Aroma: 3 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 3

Shared 500 ml can at local tasting. ABV is 7.2%. Golden colour, low white head. Strong sweetish aroma of artificial candy. Sweet flavour, notes of maize and alcohol.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Shared can at local tasting. Deep golden colour. Sweetish aroma of malts, maize and alcohol. The flavour is also sweet and malty with notes of alcohol. Uninteresting, but not undrinkable.

Aroma: 3 | Appearance: 2 | Mouthfeel: 2 | Flavor: 2 | Overall: 2

(500 ml can). Golden colour, moderate head. Sickly sweetish chemical aroma, flavour dominated by a revolting alcoholic sweetness. Not good. Rerate: I started writing before I had finished the beer. As it turned out, I was unable to finish the glass. That very rarely happens to me. Congratulations, Kopparbergs!

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

A strong lager with an aquired taste. Not bad! - at least better than its reputation. Great accompaniment with a Danish "sildemad". I've had this one mainly from can or fresh bottles in Denmark, thus avoiding the skunkiness some of our American friends report of. Rerate German brewed version, (brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot), ABV 7.5%: The extra 0.3% alcohol certainly doesn't bring anything good to the beer. 7.2% is plenty for a beer with a body as light as this. Stick to the Danish original!

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

This beer seems to be made with no other purpose than producing as much alcohol as possible, and still call it a lager. Stick to Elephant Beer instead - the Elephant is strong enough. The Special Brew is nothing to search out.

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

500 ml bottle, bought at Pivni Galerie, Prague. ABV is 8.0%. Golden colour, moderate head. Nice hoppy aroma, notes of caramel and berries. Flavour is hoppy (plenty of Saaz and probably other hops too) and moderately alcoholic (as expected from an 8% beer), but malty enough to sustain the hops and alcohol. Moderate sweetness throughout. Way ahead of most other high ABV golden lagers I’ve tasted.

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

(Draught at Helsinki Airport). Golden colour, low head. Dangerously drinkable strong lager. Fruity and slightly perfumed aroma. While strong pale or golden lagers are not my favourite "style" in general, this one was not too bad.

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

This beer is named after the Danish 19th century sail frigate "Jylland", now a Jutlandian tourist attraction. The beer, however, will hardly qualify as a tourist attraction. Golden to amber colour, moderate alcoholic aroma, alcoholic and slightly sweet flavour, moderate to low bitterness in the aftertaste. Not unpleasant, but far from great.

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

(Domestic Danish version). Brownish colour, moderate head. A quite acceptable strong Danish beer. Spicy, perfumed aroma and aftertaste. Flavour is malty, but also somewhat sweetish and alcoholic and may not be to everyone's taste. This is the standard strong beer in the Copenhagen Zoo restaurant, and after one or two of these + a shot of "Gammel Dansk Bitter" you are ready to face the REAL giraffes any time!

Aroma: 3 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 3

According to the back label, this beer should be 'consumed ice cold from the bottle'. Sure, best way to hide the foul flavour - as far as there is any flavour at all. Well, I suppose this one has marginally more hops than the lousiest beers of this lousy style - but that should not detract from the basic fact: This is CRAP! Jesus - I must stop buying these shitty and (in Norway) over-priced beers! You know I buy them just to get another rating!

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

Organic strong lager, moderate head. Deep golden colour. Strong enough but not what I would think of as a Christmas brew. Too light bodied despite the strength.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

(500 ml bottle). Golden colour, good thick head. Aroma of molasses and alcohol, hints of oak. Flavour is very sweet and alcoholic, a decent hoppy bitterness in the finish can’t save this beer from being too cloying sweet in my book.

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

Formerly known simply as "Ringnes Gold", and before that (many years ago) as "Ringnes Export". Ringnes Gold was renamed "Extra Gold" when the Ringnes brewery discontinued their short-lived 5.3% ABV medium strong "Ringnes Extra". Ringnes Extra Gold is a strong and fairly malty golden lager in the Norwegian "eksport" style, closely related to Danish "gulløl" and German "Heller Bock". Quite acceptable, but no masterpiece.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 3

(500 ml can). Golden, low head, very alcoholic, sweet but at least there are some hops too. Overall boring, but I didn't find it too easily drinkable - which means that I won't get drunk as fast as the tougher Finns who constitute the target group of this beer. Having met this group as they were busy breaking empty bottles, puking and pissing in every doorway in downtown Helsinki on a Friday night (as early as 10 p.m.) - I say: You're welcome!

