Style: Dry stout
Brewery: Snörsjö Hantverksbryggeri
Origin: Sweden
Size: 33cl
Alcohol: 6.5%
Price: 30kr
Systembolaget: 36652
I have held a few rock and metal inspired beer tastings previously, usually in cooperation with House Of Metal festival. In one of those previous tastings, I had 3 Opeth themed beers that came in a triple pack produced by Heavy Metale. I remember the beers being average but not showstoppers in any stretch of the imagination. Heavy Metale decided to open their own brewery in 2021 in Småland after years of producing beer at another site. They released a new beer in November 2021 called Blackwater Park, which is the name of the 5th studio album by the Swedish metal band. I thought I would try it out and see if the quality of their beers was improving, but unfortunately not.
It had a see through milk chocolate brown colour, and it seemed to be quite light for a stout and lacking in body. The aroma was pretty weak, with some small synthetic chocolate notes cited but in general wasn’t particularly pleasant. The taste was bitter and honestly there wasn’t much else. Thin and watery, the roasted notes came through but never reached the heights of being great. The long bitterness drew out the flavour, but I did detect a hint of cardboard in there, which was quite worrying as well.
So if I’m honest, this wasn’t great. I wouldn’t even say it was a good stout, because if I was given this in a tasting and had no idea what it was, I would presume it was a dark lager. It’s missing body, aroma, taste and pretty much everything to distinguish it as a stout. I’m glad we paired this with some coffee chocolate because it really needed something to lift this up and give the mouth something to enjoy. Avoid.