live up to the hype that surrounds them, even if the hype is huge. This is definitely one of them.

Bottle at Pikkulintu. Very dark brown. Nose is more dominated by chocolates than the ’normal’ version. This is an extraordinary brew; significantly rounder and more balanced as well as more sophisticated than the normal Stormaktsporter (which is a fantastic brew as such). Noble touches such as truffle and oak. Great.

25 cl bottle, 2006. Huge thanks to Yngvar for this my 1000th rating! and 100th Imperial Stout. Dark brown with some tan froth around the edges. Nose is molasses, licorice, cocoa and espresso. Medium body with a light tingle. Taste is dark roast, prunes, oak and bourbon. Smooth dry finish with lingering chocolate. Rich and complex but not overdone.

WTF?!? How did I not enter a rating for thiis? My son dutifully hand carried this back and we shared it prior to his clooegiate departure. He enjoyed it as did I though his gf of the time did not. I am always amazed when a beer is so praised and I find that I agree. Much easier for me to say ’’naaah’’. But this had a velvey texture and abunndance of flavor - bitter sweet. roasy - so much that a drunken guy can’t quite convey. But I do know what I had, and it was indeed exceptional. Thanks to Adrian.

Bottle 2006 (Generously given as an extra by oh6gdx, thanks!) Pours an opaque black with a dense brown head. Huge tarry nose with lots of licorice/anisette boozy notes, but smooth. Salty dark chocolate is evident as well. Slick and peppery on the palate. Boozy and warming but not sweet or cloying. Has a a lot of licorice flavors and anisette-like qualities, but not overly sweet. Some molasses notes and peppery phenolics come through with a piny character (not piny as in hops) and lots of rich smooth coffee roast later on. There’s also a burnt marshmallow flavor which describes the smooth tasty sweetness and charred character. Unique and tasty. Has some subtleties that make it stand out from other barrel-aged giants. Nice stuff.

On bottle at Akkurat and Bishops Porterfestival, 2006 edition. Dark colour, aroma of chocolate, christmas, bourbon, coconut, ensialge. The flavour is sweet, round, butter, licorice, elderberries, bitter shocolate, metallic.

Bottle RBESG 07 ... Deep Deep black ... rich malts rich and fruity little bit meaty ...thick syrupy rich malts lots of depth and character rich fruityness and lots of roast malts. 4.0

TK 2 Bottle at home ... Deep deep black ... rich roast malts ... rich chocolate and coffee ... not as viscous as Dark Horizon and not such an alcholic spirit burn ... deep fruit malts in amongs the roast. This is a great sized bottle to settle down with. A beer this nice should be small and slowly savoured.

This beer sums up all that i didnt like about RBESG (though it was still a great day) Bottle stored at home allowed to settle well, served and savoured over half and hour on a much cleaner palate. At RBESG i could see the potential of the beer but dont think the beer was given the respect it was due or the time needed to full apreciate and savour this beer. 4-> 4.3

Tk3 TOMS Ultimate Glasgow tasting ... On reflection and compaired to th other on the day , while this is still a stunning beer it didnt hold up for me to some of the others. 4.3->4.2

Tk 4 : Quick swallow at RBESG No notes but 4.1

TK5 Draught at EBF Copenhagen 08 ... Deep black ... toffeee roat malt nose ... rich tofee ... sweet molasis ... rich sily and smooth ... little tobacco ... little honey 4.1

Interesting that its higest rating was in the Comfort of my own home. I do find that i tend to enjoy my beers more when im relaxed at home, not frantically looking at whats comming next at a tasting or beer festival

Tasted at EBF08. It’s dark, it’s heavy. Oily and bitter. Served a bit too cool, and with too little head.