REVIEW #116: Rökporter (Nils Oscar Company)

Pours a rich tea brown from the bottle with a milky coffee head. Pungent smoked sausage & chocolate digestive nose. Smoke, tar and charred wood dominates the palate, underneath which lies rich and sweet rye bread and treacle notes. A strong and tangy, smoke-smacking bitterness occupies the long finish. Surprisingly light bodied and bubbly with a slippery mouthfeel, but don't that put you off because it is so savoury and full in flavour its body matters little.

This Swedish brewing company, which originally had a long Swedish name difficult to write, was founded in the capital in 1996 by Charles-David Sundburg, the grandson of eponymous Nils Oscar. Shortly after founding they merged with a local distillery and gained a new long and difficult to write Swedish name. They then moved to a site out of town and after that - thankfully for this English writer - they settle on 'The Nils Oscar Company' and started exporting their beers & spirits to the UK, US and Denmark. 80% of the malt in Rökporter has been smoked over beechwood, a very high proportion, accounting for the intensity of the smokiness found in the final beer. Rökporter was awarded a gold medal in the 2012 Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival. The brewery churn out a wide range of beers but not many make their way over to the UK unfortunately...Its imperial and coffee stouts are two I really would like to try. However I know that their Göd Lager is stocked by Waitrose.

• MALTS: BEECHWOOD SMOKED; CARAMEL; ROAST BARLEY
• HOPS: FUGGLES; AMARILLO
• IBU: ?
• SG = 1.057 (14 PLATO)
• ABV: 5.9%
• available FROM:- oNLINE & IN GOOD BEER STOCKISTS