Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter

Brewed by Närke Kulturbryggeri
Style: Imperial Stout
Örebro, Sweden

Bottle from DK. I sampled this up against Dark Lord and Speedway. Pours black with lasting tan head. Starts very strong-malty, notes of strong coffee, bitter chocolate, brown sugar, oak and vanilla. Silky smooth body. I would love to try it again.

Bottle at Bishops Arms, Karlstad, Sweden, 2008/01/23. To be honest, I’m a beginner when it comes to beer. But this is, definitely, the best beer I’ve tasted. I don’t no what to say, but if there is one beer in the world, which deserves the highest rating, I think this is the one. Fantastic, sweet flavor with a huge taste of chocolate, toffee, vanilla, honey, etc. Now I can die happy.

Bottle at Bishops Arms, Karlstad, Sweden, 2008/05/17. I had this beer a second time. Sadly it happened to be Bishops last bottle (2006 version). Did I "hype" this brew the first time? Hell no! It was bloody amazing again. The beer is extremely well-balanced. Aroma is amazing... I could smell this all day long. Wonderful chocolate and vanilla aromas here. Flavour of chocolate, caramel, toffe, honey and vanilla, exactly as I remembered it. It also had som plesant fruity notes, as far as I remembered. Mothfeel was thick, creamy and smooth. If I was honored to have this once, having it twice was far beyond my own imagination. Hopefully I find it again someday, but one can’t be sure about that.

Hmm, I see a big problem with this beer. It is quite possible that I never gets this good beer again, anywhere :-( Poured part of a bottle of its oily, black liquid into my glass. Very well balanced! Notes of caramel, some sweetiness, like a good port vine. Burned oak? Some chocolate. Some salt maybe? It is very hard to describe!

Take every flavour you have experienced in a imperial stout before, blend it perfectly and put it in a small 25cl bottle. There you go. Besides the huge array of flavours in this imperial stout one of the most impressive aspects is the mouthfeel wich is creamy yet vinous, slightly oily, thick and slick. I don’t want to come of as patriotic because that has nothing to do with it, this is simply the best imperial stout I have ever had.

2/8/07. Poured out of 330 mL bottle, obtained in a trade with omhper on RateBeer 12/11/06. 2005 Vintage. I hate my glass. Somehow it manages to present an entirely different (and worse) aroma of this beer than the delicious treat my friends’ glasses have shown. So I’m combining the two into some sort of amalgam. Starts briefly with a very raw acetone nose, some grapey and intense black rum-cake notes as well. Fudge liqueur, boozier than the regular Stormaktsporter, and with some tangy wood-solvent in the nose that fades later. Flavor is amazing, with rich ash-rum and black raisiny chewiness and some almost overpowering sweetness that just drops out with perfect elegance into a deep, dry, ashen and faintly cocoa-flavored trail-- grainy like a black-and-white, low-light photograph. The flavor depth that these elite Scandinavian breweries somehow routinely extract from their malt bills is absolutely astounding. Somewhat thinner, drier mouthfeel than its silky sister; fluffier and slightly more scratchy carbonation. Tobacco all over the finish. This is a fabulous beer and deserving of all the praise, but I still prefer it in its more drinkable state, untainted by the funnel of whiskey saturation. Thanks so much, Per!

Bottle at RBESG 2006. Thought the Närke Stormaktsporter was great, but this one has the dials turned to 11. Seems impossible for a beer to be this rich. tastes like chocolate port and makes me dizzy.

Tap, SB&WF2009, aged on Mackmyra cask - Dark brown to black beer with almost no head. Aroma is intense with notes of coffee, licorice, chocolate, dried fruit and vanilla scented roasted malt. Flavor is sweet malty with notes of vanilla, chocolate, coffee, dried fruits and heavily roasted malt. Very nice and incredibly balanced. First Mackmyra cask beer that I’ve been very satisfied with! Near perfection.

250ml 2006 bottle so generously shared by after4ever. Pours a thick, dark as night black with a dense deep tan head; looks just fantastic in the glass. Nose is just what you would want in a perfect Impy Stout; roasty malt, vanilla, chocolate, plum, oak and bourbon...wow! I could pretty much smell this all night. The taste is just as amazing with all the flavors coming together with such balance and grace. This is the best beer I have ever had and it fully lives up to the hype. Thanks Tom for sharing such a treat!