Viking Brewing Big Swede

Brewed by Viking Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Dallas, Wisconsin USA

Pours with a black body topped by a thick, lasting, brown head with some lacing. It’s sweet and fruity with an underlying chocolate note and a slight roastiness. Full bodied, smooth and warming.

12oz bottle.
Very dark reddish brown, almost black. Medium tan head quickly recedes to the rim of the glass where it leaves clods of lace as the beer is consumed. Amazingly fruity nose: caramel apple, molasses, malt, some alcohol, and some roasted grain. Green apple flavor hits first, then molasses, then roasted grain, apple returns and alcohol faintly underlies it all. Thick, sweet creamy chewy but pretty flat palate. Big Swede lacks the infernal, insufferable charcoal/charred-grain element found in so many imperial stouts. While a substantially hefty brew, this is the easiest-drinking impy stout around. I’m not sure exactly what a "Swedish Imperial Stout" is; maybe another way of saying Baltic porter? Perhaps so -- this beer would fit the bill. Whatever a "Swedish Imperial Stout" is, they seem to have done it right; I notice most of the Scandinavian raters give this beer rather high marks. Whatever it is, it’s easily the best of Viking’s hit-or-miss product lineup.

Fairly good, but not great. A bit sparse and poorly extracted, not much complexity or character. Finishes fairly well though, with lingering chocolate character.

(Bottle 35,5 cl) Clear and very dark mahogany with a warm, reddish glow. A light brown head. Lightly sweet aroma of roasted malt. Solid and full body with plenty, rather sweet malt that has a vague, burned edge. Almost candy like with a distinct prune character. 191206

Bottle. Nice pitch black colour with a little head. Aroma of smooth roastedness, light sourness and dried fuit. Also smooth flavour of sweetness, roastedness and hints of chocolate and with a coffee-like. Ends up sweet and little alcoholic.

12 oz bottle, via joebrew. Pours a clear black colored body under a very minimal brown head that vanished immediately and remained as a thin ring. Aroma is roasty and chocolaty with a little caramel. Some chalkiness and mineral notes, as well as a touch of alcohol. Flavor is mostly dry roasted and burnt malt up front with a little astringency coming on in the finish. Light alcohol, caramel, tar, and burnt fruits. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with a slightly sticky oily texture and a moderate fairly soft carbonation. This was OK, but not a favorite of mine. I think that it especially suffered in the mouthfeel, it needed a softer more rounded feel.

Bottle at the Happy Gnome, served too cold without the right glass. Color is dense burnt oak, blackish brown with no head and virtually uncarbonated. Aromas are raspberry infused chocolate and espresso, quite fruitish and strange for an imperial stout but nice. Thick sweet flavors of almond creme frosting, milk chocolate and rich caramel malt. Mouthfeel reminiscent of chilled red wine and a slight bit watery, until a glorious aftertaste like a sweet espresso miel blossoms slowly and coats the mouth. Falls somewhere beneath the real prize fighter stouts, but it is winningly drinkable while still rich and complex enough to satisfy.

Updated. Poured from a 12 oz. Absurd folgers astringency, spoiled vegetables, and generally intolerable acridity define this bottle. Ugly with a synthetic plastic texture. Finishes with a foul pulse of cake made with a lot of salt. This one is certainly a defective one; bold and brave in its utter filth.

Bottle (from JK). Astrigent and smokey raisin malt aroma - more like a doppelbock. Pours a thick black color with small cocoa head. Thick burnt sugar and creamy malt flavor - strong hops finish with noted astrigency and alcohol. Wood smoke aftertaste. Very nice.