Dark Force

Review #5
Brewer: HaandBryggeriet
Beer: Dark Force
ABV: 9%
Location: Drammen, Norway
Style: Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout

So today I have a review from a Norwegian brewery that came into Edmonton a couple of months ago. This is a little bit shocking as apparently they brew their beer on an insanely small scale, so to get their stuff all the way out here is kind of a treat. That being said, it would seem as though only 3 beers from their line have made the journey: a Traditional Norwegian Ale, and 2 Imperial Stouts. I’ve got a bottle of their Odin’s Tipple sitting in my cellar, and honestly it’s gonna stay there for a long time, 'cause when I smelled the one my brother had at The Sugar Bowl a while back, it smelled like soy sauce (plus its 11% so it can handle the aging). That said, what I have today is kind of a hybrid beer. They made an imperial stout, but instead of using your standard chocolate malts, black malts, barley malts, etc. They threw in wheat malt and wheat yeast which are common in well… wheat beers.  So they have ever so humbly dubbed it a “Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout”, and if that name isn’t ridiculous enough for you, the bottle is laden with Star Wars references, so try it just for that. But enough with my preamble, this pours legitimately pitch black, like there is no light coming through or any hints of brown; and it’s pretty viscous looking too. This thing probably has the darkest brown head I have ever seen from a beer and it’s big. Sometimes people say beers have a mocha-colour head, meanwhile I’m thinking “pff that ain’t mocha ya dingus”… yeah, this is actually mocha in "foamal" form. The smell has lots of chocolate, roasted malt and coffee. The roasty-ness borders on smoky, and with HaandBryggeriet being a Norwegian brewery, that’s not altogether shocking. That’s because with their Norwegian Wood, they’ve roasted the malts by wood fire giving their beer this smoked meat characteristic, kind of like a Rauchbier. But, I don’t know if they roasted the malts with wood fire for this specific beer, so high five for useless information. There’s another dark sweetness that I can’t really place, kind of like liquorice, but not. The taste definitely brings that smokiness right up-front. I’m now pretty certain that they roast the malts with wood fire; I mean I would be shocked if they didn’t roast them that way - but don't take that as absolute truth. Right after that, I do get an alcohol burn, it’s not intense and it fades pretty quickly, so I can definitely deal with it. Then I get a little bit of sweetness, really dark bitter chocolate, but the smoke and roast is really what is predominant in this beer. If you're not a fan of smokiness, then be forewarned: It's a Trap! It’s a pretty new bottle, from December 2010, so I’m sure with age some of the flavours would mellow out, and you would get more of the chocolaty flavours, but it’s the roast that lasts the whole way through for the time being. It’s full bodied, got some carbonation, and is really a well crafted and interesting beer. Actually as I drink more of it, I think I’ve become more accustomed to the smoked flavour, it’s not really attacking my palate as much anymore, so the characteristic Imperial Stout sweetness is much more apparent, but it still takes a back seat. Also, the wheat malt really makes itself known the more that I drink it; it’s not like a Hefeweizen or anything, but you can still taste it. It’s definitely not what I expected from an Imperial Stout, but I’ve never had an “Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout” before, so I guess that explains it? Super smoky beers are definitely not something that I scour the shelves for or anything, so this beer would not be my No. 1 choice for a stout fix. That said it’s still really good, and would be extremely satisfying on a terrible rainy day, and something about their way of traditional beer making/pushing boundaries I find really cool. As their website claims, I reckon Sidious would truly love this beer.

Rating: 7,000 Midichlorians