No. 474 Beniano
Bøgedal Bryghus

75 cl. bottle.
Moderate pour yields a 3/4 inch tan head over dark brown, very slightly translucent body, and scant lacing. Nose of roasted malt, chocolate (milk, dark), and faint dark fruit. Taste of chocolate (dark, bittersweet, unsweetened), roasted malt, and malted milk. Nice feel and overall, as it warmed, my rating went up! It's kinda like a Russian Imperial Milk Stout!?! Delicious! Cheers!!!

i love this brewery, and i like sourcing their beers when i can, some pretty tricky stuff to find this side of the pond, but i have liked them all so far. this one is really odd, perhaps a milk stout only technically, if that, its more of a black ale to me, despite the muscovado sugar addition, this is insanely hoppy, but maybe only bitter because its from 2015 and thats how the hops have turned over time. its really strange beer, to me it transcends style, very dark in color but not quite stout dark to me, lots of body, some chalky and chocolate sweetness to it, a brown sugar and molasses note too, but some spicy rye or something in the grain bill, earthy and even tannic in an interesting way that works to balance this. its over hopped to me though at this point, super bitter even through the sweetness, some light pine to it, but mostly just high alpha intensity, not stale at all for its age, but its too much, and it kind of takes over any nuance the beer would otherwise finish with. i get a bit of soy sauce on this too, like a similar fermentation profile, which i know is strange, but its appealing to me too here. lots of body, mellow carbonation, heavy beer overall. interesting stuff that has no doubt depreciated rather than benefited from cellar time, i will drink my next one from these guys fresher, this has happened to me a couple of times now. i can see how people could hate this, but i still dug it!