This brew is produced by a brewery located in Nyköping; Nils Oscar. When it all started, some years ago, they had their brewery just a block away from my house. Well, they have expanded and now they also make vodka. The old brewery got to small for their rapidly expanding business, they had to move to a new location. They merged with another brewery located by Nyköping. So, Stockholm, lost a fine brewery – but, what they produce is very drinkable. It is not the entire story, but I’ll save that for another time.

The beer I have reviewed got a good reception at the Stockholm Beer & Whisky festival 2006, it was praised as the best Swedish beer on bottle that year.

Three different malts has gone into to this ale; pilsner-, Munchner- and caramel. They used the American Amarillo hops for pungecy.  All together this should give “broad” taste, we’ll see.

Opening the bottle and pouring into the glass renders some good froth. It start dissolving after a while, a rather short lifespan though. Sniffing it indicates a typical ale, some hops and maybe a weak tone of sweets, almost candy. The color is amber and clear.

Taste: there is some bitterness from the hops, some maltiness, some undefined fruit – nice and agreable, but a little too weak for my palate (*). Aftertaste is a bit short, but overall the taste has a refreshing quality. It is a very nice ale, but I find it goes best together with a meal. Not really on its own, in my opnion, but definitely with something edible to accompany it. Why not something spicy and pungent, some nice Indian stews with chutney, or ..?.

Skål! (Sw: cheers!)

* Upcoming review on something I really really like!

As this is my first post as a correspondent with Belching Monkey, I think I should introduce myself;  I am pretty much a guy liking food, drink and more or less everything that makes life interesting. This includes beer and ales, of course, however not limited to that – much into wine, coffee (drink way to much espresso during a normal working day!), sometimes a whiskey or two goes down, not to mention calvados. what I like about beer is the great variety there is, and during recent years we have seen a number of small breweries popping up all over the country (i.e. Sweden).

The beer, ale, I am about to share my impressions of is almost out of season now. Yes, I know I’m a bit late, but the brewery – Jämtlands Bryggeri – has produced this beer in time for Christmas every  winter now for a number of years.

Opening the bottle and pouring it renders a nice thick foam on the top. The boquet indicates alot of hops and some lemon. The colour is dark brown, slightly reddish when the glass s held up against a light.

How does it taste? Well, a first mouthful has a big, wide or full some say, taste of fruitiness and a distinct bitterness, there is apparently large quantites of hops here. the aftertaste is long, very long, with a slight twang of the bitterness at the end. It holds a range of Christmas tastes. It definetely goes well with the traditional seasonal food and perfectly on its own as well. This beer can be served before any meal and in time for the eating to start, open another bottle!

Summary: this is a fantastic Christmas brew. One of the best, it places itself among the best seasonal brews from e.g. Belgium, and it actually beats some of the, like Corsendonk Christmas.