Favorites from Oslo Whisky Festival

In a whisky festival with mostly Scottish whisky I’m gonna go out on a limb and say my two favorites are not Scotch, why because these to stood out the most, when you drink 8-12 glasses in a few hours even with geniures water in between each glass, they have a tendency to melt together.

These two were very good and very different from the others.


First up Bushmills 16, I love the 10 year old, and this really ups the ante, when you nose and taste it, you get hit with lots and lots of green, new mown lawns, dandelion and most of all pine needles. You get Christmas feel or a foggy and wet fall day in the forest. Oslo being surrounded by pine forest on 3 sides means this is not a new thing for me, but of course it’s super concentrated in the whisky. Very different from the others. It was the last whisky I drank and the aftertaste lasted and lasted, only when I started to eat half an hour later and drink Pepsi did it go away, sadly I might add. Very enjoyable.


And finally the best of the best

Hakushu Single Malt Whisky 10 y.O, well I shouldn’t use the word best, but my favorite, I liked it so much I actually went back for seconds. What made this one stand out was a lot of red fruit, first red apples and then a stronger red berries taste, I spent quite some time on this one, sitting outside in the cold winter air the nose mixed with the cold air and you got this really fresh malt taste to, and the red berries continued to present itself.

Both these two are next on my to buy list

Oslo Whisky Festival special-

Howdy pard.

Well it’s six a clock this evening I have spent a few hours with my dad at Oslo Whisky festival, it’s the 7th annual festival but it’s my first time at a whisky festival, I have to thank the people a whisky whisky whisky, I did not know about it until some user I can’t remember told about it, so thanks to him. I had planned on going to this festival for several months, it was at ingeniørenes hus which often rent out it’s space for everything really my dad said he had had dance lesions there in the 50s, so the place get used a lot.

The festival was in two big rooms and you had a cafeteria to, you had Norwegian championship in nosing, there was a good selection but only by Norwegian standards, any European or British supermarket would have just as many or more whiskies to show off. Almost all of them are available in the Wine monopoly, with a few exceptions.
It was a two day event but we only went there on the second day. For 350kr or about £35 you get emission, a nosing glass, a pamphlet and 10 bongs, each 2cl glass of whisky cost from 1 to 4 bongs depending on how much the whisky cost at the monopoly. You can also buy 5 more bongs for 100kr

Now to put that into perspective that means in theory you can get 5 2cl glasses for about 100kr, or 10cl, in a bar that would cost 120kr for a good 2cl glass of whisky. So this is very cheap compared to going out. But still not cheap since alcohol is never cheap in Norway.
As the day went on hundreds of people showed up, it got really full and louder as people got more whisky in them.

Here follows a short review of most of the whiskies I tried today, the two favorite gets their own post later today or tomorrow.

First up was Black and black that’s black grouse with cola, with a twist of lime, the grouse people knew that with 12-30 year old single malts they had to get at the consumers on a different level, so they had 3 cocktails with the grouse, black and black, one with standard grouse and ginger ale, that sounded really good and I’m gonna try it at home later on, because I really like ginger ale, especially the Canada dry. On and finally snow grouse with cranberry juice, Now back on the black and black, it was quite good, it was marketed as a more tasteful fuller option instead of the jack and coke, and I do agree it was quite good, but the problem is that even grouse that are blended are quite expensive in Norway, and I’m not sure it’s worth the money

Up next is the two bourbons, this is stuff I don’t buy myself so it’s good to try something different, I don’t mind bourbon a lot of people don’t like it, but I find fare to good bourbons are actually quite nice. Now all bourbons taste bourbon, they got a taste I think all of them got, and it can be quite hard to find different tastes then just the bourbon, the maker’s mark was up first, it’s a mild bourbon, it got the good bourbon nose, which I find is better than the taste, it got the sweet bourbon taste but not much more, a fine dram, but not as unique complex as a single malt.

The second bourbon was Knob creek, again clearly a bourbon maybe a little sweeter then Maker’s Mark, a little cola taste, this one is one of the few whiskies that was at the festival that isn’t available at the monopoly. Again nothing wrong with it, and clearly more palatable then Jim Beams standard selection.


