Date: December 31, 1996 (#1912)

Package: bottled

Place: from the brewery

Score: 20 points

Overall Impression (3)
"Old Brew", or what the English might call an "Old Ale". Very deep red, fairly clear, good head. Smells of molasses and smoke. A lot like Theakston's Old Peculier in aroma and flavor! This one's more smoky. Lots of molasses, lots of smoke, and a fair bit of alcohol. (The bottle cap says both 4.5% and 14%...go figure.) Sweet smoky finish. Extremely well-balanced beer in all respects. "Bryggdes in I November 1992", "Bäst före År 1997"...it's 10:00pm, 12/31/96, just in time! Packaged in a 33cl bottle with its own opener on a string, stamped "1992". Thanks to Jojje Bredenberg for the beer...he calls it "full and rich". Swedish correspondent Anders Lundquist provides this information: "The 4.5% figure is max alc. by weight (as it was meassured back then), the 14% figure is the OG (in Plato I think, or something close at least). Btw, I'm fairly sure it's actually bottom fermented and not an ale (not that it makes all that much difference in this case)."