Scandi noir

There sure are a lot of those little white Brewski cans knocking around. Of course, a lot of them are IPAs, and since local breweries also produce IPAs in quantity, I have little interest in finding out if they do them differently in Sweden. Strong and dark, though? That's more my thing. I made a selection.

Starting small, at 7.5% ABV, is the black IPA Night Knocker. Immediate cosmetic points off here for it appearing brown when poured, and it's actually a clear ruby colour when held to the light. The head is great, though: tight and cream-like. There's a beautiful rosewater aroma with just a faint hint of burntness on the end of that. The flavour is on the subtle side, but all the correct attributes of the style are there. That floral effect is to the fore, deepening from pink petals into a dark fruit character: plump raisins and juicy plums meeting milk chocolate. Before it gets too sweet there's a pleasing poke of spritzy citric bitterness and a sprinkling of sharp roasted grain. Such complexity is short-lived, however, and it's the grapefruit element which forms the aftertaste. The texture, meanwhile, is smooth, and there's plenty of body to carry the flavour, with the alcohol well hidden. So despite the colour, this is pretty much on-point for a black IPA. The taste could maybe do with a general beefing-up -- more malt and hop flavour to match the intense bittering and roast -- but overall I was pretty happy with it. The Scandinavian thoroughness with regard to beer quality shows through.

It's imperial stouts from here on in. I don't make the rules. We start with Tuotsnav ("vanstouT"?), which is 11% ABV and has added vanilla beans. Your route-one sort of pastry stout, then. Full marks for the texture, right from the start: it's an ultra-smooth velvety charmer -- booze-sodden, sure, but not hot or unpleasant. There's space for lots of fun flavours, mostly on the sweet side, including chocolate sauce, cherry jam, pink marshmallow and sticky toffee. There's just enough toasty roast to balance that, making it a more manageable sort of extreme stout. I liked it. It surfs the curve between proper big stout and the silly confections of which there are too many nowadays. This is just different enough to qualify as its own thing. It's impressive how the vanilla draws other flavours out, rather than simply making it taste like custard, and they had no need to trouble a bourbon barrel. Nice work.

We finish with The Lift Off Game, a collaboration with Bottle Logic of California. Strawberry, chocolate and vanilla are what they've "enhanced" it with, and it's 12.5% ABV. Sticky mess? It smells like one, exuding hot jammy vapours and gooey toffee sauce. It's a chewer for sure, thick with syrupy residual sugar; tacky and unctuous. Amazingly it's not hot for all that: the flavour gives little indication of how much alcohol is involved. While the texture tells you immediately what you're dealing with, the taste is a bit more coy, opening on pink summer fruit, which I guess is the strawberry, but tastes more of raspberry to me. The dark malt follows quickly, starting on chocolate syrup and molasses, building out into mocha, coconut and moist fruitcake. It's an absolute dark beer extravaganza, delivering all the warmth and luxury that makes these beers the most popular among the terminally opinionated. Me? I'm a fan. Although the novelty factor is advertised front and centre, this is still a beer of nuance and complexity. Any clowning is of the well-trained variety, with not a foot wrong.

At €5 and under per can at Craft Central, I think this arbitrarily-chosen set of Brewski beers was worth the punt. The hoppy stuff comes with too much baggage, but strong and dark thumbs its nose at fussy freshness fetishists. I reckon I got a good deal here.