This one I have wanted to try for a LONG time, basically since I started to drink whisky. Mostly because Ralfy did a review of it. It tasted like a malt, it had a very malty taste, a very very slight hint of peat. But the most interesting part of it was the finish which had a good black pepper taste.I fine whisky and had I live in a place were modest whiskies were priced modestly I might have bought it often, but right now it cost a 100kr more than Bushmills 10, and I’m not sure that lovely pepper finish is worth those 100kr

Glendfiddich 30, this one I tried just because I wanted to drink something older then myself, and it a good 5 years on me, but I’m really glad I didn’t buy a full bottle of this, it was really underwhelming, besides a hint of vanilla there really wasn’t much to say about it, it got the bourbon cask influence, and vanilla, but that’s it.

There was actually quite a bit of Japanese whisky at the festival, I tried two, the other one is actually my favorite I tried today and will get its own post.

Yamazaki 18 Years was the second I tried the most interesting thing about this is just how it transforms when you add a bit of water to it, it was like two completely different whiskies, had I not poured the water myself and knew it was the same whisky it would have thought it was two different ones. With water you get this really big floral nose and taste, like eating sunflowers while smelling roses. REALLY floral.

Nøgne Ø

Hello, I'm still on the beer trip, I usualy only drink during weekends but it's "fall vacation" and it's my first real vacation in 7 years, and so I'm going a little hedonistic becasue next week it's standard week again and school, so since I'm learing to like beer i might as well sit up late at night watching mel brooks films and drinking beer.

When I get into something I start to absorb knowlage, if I can read about it I can learn it.

I did it with Napoleoincs, ACW, AWI, 30YTW, and I did it with whisky, now I know a hell of alot more about Napoleoincs then Whisky, but as I said if I can read it, I can learn it, so I've read the basics of whisky, watched vidoes of the brewing and distilling prosses. so I did the same with Beer, reading about the diffrent types, how they are made their classificaion ect.

In my reading travles I came acros this Norwegian Brewery called Nøgene Ø, that's Danish for Naked Isle and comes from Henrik Ibsen in a poem, Anyway to understand the imporantce of this brewery you need to know that 98% of all beer made, sold and drunk in Norway is a piss caled pilsner or in norwegian just pils, it's bad stuff, but norwegians don't know how bad they have it, they are naive. Kinda like in the 80's when a Frank Zappa song Called Boby Brown, it became a BIG hit in norway people dancing to it ect. ofcourse Norwegians were stupid back then, and aperantly did not get the refrence to Golden Shower, we know better now, but the concept of norwegians digging and dancing to a song about a man pissing on another man is kinda funny.

It's the same today only the piss is not in a song but in the form of bad beer, norwegians drinks vast amounts of this stuff and they don't know there is actualy a whole world of other types of beer out there.

So in 2002 two home brewers stars a company, that now has grown into selling 250 000 liters of beer a year, half of which go to other countries, they have won atleast 1 price in 2008 for their Dark Horizon First edtion, they make propper beer, IPA, Imperial stout, bitter ect. and sevral other designer beers. I fell in love with the concept of the whole brewery, it would kinda be like if the whole of Scotland only made Blended whisky, and every body in Sotland only drank Blended whisky, but Ireland and Japan made Single malt, then suddenly a sole distillery in Sctoland decided to make a single malt, the Scots don't know what this single malt thing is all about, the blanded scotch is wonderfull nothing could be better ect. You get the point, same with beer in Norway, so these guys started a company that have gotten it's own fan club or association.
The make ale propper ale.

Today I tested thier Imperial Stout, at 9% abv it's strong, but damn it's bitter really really bitter, the foam is almost black, it takes some getting used to but I think I can learn to like it,
Something in the same ally was their Porter, Porter is fast becoming my favorite beer, Nøgne Ø proter is simular to thier imperial Stout only milder, it got the same feel and taste only slighlty less of it. It's bitter but not as bitter, it's almost as dark, it goes REALY well with dark chocolate, and ofcourse a strong peated whisky.

Well that's the report if you find Nøgne Ø were you live try it, I recomend in particular their porter and Imperial Brown, they do send some quanteties to America, I don't know if you can get in the Canada but you do get it in the States, and aperantly England, most of their beers have gotten a good grade at RateBeer website.

Beer, beer and more beer

Having learned to like whisky and enjoing it very much, there is one more think I should learn to like becasue it goes with the whisky, and thats beer. there are two adult drinks I've never learned to like that you have to learn, something that nobody likes the first times they try it.

One is coffee and I have no planes on starting to drink that shit, but the second is beer.

In norway 99% of the beer you get in the store is pilsner exept for corona and the norwegian "juleøl" you get every chirstmas.



