Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter

Brewed by Närke Kulturbryggeri
Style: Imperial Stout
Örebro, Sweden

Bottle version 2006. Special thanks to Jack Pano from Sweden for bringing me this gift from the brewer. Pours a blacker than black beer with a solid brown to darkbrown head. The aroma is roasty with vanilla oak, coffee and fine chocolate and some notes of apples too. The appearance is simply superb with nice lacing. Flavour of slight peated malts, dark chocolate, coffe mokka, raisin bread and a hint of honey leaves this beer in a perfect balance. The use of noble hops comes out just enough in the taste but not overwhelming. The slight bitter aftertaste with notes of basterd sugar keeps on talking while some alocohol is well noticable but not attacking. N° 1, IMO a well deserved place and certainly not overrated at all and after all a superb brew and some left to stash away for quite some time :-) Nice to notice too that I am the 100rd RBian who rates this excellent beer!

På fad til ølfestival på Carlsberg. Nu må det saftsusemig være på tide at jeg rater denne lækre øl. Har drukket den 2 gange før, senest på min fødselsdag for lidt over en måned siden. Bryggeren har siddet i toget på vej til festivalen, med dette fad ,og kælet for det. Det er vel øllets svar på kobe-kød. Det her er min absolutte favorit. Sort som kul, tæt nøddebrunt skum. Vi taler chokolade, kaffe, mørke tørrede frugter, dumle karameller. Den er rund og blød og dejlig. Top karakter fra mig, hele vejen.

Here I am, rating #200!!! Words can’t express how thankful I am to Maria and Andreas for sharing the previous lovely beers and this beer. Jess and I had a spectacular time on our Scandinavian adventure meeting all the great RBers there. Please let us know if you’re ever in NY and we’ll show you around with some awesome beer. Now that I’ve gotten rid of the sappy stuff, let me continue with a song. You guys know the words, so sing along: <P> Oh! Kaggen, please believe me
I’ll never do you no harm
Believe me when I tell you
I’ll never do you no harm <P> Oh! Kaggen, if you leave me
I’ll never make it alone
Believe me when I beg you
Don’t ever leave me alone <P> Alright, now to the ratings. First the 2006 version. <P> Pours black with tan head. Aroma is of roasted malts, honey, raisins and some rummy oak. Way more dark fruits and alcohol than the 2005 version. Taste is chocolate and raisins again, mixed ever so well. Rather oily and slick mouthfeel. Finish is somewhat boozy with more chocolate covered raisins. Delightful stuff. 8/5/9/4/18 <P> The rating I’m giving for this beer is for the 2005 bottle, because it was that freakin’ good. Pours deep black with magically appearing tan head. The aroma is heavenly; sweet chocolate, honey and the perfect amount of bourbon. If someone could turn that into a candy, they’d strike it rich. At first taste my thought was "Liquid perfection." The maltiness is off the charts but in the best way possible. Chocolate, caramel with light bourbon and vanilla touches make for a delightful experience. Palate is oily, slick, and full. Finish is predominantly chocolate and lingers almost forever. If Rick James were still alive he’d say "Kaggen’s a hell of a beer!"

Bottled (2006). One of my most wanted beers and totally unexpectedly I stumbled across a bottle of this during my Euro trip. Big props n !respekt! to my friend Manuele. Where to begin...pours a beautiful pitch black with a creamy brown head that lingers. Intensely amazing aroma of rich chocolate, vanilla, oak, raisins, plums, honey wow there is so much going on here and extremely complex. It took me a while and then some to get around to actually tasting this. The first sip is dominated by chocolate, vanilla and oak. More chocolate and dark fruit and even some whiskey and smoked flavours are introduced. I wish I had a greater vocabulary to describe this. Has it been mentioned before that is an extraordinarily complex beer. Now I’m just rambling on. I’ve never had a beer this smooth, it’s ridiculous. An oily silky smooth mouthfeel. Warm finish and brilliantly balanced. Perfection.

I was lucky to have a friend in Sweden who went tthrough the trouble to find this beer and to sent it to me. Why o why are the good things always rare and expensive. I thought westies were the best beer (just have a rochefort of min 6 months in case you don’t find it or don’t want to spent too much...i for sure can’t tell the difference in a blind test) but this Swedish stout is indeed another ballgame.

2005 vintage in bottle sampled at Akkurat in Stockholm, Sweden. Pours pitch black with thin dark brown foam head. Aroma consists of roasted chocolate maltiness, coffee, toffee, caramel and loads of tart oakiness and bourbon. This beer is extremely smooth and quaffable. Roasty flavor up front with smooth creamy center and sweet bitter dry finish. Flavor dominated by excellent oak and bourbon flavors that are balanced with chocolate, coffee, toffee, caramel and a dry hop finish. Excellent! Lives up to the hype and the $65 price tag.

An out of this world experience in my books! This beer was just perfect (and more). Drinking it was such a multifaceted experience, and to add to it all I was also in the most <a href="http://ratebeer.com/View-User-9002.htm& perfect company , finishing the most perfect dinner of mussels at Akkurat in Stockholm.

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.