Nils Oscar

Hop Yard IPA

I'm starting to suspect that everything Nils Oscar create is going to be something special. My only previous experience with them and, indeed, with Swedish beer as a whole was God Lager but now I sit here staring at a muddy crystal that I can smell from half way across the room. On the nose it's very rye orientated and the hops are in abundance but, not unlike the God Lager, the star of the show is how deeply satisfying this beer is to just throw down your neck! There are some beers that are for sipping, some that suit small mouth fulls, but not the Nils Oscar clan, as classy as they seem, you would be forgiven for just annihilating bottle after bottle in a matter of minutes. I would not advise actually doing that with this IPA though because at 7.3% it is no slouch and if you don't give it the respect it deserves then it's going to bend you over a barrel and re-enact some choice scenes from Pulp Fiction with you.

There is slight bitterness hiding in the expertly built housing of its supremely well rounded body but this beer will appeal to anyone who has even looked at an ale in the supermarket and wondered to themselves "hmmmm, I wonder what that tastes like." It's a lovely IPA and it does credit to a nation that brought us the likes of Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time and Victoria Silvstedt. High praise indeed!

Food Suggestion: Maple cured bacon! A big fistful of maple cured bacon! A bucket of maple cured bacon so big that you later suffer from severe heart defects as a direct result.

Drink this if you like: Rye IPA by De Molen... Which is a little tough to come across by regular means or Meantime IPA... Which you can buy by the wine bottle!

Kalasöl

I don't know what Kalasöl is or what it means or whether it's just a name or a beer type, all I want to know is how it tastes because it looks as delicious and fresh as the rest of the Nils Oscar range, the only difference being that this smells like a tea loaf made with caramelised brown sugar. This seems like a Dunkel or Belgian brun, is this a new name? I'm not going to do any research, I find it spoils first impressions, so I'm cool with this being a new name for a type of beer I'm completely familiar with.

It tastes like syrup loaf! It's sweet but, at the same time, also seems to be the most civilised of the group though maybe that's because dark, brown, ale isn't meant for chugging. With that it loses a bit of the charm that the others have. I want to love this but it will have to settle for me very much liking it.

Food Suggestion: I had this with some honeyed figs... I didn't hate it.

Drink this if you like: Orkney Island brewery because if you're a fan of them then you're going to be a fan of this.