Bog Burial
HammerHeart Brewing Company

Poured from a 750 ml waxed bottle into a Hammerheart tulip glass.

Appearance: Pours a deep brownish amber. Moderate amount of bubbles and a slight finger of off white head that fades back into a thin patch.

Smell: A very peaty and smokey malt forward aroma. Huge scent of peat. Big scent of smoke as well. Hints of scotch whisky with some oak. Malt scent of caramel, toffee, biscuit, grains, and toast. Hints of smoked earthy hops. Also some hints of burnt molasses. A really nice aroma.

Taste: Like it smells, a really peaty and smokey malt driven taste. Big taste of peat and smoke. Scotch whisky notes with some oak. Malt notes of caramel, biscuit, toffee, grains, and toast with some yeast. Some notes of smoked earthy hop bitterness. Sweet notes of molasses. A really good taste.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied with a moderate amount of carbonation. Chewy and fairly slick.

Overall: A really good Scotch ale. To call the peat presence huge is an understatement. This isn't for everyone but as someone who really likes scotch whisky I really like this.

Pours a dark caramel, mahogany, and lighter than expected for all of the peat-hype. Smells like a clean, peat-smoked fire; again, much more balanced and not overdone by any means. Tastes amazing. Very clean, surprisingly crisp, peat-y and bitter upfront, with a sweet caramel and peat body, finishing peat-y and smokey, and very well balanced and great carbonation. For a lot of people telling me this was like drinking a bonfire, I found it crisp, balanced, and very well done.

this is impossibly cool, even for hammerheart who is always at the forefront of cool. perhaps the first beer i have ever heard of to use peat smoked hops. what?! in addition to that, it also has a peat smoked malt and as aged in peated whiskey barrels, so its pretty predictably intense in that department. i love the idea, and while i dont think the beer is as neat as the idea, its pretty fun to drink on something this weird. its milky from the green waxed bottle (all their packaging looks amazing), not very lively at all, quite thick, and tan colored, lots of haze and thickness to this one. aroma and flavor are a just lit cigar and a peat bog, so much earthy smoke to this, some lightly acrid bitterness from it too, and a ton of peat. i think i taste it from the whiskey most, and i want to taste it from the hops more, being as original as that aspect is, but i might just be a novelty with all the smoke and peat from the other elements. thick and malty, but also pretty hoppy as they go, not a ton of wood, the smoke and peat dominate there, but its mellow too. thick and with some yeast character as well, european, rustic, intensely flavored. a light iodine aspect from the peat too, sharp for a moment, insanely complex, and if you dont like single malt whiskey, stay as far away from this one as you can. so cool thee guys are pushing the boundaries of these styles that seem to have stagnated for a long time. hammerheart is special, and this beer is weird, a lot to try to drink by yourself, and lacking the refinement of some of their others, but its a kitchen sink of peat, and i love that!

 

 

 

Had Hammerheart's 200th batch at the brewery. Big and peaty, with nice sweetness underneath. Really tasty for scotch lovers!