365 different beers from 365 different breweries in 365 days with random musings on beer, food, music, sports, dogs and anything else interesting along the way
I suppose on a beautiful fall Sunday during which I ended up working all day, it's perfectly fitting to end it with a beer that kind of sucks.
The Nils Oscar Company's Swedish barleywine style ale is brewed in Sweden. At 10.4% ABV and in a style that I generally enjoy, I had high hopes for this one. No such luck. It poured a clear, reddish brown ale with a minimal tan head. It smelled sweet like rum raisin bread.
Then it went totally south. The flavor was very smokey. The taste was overwhelmingly booze-laden. Surprisingly so. As a point of reference, I had more than a few sips of Dogfish Head's World Wide Stout on Friday night and the 18% ABV was smooth and well disguised. So it is possible to have a high ABV that isn't so assertive. Back to Nils Oscar...other notable flavors included molasses and caramel, but there was also an underlying acidity. To top it all off, as I got to the halfway point and it began to warm a bit, a weird chalkiness became more apparent.
Beer #293 Nils Oscar Barleywine / The Nils Oscar Company, Nyköping, Sweden
I had the pleasure of working from home two days this week courtesy of my cold, but unfortunately being sick caused me to not be as productive as I would have liked, so today was a busy day in the office, followed by a very good post-work happy hour, and then a very good dinner at Bluefin to unwind. I would be remiss if I did not share the fact that we saw a guy there on a "date" with a prostitute. Oh, it wasn't just a woman in a low-cut tight outfit (although that's what she had on); they clearly gave off the vibe of two strangers who were exchanging money for sex. But why go to dinner? Trying to impress her with..... your fondness for good sushi? Strange days indeed, people. At least we've finally reached the weekend! Although I'll be in the office on Sunday trying to catch up on what I missed courtesy of "working" from home this week. Can't win them all.
Tonight's beer is a barley wine from Nils Oscar, a brewery in Sweden - yes, another beer from Sweden. This beer has a clear amber color with wispy white head. The aroma is of stone fruits, and the taste is mellow, with notes of honey and raisins and a clean finish. This barley wine isn't terribly complex, but by the same token it isn't terrible. Just not as good as it could have been. In my mind, barley wines are made for cool nights sitting outside, and for my hard earned dollar (in the office this Sunday!), there are better barley wines to be found.
Swedish.......
This brewery is named for the grandfather of the founder of this brewery; Mr. Oscar lived in the United States for a number of years and studied in Chicago before returning back to Sweden to run his family's farm in the late 1800's. Now you know!
Thing to Think About Today:
So, ABBA, Roxette.... I guess the third most popular band from Sweden might be Ace of Base? Might be, and that would be a good pick, but I'm going to surprise everyone here and drop The Cardigans on you! Yes, they're Swedish. And, for further surprise purposes, I won't even drop their mega-hit song Love Fool, I'm going with My Favourite Game, a much rougher and dare I say sexier sound than what you expected from a band who put out Love Fool to the world. Weekend, here we come!