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

500 ml can, sold at Vinmonopolet. Peculiar yeasty (even though this is a filtered and pasteurised lager) sweet and fruity aroma. Flavour is nothing to shout hurrah! for (bland and alcoholic), very little aftertaste. You'll be so more happy drinking any Norwegian Christmas beer ('Juleøl') - just be sure to get the strong ("klasse F", Vinmonopolet) version. Beers like this one just aren't flavourful enough for winter, and not refreshing enough for summer!

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 3

Ringnes first tried to call this beer "Loaded" (clearly identifiing the target consumer group), but that was stopped by the Norwegian "Morality Police". Head disappears quickly, colour just slightly darker than a pils, sweet aroma of fruit, vegetables and alcohol, flavour grossly dominated by alcohol and not very good hops, unpleasant aftertaste that luckily doesn't last for long. Not a beer I'll buy again. This shit won't even get me drunk fast (despite 10.2% ABV), as I just can't manage swallowing it fast. Urk!

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

This beer seems to need a split in the BeerPal database - my 330 ml bottle (in France), simply named "Chang Beer", was a typical standard pale lager at 5.0% ABV, and can’t possibly be "the same beer" as a 6.4% "strong lager"??!! Anyhow, my beer pours with a golden colour and a large head. "Neutral" lager flavour, not offensive, moderate sweetness. Okay with a spicy Thai meal.

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

650 ml swingtop bottle, bought in France. Called a "bière blonde" on the bottle, not a "bière de garde". Golden colour, large head. Moderate yeasty and fruity aroma. Tastes like a well-balanced golden strong lager, pleasant sweetness, tolerable hops. La Réserve may not be a true masterpiece, but I’m still surprised that this very drinkable beer has that many low ratings on other websites.

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

500 ml can, from a SPAR shop in Funchal. ABV is 8.6%. Clear golden to orange colour, moderate white head. Sweetish aroma, notes of banana, a hint of soap. Moderately sweet flavour, notes of banana again. Moderate hops.

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

500 ml bottle, in Poland. Golden colour, large head. Pleasant aroma of aromatic hops, fruity. Flavour is malty and slightly alcoholic, but nice. OKish strong lager.

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

500 ml can, bought in Poland. Golden to amber colour, large head. Fairly strong sweetish musty and fruity aroma. Flavour is fairly malty and sweet with evident alcoholic notes, partially balanced by tolerable hops. I had it on its own at cellar temperature, would probably prefer it cold with a solid Polish meal.

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

500 ml can, bought in Poland. Golden colour, large white head. Sweetish fruity aroma, bordering on sugary, some aromatic hops too. Sweetish flavour with alcoholic notes, decent hops in the finish. No masterpiece, but drinkable.

Aroma: 3 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 2 | Flavor: 2 | Overall: 2

(500 ml can). Golden pilsener-like colour, low head. Decent fruity and grassy aroma, flavour is blah! - sweet and alcoholic, I can hardly finish the glass. Completely unbalanced. How the heck do Swedish alcoholics manage to drink stuff like this? - other Swedish breweries make similar crap.

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

330 ml green bottle, Vinmonopolet. Batch # 13, bottling # 2. Organic, bottle conditioned, unfiltered and unpasteurized. A traditional Norwegian "Export" is a golden Euro strong lager or pale bock - this one is the first I’ve had that is not filtered & pasteurized. Pours muddy golden brown with a decent head. Okay grassy and hoppy aroma, some fruity notes too. Flavour is yeasty and slightly spicy with decent hops, but also some strange and sweetish alcoholic notes in the finish. Worth a try, but not worth the price.

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

On tap at the brewpub. Served too cold. Deep golden colour, slightly hazy. Moderate head. Strong (and I mean REALLY strong) aroma of butterscotch / diacetyl - some hate it but I like it! Flavour is moderately malty with some butterscotch notes, some hops in the finish, but not very interesting.