Welcome, my friends, to my very first taste of an Oppigards beer: Oppigards Winter Ale. The Oppigards Bryggeri, you see, is a Swedish farmhouse brewery located in Hedemora. They are a member of the Scandanavian Craft Brewers guild. This is about all I know about them, because that’s what is on the label of the bottle I bought.
Thanks to that technical marvel that is the internet, though, I am about to find out more. I Bing “Oppigards Winter Ale”, and what do you know? I find their website. It’s in Swedish, mind you, and I don’t speak Swedish. I speak enough German and French to usually get by, but Swedish does not seem much like these languages. I am confronted by a paragraph and two sentences that I am pretty sure ask me if I am at least 18 years old. They say:
“Jag har fyllt 18 ar”
And
“Jag har inte fyylt 18 ar”
I gamble with the top choice, and lucky me, I got it right. Now I come to their main page; a banner link at the top says “Olsorter”. Since I know Ol is ale/beer, I click that and get a list of Oppigard beers. Now, I am not even going to try to make sense of the description of Oppigards Winter Ale, so let’s let Bing translate this time:
Seasonal product with sales period during the winter leading up to Christmas. We've brewed a dark välhumlat beer as we think and respond well to Christmas often greasy dishes. The combination of roasted flavors of dark chocolate and coffee flavors and aromas that meets cirtusfrukternas comes from the choice of aroma hops. Can be stored for about six months.
This beer was named best draft beer in category Ale up to 5.9% at Stockholm Beer festival in 2006 and bronze in 2008 and was named the best Swedish bottled beer in 2008 and won the Swedish Ölfrämjandets Christmas beer tasting 2008, 2009 and 2010. 2009 it became gold again at Stockholm Beer Festival. Winter Ale was named best Christmas beer at Örebro Beer o Whiskey festival 2009-11-21.
OG: 1056, SG: 1015, Alk vol: 5.3%
Malts: Pale ale malt, light karamellmalt, dark karamellmalt, Melanoidinmalt, and chocolate malt.
Sold in 50 cl bottle and 30 liter barrels until Christmas.
Latest domestic dates were: 2012-12-06
Isn’t that always fun? I do so enjoy a good Valhumlat beer, and respond well to Christmas, too. And how about those often greasy dishes? Anyway, here’s what I think, no translation required.
Oppigards Winter Ale pours to a murky brown color with a thick, rocky tan head formation and a sweet nutty malty nose. A very thick layer of Brussels lace clings to the side of my glass and descends all the way to the bottom. Taking a sip the beer has very good body and a rich mouthfeel. Soft notes of chocolate and sweet, dark cookie like malt are very much apparent, with the chocolate becoming more pronounced towards the last. Gentle herbal grassiness dries at the last.
A very delicious winter warmer that is perfect for the, well, winter months. Only 5.3% alcohol by volume so not a heavy beer but that makes it all the more drinkable. I kept mine refrigerated for a year and it held up well. Reasonable too at $3.99 the half liter.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft