Nissefar Fatlagret
HaandBryggeriet

Ciocanelu from Romania

3.9/5  rDev -2.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Muddy brown color with tan head. Aroma is really spice forward buy up you also get coffee and roasted malt. Taste is quite balanced. You really get the base beer and the spice play only the second fiddle. It's malty sweet, a bit roasty, leans more towards a porter. Bright spices like star anise, fennel but also peppercorns and caraway seeds. Medium body and carbonation with a warming alcohol feel. Really interesting beer overall. It has complex flavors, maybe also due to the Akevitt barrel aging. The only complaint is the slight alcohol feel.

Apr 24, 2016

dcmchew from Romania

3.99/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Aged in Akvavit barrels. 2013 vintage.
The nose brings lot of caramel, riddled with spices, woody, Christmassy, with cinnamon, peper, anise, cardamom, faint nutmeg, with some milky chocolate, strong spirit and a herbal mix, a bit like cooking herbs (thyme, dill, tarragon) and mint. That's the Akvavit, surely.
Yep, that's right! The front has a strong punch of herbal liquor (minty, bitter, crisp), something like Angostura bitter and ribwort cough syrup, then an extra bag of spices, with thyme, rosemary, basil, all with a nice hefty splash of pure distilled spirit, but not medicinal, fortunately. Some sweet coffee, lots of caramel and a bit of dark chocolate. Finishes a bit roasty, and that herbal feel is still around. A dry alcoholic feel in the end, too.
Aftertaste has roast, herbs (cola leaf, thyme), bitterness and pure alcohol dryness, like a shot of vodka. Medium to light in body, medium carbonation. The booze seems to get stronger, but the lack of sweetness helps.
This was.. something else. A very interesting beer, but you have to sip it cautiously. More like a treat, a gourmet kind of brew, meant to be analyzed and interpreted. Hard to swallow for us southern yellow-bellied folk.

May 06, 2015