Style: Imperial pastry stout
Brewery: Amundsen Bryggeri
Origin: Norway
Size: 44cl
Alcohol: 12.5%
Price: 51kr
Systembolaget: 10434
Amundsen is Oslo’s biggest brewery and one of Norway’s largest craft breweries. Opening in 2011 as a brew pub, they quickly expanded and now own a 42Hl capacity brewery which opened in 2016. This beer is a collaboration with Brew York, an English brewery based in the North East, and was brewed to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Anyone that has been to one of my tastings knows how much I love imperial stouts. The big, over the top nature of them produces some amazing aromas and tastes, and Amundsen has made some great examples in the past few years. The full name of this beer was “Glazed and Confused 3.0: Cinnamon Donut with Sticky Toffee and Maple Ultra pastry stout” so you can imagine the anticipation in trying it. But was this as good as some of their previous efforts? It was definitely up there! This was paired with white oat chocolate from Nordic Chocolate.
This was pitch black in colour with a toffee coloured head and almost zero carbonation. The body was so thick and sticky that when the glass was swirled, it coated it completely. The aroma was very sweet, with big white sugar, nuts, dough and white chocolate notes exploding from the glass. The beer really did taste like a doughnut, with the doughy chocolate notes sticking to the tongue accompanied by cream, cinnamon, vanilla, maple syrup and strawberry sprinkles. The aftertaste was warming and long, with the sweetness continuing for a long time. The high alcohol came through in the chest, and almost gave fumes in the nostrils after you took a swig.
This was big, bold, and did exactly what it said on the can. This stout won’t be for everyone, but for those who like bold pastry beers, this is a winner.