HaandBryggeriet Nissefar (Jule Ale)

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

A dark brown-black colored beer. A big sudsy textured light brown head rises above. There's good hang time on the head. It settles into a persistent cap. A light roasty and smoky nose. The smokiness jumps out in the tasting. Slick on the tongue

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Robust, smoky, oily aroma has a firm overtone of spice, mainly cinnamon and ginger with more than a smidgen of licorice. It pours an opaque, warm coffee brown with a fairly thick and fine-bubbled light tan head. Hearty, malty flavor has licorice, honey, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and caramel notes of various strengths. Each sip seems to be a little different. Texture is firm and smooth, if not too fizzy. Makes any day Christmas - or Yule, or Winterfest, or whatever you wanna call it.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Sampled on 12/3/2011. This old ale pours a eclipse black color from a 50cl bottle. Small to medium sized beige foamy head. The aroma is caramel, dark fruit and sweet. A medium bodied old ale. The malts are fruity and sweet, spicy and cereal. The hops are herbal and spicy. Nice carbonation. Decent balance. Nice finish. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

a nice, well balanced brew that doesn’t do much to offend, or stand out. dark fruit and malts are present but subdued, with a very faint hop presence. a quite dark and muddled brown. maybe a hint of smoke and licorice. doesn't taste like any other baltic porter i've had. an american porter (huh?) on BA and an old ale on RB.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Dark malts, sour, very low carbonation, Nissefar is probably not a beer that will make everyone’s Christmas wishlist, but I think it’s great. The beer pours an opaque coffee black with a very small mocha head that dissipates quickly. The aroma is in the fruity stout/porter malt range with some vanilla, oak and faint souring. The flavor is sweet and sour with a soft hop bite in the finish. The mouthfeel is smooth, like drinking a beer pre-carbonation. Nissefar is a different and enjoyable experience if you don’t mind some sour in your flat porter.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottle from State Line. The pour was very porter-like, slow smooht developing and steady (good retention) choco-colored head on top of a full brown-black body. The aroma was all roasted malts, some coffee and chocolate, fruity/vinous touches. The flavor followed the aroma, roasty bitterness keeping this thing pretty balanced. A full porter if you ask me, would have been interesting with a spice or two? The mouthfeel was smooth and silky. Decent stuff within a style (I'm thinking porter/brown ale when I say that) that is pretty much boring the heck out of me lately.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottled. Deep brown colour with mediumsized brown head. Aroma is toffee, malts, slight roast and fruits. Also some mild spicyness. Flavour is leathery, malty, toffeeish and slightly smoked wood also. Quite slimy palate, but otherwise well done brew.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Almost black topped with a rich creamy tan-coloured head. Licorice, yeast and dried fruit in the aroma. Yeasty and quite sweet flavour of spices, licorice and dark chocolate. Strong carbonation. Licorice, dades and bitter chocolate in the long aftertaste.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Bottle conditioned, 500 ml. Very dark colour, nearly black. Large brown head. Delightful aroma of roasted malts, dark chocolate, coffee, prunes, caramel and oak. Flavour is not quite as complex but still good, bitter roasty and coffee notes combined with bittering hops dominate, on a background of dark bitter sweet chocolate, hints of English liquorice. Roasty bitter aftertaste. I’d say Imperial Stout is the closest style here - but maybe it’s not extreme enough. Anyway, this is a very fine effort from Haandbryggeriet. Not a beer for the traditional Scandinavian Christmas dinner, but try it if you have chocolate pudding for dessert - or simply enjoy it on its own!