Narke: Jontes Atgeir (Sweden: American Pale Ale: 4.9% ABV)
Visual: Pale grain to yellow with a white inch of head.
Nose: Hay and light bitterness. Bready. Slight sour dough.
Body: Apricot. Cream. Peach. Light hop character. Light bready character. Moderate bitterness. Unleavened bread. Vanilla custard. Apples.
Finish: Peaches and cream. Brown bread. Light hop character. Vanilla custard. Croissants. Bitterness grows. Slightly dry. Apples.
Conclusion: Oft I can find the American pale ale style to be too dry a beer for me. They tend to have moderate hop bitterness, but done with a drier base such that they end up feeling far more punishing than the IPAs. This is dry, but seems to know exactly how much sweetness to keep in the beer to keep it on the knife edge of just working.
On the nose it doesn’t seem like much at all, just light hay and bitterness. So I was a bit nervous going in. The first sip was a surprise then, coming in far fruitier than the nose let on – a mix of peach and vanilla. Creamy and nothing like what I expected from an American Pale Ale. It seemed against the style, but despite that was very nice indeed. The next few sips followed suit – then the beer remembered it was an APA.
There comes out a bready character, the beer texture feels drier, and with it gentle hops come out. Then it gets drier and harsher hopped. Then by half way through the beer you get brutal hops and dryness.
Normally this would be causing me terrible pain, and cursing of a good beer gone bad, but here it is wonderfully done. There still is that fruity, creamy and IPA like higher malt feel up front, just the end is bitter and punishingly dry. Because of that contrast, and well done switch of gears mid beer I find it hard to begrudge it its dryness.
It still feels slightly harsh for it to be considered perfect, but for the dry side of the pale ale it does indulge the style wonderfully while still not going too far.
A very interesting take on a style that is not normally my scene.
Background: Narke is a Swedish brewery I have heard a lot about, so was determined to do a set of notes on while I was over in Sweden. I had tried their bitter earlier in the trip, but this, found at Akkurat bar in Stockholm was my first chance to do notes. Akkurat has a huge rep and, even fairly early on a Sunday night, was packed – we just managed to grab seats at the bar. This was on our final night in Sweden and planning on going out with a bang.