If you want to get propper beer you need to go to a beer pub or to the wine monopoly were you have to go to get vine, and spirits and beer over 4.5% abv. Also they have imports, knowing I didn't like pilsner(or just pils in norway) I started to read the online catalog from the wine monopoly, on most products they got a short and concise description of the product, be it whisky, brandy, wine, vodka or beer. The one thing I realy wanted to try becasue in my opinion is the most manly form of beer is british bitter, but they have some beers that are descripbed as bitter after taste but they don't have any classic bitter beers in norway, some pubs might have it, but I don't know of any propper beer pubs in Oslo, so I just tried diffrent stuff, I tried Guinness and was disapointed. I expected I either hated it or loved it, instead i just tasted like "beer" something I did not enjoy drinking but didn't gag from either, a kinda limbo, some one pointed out that it might be the hops I don't like and recomeded more malty beers. I have concentrated on English beers becasue I'm an anglofile and English are the second most manly race of people after Scotts in Kilts.



I love the aspect of a propper english pub, right now you can get a plane to london for 320kr or about £30 I'm almost tempted to spring for ticked just to go to a propper english pub and then go back, the total price would be £60 for plane and £50 for two nights at a hotel, and it is "høst ferie" the next week, that is a week of fall vacation, i think it goes back to when the kids in the city would leave school for a week and go to the country to harvest potatoes. those £170 would almost be worth it just to go to a pub, sit down and say " a pint of bitter and a glass of single malt" soak up the atmosfare, I might even take an hour train ride to a country pub instead of one in the city(tho it might take longer then an hour to get away from london)



Amyway I dream, right now I'm drinking a Propper job india pale ale, not to my taste, it's "powerfully hopped" and if it is the hops I don't like than natuarly this one isn't my kind of beer.

It's not horrible but it taste to much like pils, tho even this beer is quite fine when I drink it next to my HP 18(you thought I wasn't going to talk about whisky this time didn't you) They compliment each other qite well, the HP18 is quite sweet, and the beer is hopped and not sweet but neither is it bitter, it got a hint of grapefruit in the arma, but it dosn't show up that well in the taste, to much hops.



Beeing norwegian you are at a disatvantage when learing to enjor propper alcoholic bevreges and spirits, the norwegian mentaltiy is to get realy drunk, rave around town, getting into fights, the old orange juice and vodka is the staple of norwegian youth growing up, there is actualy a pledge for graduating highschoolers that they have to dring one case of 24 33cl beers in 3 hours, natuarly doing stuff like having a beer in a glass and sniffing it is out of the question, the only time Norwegians actualy enjor a propper beer is when it's summer and you are out Barbecueing or the very first summer beer, but thats for adults, youth drink to get drunk, and it takes quite an affort to actualy start to get the mantality to enjoy bevrages and spirits for their quality and not the alcohol.



I don't know of that many Norwegians that actualy sniff their beer to get the aroma and nose, that is ofcourse becasue pils don't realy smell much of anything, but when you get some quality beer it's almost like whisky, they got a distinct nose and taste, not as powerfull as whisky. In whisky you got years of maturation in oak, you got the stronger alcohol, but still it's some of the same aspects. Like that you get good whisky at 40% abv but you kinda like when it goes up to 46% or more not becasue more booze is good but becasue the nose and flavores get more notisble, in the same aspect I think a good propper beer should have atleast 5.5% over 6% is better.



The second beer I'm drinking today is Samuels Smth's Taddy Porter, with aberlour 10 on the side, it's my first porter it got alot less of what i suspect is the hops, which means It's more to my taste, it's dark but not strong in the taste it's all very subtile, it got a small hint of liqourice, but it dosn't have any after taste which is a shame, the propper job even with it's strong hops had a nice after taste that went well with the whisky, here the beer taste goes away and the beer and whisky are kinda separate, no actualy if you change the order, and drink the whisky first which does have an after taste, the beer and whisky goes very well together, the aberlour is by no means a heavy whisky, it got some hints of spice, but it's not peated at all, I wonder how the porter goes with a heavier whisky, hmmm, hold on while I get the Laphroaig.



The Laphroaig is very nice, I think I have to by another Lagavulin soon so I can compare these two peated monster whiskies, I'm just gonna let it breath a little before I try the beer/whisky combo..



Lets see, hmm that was quite the combo, the peaty aftertaste is so long you could take a sip of the whisky and not have a taste of the beer for an hour and still get the combo. I like the combo the porter is a heavy beer and Laphroaig is a heavy whisky, to you'd think it got to heavy but they work well togeather.

