Nils Oscar - Hop Yard

Originally posted 28/1/13

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!


Revisited 12/3/13

After my review of God Lager had made it to the people at Nils Oscar I was contacted and sent a few more of their beers to try out, for which I am intensely grateful. One of the specimens they sent me was one I had tried and reviewed before, the only difference between that one and this one being that this bottle came straight from the source! So the big question is, has my opinion of Hop Yard changed in the month or so away from it?

Well, it still has that deliciously alluring, thick, jammy, aroma with less rye than before but, in some ways, much more intoxicating. Now that I sit down and relax with this beer, with all of the reviewing actually done, I can appreciate how there is a light fruit smell to it and that, if put in a proper Belgian style beer glass with the lip curving outwards, the foam will stick to the sides and pretty much just stay there until the rest of the glass is empty.

Now that I drink it again I remember how when I first had it I never wanted to drink anything else. I'm tasting rye this time as well as a hint of Seville orange peel. A lovely, warm, bitter, IPA that can be crisp and, I think, is best served very cool. I really recommend this beer if you can get it and, I think, the trick to it is to get it as fresh as you possibly can, maybe not as fresh as getting it directly from the brewery but make sure your bottle has a decent life on it.

What an absolute joy Hop Yard is to drink. Hop Yard is a beer to get philosophical about, a beer to get comfortable with, a beer to simply enjoy... No, no fancy metaphors this time. This is just a damn good beer. Plain and simple.