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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Lava Smoked Imperial Stout

In stock at Forsyth and online

One of the top 25 beers of the 2012 by Draft Magazine


Olvisholt Lava Smoked Imperial Stout...$9.99 / pint
Rated 99/100 RateBeer
Rated 99/100 RateBeer Smoked Style

"TAKE YOUR TONGUE ON A TRIP TO THE ARCTIC ISLE’S RING OF FIRE WITH LAVA SMOKED IMPERIAL STOUT (9.4% ABV). IT WILL SKÁL ÞIG YFIR (BOWL YOU OVER)."
Lava is a full-bodied, pitch-black beer with a dense brown head. It is richly flavored with notes of dark chocolate, rummy plum, roasted malt, espresso and lactose, with birch smoke in the finish. Lava is highly sought after by Scandinavian beer geeks. Taste it and you will understand why.
Lew Bryson recently gave a wonderful review of Lava. He notes:
“Smoked imperial Stout from one of Iceland’s handful of breweries. Weighty look to it, rich beechwood smoke aromas. Delicious smoke flavors permeate a medium-weight body, surprising notes and even some berry flashes near the end. The finish reveals the bitterness, leaving a clean bite of smoke and fruit at the end. Lush flavors, but not heavy; a smoky dessert.”

This fantastic beer was also featured on Martha Stewart TV.
GREAT WITH FOOD!

You might like to get to know Icelandic foods to pair with the beer: oysters, lobster and crayfish, arctic char, herring, sea urchin, halibut, gravlax, lamb, reindeer, rabbit and shark.

And here are a fistful of herbs, spices and plants to work with to turn any
dish Icelandic: angelica, dulse, sorrel, dock, yarrow, wild arctic thyme, juniper, crowberry, caraway, scurvywort, moss.

Last winter, we went to Oslo, Norway for a long weekend. There, fast friends and key operatives in the craft beer scene introduced us to a beer they loved from Iceland’s only craft brewery, Olvisholt Brugghus. We loved it too. And so began an odyssey to find the brewer and bring back his delicious beer to you. We went to Iceland in September and the combined effect of Iceland’s raw natural beauty and Jon Gunnlauggson’s talent as a farmstead brewer – on a wild and lonely heath facing an active volcano – was utterly stunning and inspiring. And so is the Olvisholt story:

The brewery opened on Jon’s family dairy farm in 2008. The day before the official inauguration, an earthquake, registering 6.1 on the Richter scale, shocked Southern Iceland. The full combi tanks were swayed side to side, but the equipment withstood the tremor. Visitors at the opening said the brewers must be in contact with the Nordic gods since their first beer, Skalfti, means earthquake. Next came Lava… and Eyjafjallajokull – the volcano that erupted and halted all air traffic across Northern Europe. Hmm…

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