We’re off over the North Sea to Scandinavia this weekend where we have a guest reviewer named JLarc to let us know his thoughts on this curious looking IPA. 

Hope you enjoy and have a most splendid weekend..    

BREWER: Sofiero Brewery, Halland County

STYLE: IPA

ABV: 5.5%

VESSEL: 330ml tin

TWITTER: @sofierobeer 

MOB RATING: 76%

JYMI SAY’S…

I’d like to think that we’ve all have all had that moment in our lives when younger (though of course not everyone has) where your Great Aunt Bethyl used to force feed you IPA…. sorry, Toffees, whilst sitting on a bench looking out over the vast sea. You could sit there chewing that buttery sweet for what seemed like forever, dreaming of becoming either a Pirate or Marine Biologist specialising in the annual movements and feeding patterns of the Cyprinodon Diabolis.

Fast forward some years and you could quite easily find yourself in a similar situation (though sadly fabricated Bethyl passed away in an unfortunate sit-on lawnmower incident). There you are, sitting on a bench looking out over the vast sea sipping on a very nice brew named Wolf Warning, the large buttery tones of toffee take you back, back to the time you dreamt of Piracy or Marine Biology, or in my case… BOTH!

This is a genuinely good IPA. The can tells us what we’re going to get and it delivers on it.

It’s smooth as hell, really tasty and pretty good you know! Not a huge amount more to say about it taste wise.

When it comes to the look of the tin though, I’m not totally sold. Yet again there is huge promise but it just isn’t quite there …. It’s a bit of a can of two halves. The top half with the matt silver back drop and black drawing of a triplane and moody clouds just looks ace. However the bottom half is really muddled and the Wolf Warning Triangle doesn’t do much for flow of the packaging. Overall the look isn’t all that appealing for a boy named Jymi.

All in all we have a good tasting ale here that isn’t that hard to come across, so when you see one, I say grab…. Twelve.

Jymi’s Rating: 75%

SAMMY SAY’S…

Craft Warning has two brands: Wolf Warning and Elk Warning.  The ‘Wolf’ are beer based products (lager, double brew lager and IPA) while the ‘Elk’ are cider based beverages.

Let us first begin with the obvious and let us not ignore the elephant in the room: this offering from a small brewery in Southern Sweden has an eye-catching, clever design.  Whoever is in-charge of marketing and creativity at Craft Warning deserves a good old-fashioned pat on the back and three cheers because they have produced an outstanding can – no two ways about it.   This beer stands out on the shelf and offers assurances of big things in a market that has some very stiff competition…

Once opened, the nose on this IPA is a definite nod to its crafty cousins (from well-established craft brewing houses) and carries a fruity, slightly apricot based, aroma.  And we all know that’s a hit.  Sweet and tempting, it promises to be another belter of a beer, one which could be enjoyed as readily on a long summer’s evening just as easily as it could on a chilly winter’s night in front of the fire.

On drinking, Wolf Warning IPA doesn’t quite live up to the big hitters that it’s pitched against.  Although the flavour is decent, it lacks in the depth and the length that the standout beers in this arena give in abundance.  But that said, it is good, and it is definitely not to be ignored.

While Wolf Warning IPA has some tough, and frankly better, opposition, it’s not one to be ignored on the shelf.  And with packaging such as it has, who could ignore it anyway? 

.

Sammy’s Rating: 77%

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 76% 

JLARC SAY’S…

After a long, hard day in the matrix what better task could you have than to sup on a beer supplied by the Muse on Booze crew for guest review? Sat; feet up, football on, Wolf Warning IPA can cracked open, here we go…

I can’t say I’ve ever (knowingly) consumed a beer brewed in Sweden before, so I didn’t really know what to expect from this. Could it swing the way of Swedish cuisine… bizarre flavour combinations that on the odd occasion come together to form something far greater than the sum of its parts but on other occasions are just plain weird. Or was this to be a more middle-of-the-road IPA?

Wolf Warning IPA pours a beautiful, clear amber with a thin creamy colour head. Maybe it was the contrast between the warm inviting glow of the beer and the cold, dead look of the weather outside – this beer looked particularly appetising. Or maybe I was just cluckin’…

Quite flat on the nose, slightly floral with mild zesty fruit notes. Nothing special but nothing offensive.

Wolf Warning is rather dry but lifted by faint citrus notes sometimes resembling a mild, sweet marmalade, there’s that zesty citrus note somewhere in there but it mostly gets tempered by creamy malts and notes of toffee.

I could’ve quite happily sat and drunk three or four of these but after that I fear the tang would get me. All-in-all a pleasant enough beer but it doesn’t stand out and certainly doesn’t make the list of beers that I would traverse in to the upside-down to acquire a crate of. Also, you probably wouldn’t have to as it seems to be available at some of the big boy supermarkets. On reflection, it fits the middle-of-the-road bracket rather than a Swedish masterpiece, but it’s still a decent enough tipple

JLarc’s Rating: 64%

MOB review next weekend: PEDIGREE by MARSTONS

LOOKIN’ TO BE THE SLICKEST KAT IN TOWN? THEN FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @MUSEONBOOZE