Well I'll stop writing now, because in the end I got just to much beer and whisky in me today, but it's the first day of vacation so I guess I can indulge my self. It's clare that hops is not my thing and any beer with more pronounced malt or other tastes is my kind of beer.

This is all for now, I'm watching Hard Bolied but I got to caught up in writing so I almost forgot to watch.

Bushmills 10 and HP12

Highland Park 12 Y.O

This I bought because I thought it would work as a present for my dad, and it sure was, this is in many ways like the archetype Scotch, lots of sweet malt, a little smoke, when people say they don't like Scotch it's becasue of this taste, of course that only means they should try other types, that taste completely different, I like the taste, not the most interesting whisky, very little nose, but a classic taste, well made well tasting.After having tasted the HP18, I kinda knew what I was gonna get, I was more interested in the Bushmills

Bushmills 10

I'm drinking this as I type, and WOW what a special thing this is, my first taste of Irish Whiskey, I let it it open up and breath for quite some time, and I started to sniff, I was listing to music as I did it, then suddenly a smell hit me, I recognized it, but were I had to find out, it was so familiar but distant, I had to turn off the music to really concentrate, where the hell had I smelled this before, it took a good minute to really think about it, then it hit me, Bourbon, Jim Beam Black to be precise, this sweet chemical smell, yes that was it, naturally not as strong, but there was no hiding it, this just got more more interested, a single malt that smells of bourbon, I know Single malts often are matured on Bourbon casks, but I never actually smelled or tasted any bourbon in them, this was the first, it wasn't a hint of it, it was a clear strong smell, it was the primary smell in fact, now this is not a bad thing at all, I like the smell, I liked the minute it took me to find remember the smell to it was fun, to really have to think about it dig down into the olfactory memory. I REALLY enjoy this nose, it's nice to have a bourbon smell with out having to battle with the taste of the rather strong and harsh taste of Jim Beam Black, not that there is anything wrong with it. This is the kid of Whiskey I could just sit at nose for hours,The nose is sweet, chemical, Lacquer.

The taste, oh shit I forgot to taste it.

There is no Bourbon taste to it, only a hint of the nose of it comes along with the taste. Actually the Jim beam comes back, after the first taste which is classic malt, the bourbon comes back in the after taste it coats the mouth with lacquer, I never expected a malt to be so dominated by the casks it was in.You get a bourbon but it's really a malt, you get the smoothness of malt, but with strong hints of bourbon, very nice, very drinkable, I must say this one out did my expectations.This one I'll be drinking and NOSING often in the weeks and months ahead.

glencairn is here

I got this one last week, as well as other stuff
My order from Glencairn was stuck in costums for a long time as there was a strike in Norway.


I'm about to enjoy this glass og Bladnoch, so far my favorite whisky.(not tried that many)
I have not bought any new whiskies as my wargaming expenditures have gone up as I'm buying new stuff, But I hope to show something new later this summer

Laphroaig Quarter cask

Laphroaig is probably one of those whiskies you need to learn to like, unless you are a peater one of those people you see walking the streets begging for money so they can buy their next fix of peat, they are Scotland's answer to crack whores.The first I thought when I took a sniff was Lagavulin, naturally this was the smoke/peat.I won't say put up a list of what I smell and taste because my noobie nose and taste buds have problems getting past the smoke, what I can say is that at 48% I NEED water, I tried it dry and the alcohol just bit my nose, when I tasted it, it burned my moth.So I put two tea spoons of water in it, and it became quite drinkable.What I can say about the smell, taste etc. is smoky, peaty, abit salt, but the peat and smoke just overwhelms me, and I can't get more specific. That's not to say it's not enjoyable, I'm still not sure I'm that big of a fan of smoke but I don't hate it, I might prefer less smoke, but I can drink a smoky whisky and enjoy it very much.

One last thing, I actually had to watch Ralfy's video on this to actually get it, he says there's this clean finish, and I think I get that, when the finish happen, you have the smoke, but at the same time, your mouth feel very "clean" like you just had a drink of spring water, but you still have the smoke at the same time very curious, maybe what I like the best so far about it, feels just like you just drunk a full glass of icy fresh water, it takes time for it to happen something like a good minute or more after, then suddenly the fresh soft water taste.

Anyway Now I have one whisky from, Islands, Islay, Speyside and Lowland I need one for highlands, but which one, post a comment and let me know which one I should get.