Åttebeint Hest Northern IPA
HammerHeart Brewing Company

 

16 oz can into a Becker glass.
L: Pours a murky rust reddish color with lightly visible steady carbo, a rocky off white thin head that recedes to froth, light random lacing spots.
S: Caramelized malts, cereal grains, brown bread, a hint of fruits.
T: Woody grains, sweet caramelized malts, resin, baked soft fruits, a hint of brown soda bread, a note of black tea, resin builds a lingering finish. It is bitter and is lightly sharp with a whisper of sourness.
F: Gently brisk, smooth, semi-juicy mouthfeel with a medium-long dry finish.
O: A beer built with a strong pine structure. Quite resinous and dry. Borders on being a Rotbier if it had more cream. Very tasty and has backbone from hops & malts in tandem. It's like a Duluth. MN beer. It is very good in its style.

From a 16oz can with no date on it.

The color of this beer is somewhat hard to describe. I would say it has some orange notes and some brown notes. What I can say is that it is murky as heck. There's an amazing steady stream of carbonation bubbles that rise in the glass. The carbonation seems to have a tough time getting through the beer to get to the tops of the glass. The head is a thick and 3 fingers in size. The head is long lasting and it leaves a good amount of lacing as it dissipates. I am mesmerized by the carbonation rising in the glass because as it hits the top, it sinks a bit, then goes back up. This is downright beautiful.
The aroma has a somewhat strong malt character to it. The malt is quickly hidden by the hops. The hops are quite strong toward resin and pine smelling. There's a bit of a grassy and earthy note to the nose.
Damn, this beer is just a pine and resin bomb. The pine notes and resin just linger on my palate. There's hint's of malt right away, but the pine and resin flavors just kick into overdrive. The bitterness on the back just lingers and doesn't give up, and go away.
This beer is so damn sticky. The body is thick and full. The body is dominated by the feeling of bitterness in my throat that lingers for so damn long.
Wow, even though it isn't a smoked beer that they are known for, it is a damn delicious and well made beer. I am a happy camper.

 

16oz can. No dating information found.
Cloudy for clarity, with a body color of tea stained deep gold. Lively beige colored head piles up two fingers with the pour and then recedes to a thin cap and thick, high ring. Leaves behind patches of lacing.
Aroma is earthy, woody, and full of pine resin.
Taste is bitter, earthy, and woody. Flavor of crushed pine resin, but has a minor sweet citrus note. Toasted malt base. The bitterness continues, but mellows, in the aftertaste.
Medium mouthfeel. Very dry finish. Very good carbonation.
Unusual variation of a West Coast IPA that provides bitterness and pine resin, but also leavens the whole with a bit of malt sweetness. So dry it cleans the palate with each sip. Presents much darker than others in the style. Ultimately very refreshing and rewarding.

Tired of the haze bombs and German lagers that I've been drinking lately, so I picked up a 4-pack of tallboys from Hammerheart, knowing it would be something different. Not disappointed.

Into a tulip from a tallboy, about a month old. Well this is a little different, but that's to be expected from these guys, I guess. Pours a dense cloudy reddish amber with a pretty serious thick foamy 2 or 3 finger off-white head with good retention and great lacing. Don't recall an ipa with a peaty nose, but I kind of dig it. Also, maybe more predominantly, some citrus notes, both juicy and pithy but not bright...kind of heavy too. An edge of garden fresh greenery. A little hint of dark bready and burnt caramel and toffee malts, too. On the tongue, everything in the nose is there - maybe not the garden fresh greenery -- though the citrus is even less bright, and maybe more earthy tea-like notes, and maybe even a little smokiness, and at the end some almost coffee-type bitterness and acridity. Early on there is some citrus juiciness and caramel sweetness, but mid-way it fades to become moderately bitter and sticky/oily but also dry on the finish. Body is fairly substantial and a little chewy but not heavy. Carb is middling.

What a weirdo. Could be a hoppy amber instead of an ipa. I don't know how to classify this one...what is a Northern IPA supposed to be, anyway? If I was in a typical IPA mood, I’d be disappointed -- and I don't think I'd drink this on the regular -- but for where I am, at present, I'm in the mood for something different, and I'm enjoying it... glad I have two more.

Can. Eggshell white head with lace. Cloudy caramel color.

Pine, resin, grapefruit citrus, floral hops. Dank and hoppy. Bitter. Sticky. Some malts to back up the hops. Orange citrus in the finish.

This is an awesome ipa that tastes like an ipa. Lots of hops and bitterness.

 

i have had a little bit of a hard time getting into a lot of the hammerheart ipa types, they all sort of feel a little more malty (and of course smokey) than the hops they have been given seem to favor, and this sort of falls into that family for me, but one cannot compare a beer like this to the ipa of the times, this is entirely its own thing, almost different down to the fundamentals of the style, and despite the designation, it seems almost wrong to call it that. really more of an amber than a pale in color, deep and dense looking with less head than many of their others at the taproom. aroma is smoke before hops but both are there, some malt sweetness, an english sort of yeastiness, and finally the hops, which provide a lot more bitter than aroma here. the flavor is more of the same, bready and malty and earthy and smokey all, but hoppy is a descriptor i would not immediately apply. some bitterness is there, a pine or juniper note to it, quite nordic when i take it all in, and very hearty in body through and through, just the hops never really flavor this enough for me to make sense of it as an ipa. fine beer, but i keep searching for something that isnt there. not my favorite of their work...

Pours a hazy, blood-orange colour. Smells like oily hops, citrus-grapefruit, and a pithy, bitter citrus. Tastes medium-heavy bodied, grapefruit pith, pale-light malt underbody, lightly malted finish. Hints of grainy malts.

On tap at Hammerheart's taproom. 16 oz. pour.

Appearance: Color is a hazy amber orange. Moderate amount of bubbles and a slight finger of white head that settles into a thin creamy patch.

Smell: An earthy and sweet aroma with a scent of grassy hops and caramel malt. Earthy hop scent of grass and pine. Slight citrus hints of orange and grapefruit. Sweet malt hints of caramel, toffee, and biscuit along with yeast. A pretty solid aroma.

Taste: Like it smells, an earthy and sweet taste with notes of grassy hops and caramel malt. Earthy hop taste of grass and pine. Light citrus hop notes of orange, grapefruit, and lemon. Sweet malt notes of caramel, toffee, grains, and biscuit with some yeast. A very solid taste.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a moderate amount of carbonation. Chewy and somewhat slick.

Overall: A pretty good "Northern style' IPA. Much more balanced towards the sweeter malt side than what we think of IPA's being today. However, there is still a good hop presence.

 

 

Appearance: Cloudy amber, ok head.

Smell: Citrus rind, coriander.

Taste: Citrusy, then spicy--black pepper, coriander. Moderate feel, not too heavy. Moderately bitter finish.

Overall: I got a 750mL mini-growler of this IPA from Hammerheart on a recent visit. I think the recipe may be being tweaked from batch to batch, as this one was very reminiscent of a belgian IPA, while previous times I've had it tasted more like a standard American IPA. Worth a try.