Style: Imperial Stout
Brewery: Bryggverket
Origin: Sweden
Size: 33cl
Alcohol: 11.5%
Price: 89kr
Systembolaget: 80245
Bryggverket is well known in Umeå and Sweden overall for producing exceptional beers for a decade now. They released Stout Ist Krieg as a one time collaboration with Skellefteå Bryggeri in 2020, and I’ve been holding cans of this in my fridge since then. A massive imperial stout with a black metal style logo seemed like the perfect beer to finish off the tasting, so this was the perfect opportunity.
This had a deep brown to black colour with ruby highlights and a medium to thick body. There was a fresh dark fruit note to the beer, along with prunes, raisins and chocolate. The high alcohol wasn’t noticeable in the aroma, so it didn’t have the boozy element that sometimes can plague big imperial stouts like this. The taste was surprisingly fruity, with again raisin notes pulling through first in the taste along with cacao, leather and a hint of redcurrant. The aftertaste was long, with the drying leather note gaining traction the longer the time in between sips.
This was surprisingly easy to drink for an 11.5% imperial stout, and I could have easily finished the whole can myself. Fruity, roasted and impressive in both aroma and taste, this was a very good stout indeed. The only negative was some sort of residue that had formed at the bottom of the can, that gave the last few sips of the beer a rather strange, chewy mouthfeel. Apart from that though, the beer had held well, and it was a pleasure to have it in the tasting.