Dalkvist.se

It is nice to see signs that the main stream media is, slowly, catching on to the wonders of beer. A nice article in the wall street journal about the Westvleteren brewery.
from knut

Anchor Our Special Ale 2007

This years brew of Anchor’s special ale, greets the eye with a deep clear mahogany body topped by a light brown head, witch lances nicely.

The nose is greeted by spices, Christmas ones are most prominent, cinnamon the most so. Roasted coffee hides in the back.

The taste buds are treated to the same spices as the nos, but not to the same degree. The malt is fare more friendly now, adding flavors of roasted coffee. The spices retreat even more but are still there, the hops steps up to fill the emptiness, adding a lite bitterness towards the end. The finish is dry and dominated by roasted coffee and light bitterness.

The mouthfeel is kind of light, for a winter ale, just below average, i think.

Overall good beer, a bit to special for some, but I like it.

Jämtlands Heaven

A nice locking beer deep brown/red almost black colored body with a light brown head.

The nose pickup roasted malt and light hops, flowery.

Taste of malt, roasted and chocolate flavors, followed by herbal bitterness of the hops, and at the very end, lingering dry bitterness with hints of roasted coffee.

A bit aggressive, but, jet fairly well balanced.

A nice beer, to bad its no longer available at any of my local systembolaget shops, I think this beer deserves shelf space.

A solid 4

With the hops shortage we will probably see a increase in beer prices, the sunday mirror trows out the number 4 £ per paint. But that don’t sound that expensive to me, thats around that we here in Sweden pay to day. And then i remember that I live in the most taxed country in the world, that has besides the 25% general goods tax we pay, we also pay ½ £ to 1 £ (based on alcohol concentration) in additional alcohol tax. I don’t want to thing about how high the price can get if the brewery and suppliers start raising the price do to increased raw material prices.

From the Sunday Mirror, via Knut.

On tap at Bishops arms in gävle, on November 28, 2007.

Pours deep mahogany colored body with a light brown creamy head.

The aroma is dominated by smoke, both smoked food and wood smoke with the former more noticeably.

The taste is for malt but above all else smoke both the food kind and the wood kind.

The finish is long, dry and smoky.

A solid rating of 4.

A nice beer, can’t wait to try the other beers from Närke.

A dark amber colored body with a small head, nice lace, generally nice locking.

Aroma of light malt and some citrus

Malty flavored by hops and some dry bitterness finishing up

Mouthful is medium

Overall a nicely balanced beer, not spectacular, but definitely drinkable.

The verdict: 3.2

Tested on November 2, 2007