Haandbrygerriet Bavarian Weizen

Unfortunate dark photo. These beers cost money y'know so it's the power that has to go.

This beer is Haand's effort at producing a Bavarian Weissbier with a wheat yeast, yielding in their words less banana, and more tartness than usual. Sounds like a nice approach to me with the potential to combine the strengths, and assuage the weaknesses of a couple of promising styles.

This bottle while in code was not the freshest, but the pour performed nicely with an opaque body and lemon / citrus / coriander head. It may be the age but I found a really pleasant malty quality to this beer, slightly unexpected from a weizen. The wheat yeast does its job too to keep it crisp and clean but still characterful.

Carbonation got in the way a little bit here, too strong front of mouth before the comparatively heavy body arrives, but again could be a symptom of the less than fresh bottle. Regardless, this is not your typical sort of Weizen perhaps but I find I kind of like it. 7.5

Haandbryggeriet Odin's Tipple Dark Norse Ale

Sometimes a variety of factors (low light, elapsed time, my own shocking lack of care) combine to mean a beer's mugshot ends up some distance from what it actually looks like in, you know, reality.

In this case though what you see is genuinely what you get - it's a massive 11% imperial stout that glugs like an oil spill with an almost studious evasion of any carbonation whatsoever.  

My notes for the nose on this one include the phrase 'complex Christmas chocolate' along with shortbread and other assorted biscuitry. On the palate though it's a mixture of complex and straightforward that takes a bit of time to understand. The label certainly confirms it's a beer they've tried to keep very simple recipe-wise (think stacks of choc malt), but the sheer bulk of it coupled with their use of wild yeast gives it a thoughtful sort of quality too. I got a fair bit of alc coming through on this, not all of it pleasant.

Our local bottle-o informs us that each time they get a batch of this, one particular customer turns up and purchases almost all of it right away, so it's certainly got some fans. For me, an interesting experiment but not one I'll be searching out again in the near future. 7.0

Haandbryggeriet Sundland Kreosot

These guys are building up a pretty strong portfolio so far, but this is the first Black IPA trialed from their burgeoning range.

It's one of those 'home-made-jam--printed-on-my-laserjet-printer' style labels as is traditional for Haand, but the beer itself comes out pretty proudly, displaying good opacity and a sticky miniscus of dark tan coffee head. Aroma is inviting too, delivering that dichotomous porter / hoppy IPA combination that makes you stop and think for a while before drinking, just to ponder and identify the different notes in there.

Surprisingly I didn't pick up a great deal of smokiness, which turns out to be opening the batting for this beer in the flavour league cup. Almost bacony levels of roast characterise the opening salvos, but it's all backed up with sufficient hopping and a roasty toasty choc porter standard bearer. It's probably the first really smoky attempt at a Black IPA I have trialled, but it all comes together very nicely really. The smokiness ties the two sometimes disparate brew types together with a common thread.

Good beer, not lifechanging but interesting, flavoursome and refreshing stuff. 8.0

Haandbryggeriet Dubbel Dose (Dubbel Dram)

One of those beers that sticks in the memory, in this case enough to buy once more to reconfirm before reviewing.

Second bottle frothed a fair bit but the first was sedate. In both cases you get a sense of the beer philosophy here as you pour - quite different to your (nowadays) typical big-US-hops IPA, this instead delivers a more deep european scape of being. Lots of sediment in the bottle in line with a big 9% abv. Brewed Oct 10 and in this case best around now I feel, though it would be interesting to try a fresh one and see how much the hops stand out when they are in their prime.

The star of this beer at this age as you will have guessed is not the juicy wet hops. Though the muskiness of the hops is a part of this story and help define it as an IPA, this is more about those roasty raisin, coffee and booze notes you get on the nose. Beautiful sticky mouthfeel to this beer puts me in mind of those euro dark beers that deliver such a heavy smooth experience that lingers and stays with you even from the smallest sip.

There's a fair bit of booze here but I feel it's part of the experience in this case, rather than a clumsily delivered hit of accidental alcoholism. Along with the sticky wave of lacy head it all stays with you as you progress through the bottle.. a real comforting experience to savour over an hour or more. Make sure you give this some time out of the fridge before serving as it excels at the 10-12C mark.

I really enjoyed this beer on both occasions - it's a very different experience to what has become the typical 'IPA' and may come as a surprise for that reason, but once you meet this fine gentleman you're certain to find you share some things in common. 9.0

Haandbryggeriet Hesjeøl Norwegian Harvest Ale

Apparently Norwegian farmers were in the past legally bound to brew beer each year, and punished if they failed to do so - this is a recreation of said traditional harvest beers.

I'm torn between jealousy and a very real sense of relief we don't have 55,000 different types of farmland VB traditionally brewed at every outpost across Australia. While beers do not generally exhibit terroir as such it's equally true that a beer of this nature would not likely have arisen in Australia even given access to the materials. It's less a summertime quaffer, and more a thoughtful drinking experience coloured by different palatial notes from all sorts of areas.


But first thing's first - lovely pour on this, dark amber and inviting, sticky, fluffy cloud of head. If you've been expecting a 'the hops are fresh' style harvest ale, you'll be a bit confused by the nose at first, for it's less a celebration of the green and more spice based aromas at first look.


Taste-wise there is a whole bunch of flavours going on here, pineapple, pepper, malt, winter spices like cinnamon, rhubarb, etc. Deep and complex, but refreshing to boot.

Good stuff - spicy but characterful to boot, harvest but not as we know it. 7.5

Haandbryggeriet Costa Rica Coffee Porter

Straight into a rather more refined (ie sane) effort from the Norwegian rogues at Haandbryggeriet.

Coffee porters can turn out a little bit watery in my experience but this is a good solid effort that delivers on flavour. The coffee is of course evident from the aroma with a pleasant roasty character coming through. In fact the aroma puts me in mind a bit of a discarded coffee filter, and the first taste gives a bit of that husky character too.

The mouthfeel is excellent - velvety and smooth, which brings a nice drinkability to the beer. The taste itself is not overly complex, just slightly sweet coffee and roast porter notes, but that's probably all you want from this particular beer, and it's all well executed. There's something about the Scandinavian nations (Scandinations? Scandinations.) that really seems to lend itself to great dark beer production and this is another fine example.

It's a slight shame about the flat head delivery and appearance but this is a top beer that's well worth considering if you're in the market for an espresso. 8.0

Haandbryggeriet Dark Force

A nice quiet introduction to this Norwegian brewer with a double imperial wheat stout.

Wait, what?

For a beer so removed from the norm, this doesn't really show it with a lovely mocha coloured vortex-like head atop a solid black body. The aroma likewise is largely in line with typical imperial stout characteristics though there is an element of clean, non-fruity booze and a slight edge of what could possibly be the wheat in there also.

First reaction on sipping is a bit of soy that keeps on through the mouthful. There's sufficient malt backing and imperial malt fruit there too, but it all seems a bit more 'front of mouth' than the norm for the more rounded (.. or maybe just non-wheat) examples of this style.

After the initial shock it's more or less a regulation imperial stout, just perhaps a bit cleaner, a bit lighter, and a bit .. well, less good. In saying that though I fully approve of this effort to do something different and it's far from a failure, delivering a solid body and some nice roasty flavours in there along the way. Interesting - a good effort. 7.5