Sep 11, 2016

Viking - Schlossbrauerei Fürstlich Drehna

Viking - Schlossbrauerei Fürstlich Drehna

0,33l
7,6%

It's too hot and this is a high percentage beer... not a good combo but we shall see. I have never heard of the brewery (German only) though when looking at their page I realize that I did have their Odin at some point and I remember not liking it.

Ratebeer is low in their ranking like so often.

Viking is advertised as a Schwarzbier a typical German kind I usually like. I have never seen one with this high alcohol content, though.

Funnily enough I cannot find the beer on the homepage of the brewery... I wonder whether that's a good or a bad thing.

The bottle itself is brown and unremarkable with one label depicting a grim looking Viking in yellow and black with the Text "Viking Craft Bier" and an added Stark / Schwarz / Magisch (Strong / Black / Magical). Sadly no information about what Malts etc.. a bit surprising for a beer that calls itself Craft. Some advertising promises to AWAKE THE VIKING IN ME.... I doubt...

The cap depicts Mr. grim Viking again. This time in silver and black.

Untappd lists it as a Doppelbock... I see that they get that from the percentage but that's just wrong.

Standard tasting glass as I wasn't sure what else to chose.

The brew pours nice, very black and with mediocre amount of foam which vanishes super fast.

The aroma is meaty, tones of honey and umami faint pepper and clove aroma. All in all not a very strong aroma.

Carbonation is perfect, taste starts surprisingly strong and sweet with faint liquorice and pepper tones. I actually had to double check that there is no added sugar in it.
Decent chocolate tones with a hint of honey.
Aftertaste very nice and full with spicy aspects. Faint bitterness but very pleasing.

Maybe a TAD too syrupy sweet for me, but all in all a really good brew! I wonder why ratebeer goes so low on it as I do enjoy it a lot. The higher alcohol content can't be tasted which in my eyes always is a HUGE bonus.

Happy I found that brew!

Prost!

DMW