Årgång Porter 2007 (Mariestads)

Mariestads was a small independent brewery in the small Swedish town of Mariestad until 1967. Now it is owned by the largest Swedish-owned brewery in the country, Spendrups, and has become a "high-end" line of beers for them.  I think the idea is to fool the consumer into thinking that the Mariestads line of beers is brewed in a small private brewery, which is unfortunately not the case. Because of this, Mariestads seems kind of like an attempt at a micro-brew line from a macro-brewery.

This porter pours pretty much as to expected. Its dark with a coffee colored head which dissipated quickly. It smells like rich malt and very, very sweet. I kind of had an idea of what it would taste like just by the way it poured and smelled.

It seemed sort of oily and watery in the first taste, but one good thing about very dark beer is that it masks a lot of imperfections. Despite a rather unrefined porter taste, its a drinkable beer. In Sweden you buy your beers individually, there is no 6-packs, 12-packs or cases. This allows you to mix your beers and get as many of each as you want. I only bought one of these and I think that was a smart decision.

BEER FACTS

Name: Årgång Porter 2007

Style: Porter

Brewery: Mariestads Bryggeri AB

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: Pilsner, Vienna and Caramel

Hops: Saaz and Fuggles

ABV: 5.9%

IBUs: ?