Nørrebro La Granja Stout

Brewed by Nørrebro Bryghus
Style: Sweet Stout
København, Denmark

Mondiale 2009. Very smooth, lots of sweetness that, mostly, covers up bitterness of coffee. Very drinkable, like a coffee with cream and tons of sugar. White head, lacey, coffee aroma.

Dégusté en bouteille au mondial de la biere 2009. Apparence brun foncé tres pres du noir, bonne mousse brune. Aromes de beurre, cafe, malt chocolat, mélasse. Tres peu carbonisé, tres crémeuse avec une legere amertume tres persistante. Gout de cafe, licorice et malt chocolat.

Bu au Mondial 2009, le 4 juin (#9). Brune rotie, peu de collet. Arome de malte cafiné roti, avec un soupson d’alcool. Goût de malte chocolaté, des petits fruits rouges, un peu cafiné et une petit arrière-goût sûrette. Très doux et fruité, pas à quoi je m’attendais!

600ml bottle, with a light gushing experience at the opening of the bottle, pitch dark black color, with a pillowy tan-colored head, sweet cocoa, chocolatey, espresso coffee nose, with some mochaish, light spicy vanilla pod, cocoa powder accents, with some mild toasted, roasted malt notes, witihin a faint brownie aroma follows through a medium-bodied palate with a sweet milk chocolate, ice cream character, with some velvety mochaish, cocoa powder, espresso coffee flavors, with a mild vanilla pod, nutmeg, licorice note and some roasted coffee bean accent, leading towards a chocolatey, warmth machaish, vanilla, espresso coffee finish.

Bottle. Pours a black body with a tan head. Roast y coffee character with light hints of licorice, chocolate and burnt malts. Bitter chocolate with a roast y finish. Decent.

In short: Extra-soft boring body with black coffee, vanilla and too much sweetness. Not insulting, just very boring.
How: Bottle 60cl. Exact age unknown but certainly less than one year old
The look: Dark brown body topped by a large tan head with medium retention
In long: Nose is medium roasted with vanilla hints. Body is surprisingly foamy/airy. The mouthfeel is too soft and very boring, full of nothing. In mouth there’s very little roastiness. Taste has a rather strong black coffee presence (black coffee, not roasted coffee beans). Second most dominant flavour is vanilla. A little grape juice as the beer warms up. I’m willing to bet my remaining bottle (easy bet since I don’t care for the beer) that this beer is oatmeal based. Velvety oatmeal feeling. This beer is too sweet and lack hops. I know a sweet stout is usually sweet (d’uh!) but this is totally unbalanced. Overrated. Really boring. A beer that will stick to my memory like a ran-over dead squirrel corpse sticks to an over-inflated beach ball.

Bottle. Fizz head. Aroma of sweet malt, somewhat sugary, some prunes and raisins. Flavor doesn’t really have much to it, just sweet, lightly roasted malt. Weak mouthfeel as anticipated by the fizziness. I have little doubt this bottle was fairly old, but no way to know for sure, and I have had old bottles of other Norrebro beers that held up superbly. Bottom line, not much to this one by the time it got to me, whether that’s due to the age of it via complicated import or the beer itself, ya got me, but I’ll be fairly lenient with a 3.0.

Bottle. Pours black with a small, bubbly tan head. Aroma of sweet roasted malt and a slight booziness. Flavor is quite sweet with some earthy, perhaps vegetal notes, and vanilla. Too sweet and palate is wearing. Ugh. 6/4/5/3/12 (3.0/5)