BREWER: Brouwerij Kompaan, South Holland

STYLE: Double IPA

ABV: 8.2%

VESSEL: 33cl bottle

TWITTER: @KompaanBier

SAMMY SAY’S…

Hand Langer is a lively one. She fizzes up very quickly once she’s let loose from the bottle. And behind all the fizz, there’s a very nice citrus fruit aroma, which is ably supported by a faint backdrop of caramel.

In the drinking, it’s the burnt caramel that wins out. While Hand Langer is not altogether unpleasant, there is something a little forced about it. It doesn’t quite align its flavours. As I drink it, I’m not sure that it knows where it belongs. The lack of clarity leads to it languishing in, dare I say it, being incredibly unmemorable.

Hand Langer is a beer that I will easily forget. Funnily enough, I don’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad beer, because it’s not. I just mean that there are so many other beers out there that out strip it. It doesn’t have a USP. It will drift into the background.

A little like a day at work, I can say with a degree of certainty that I will very quickly forget Hand Langer. It will fade into nothingness and I cannot guarantee that come the future I will ever remember having had it. Oh well.

Sammy’s Rating: 63%

JYMI SAY’S…

Beware the HANDLANGER!!! And there are a of couple reasons for this… One comes from the Kompaan Brewery themselves and one from your personal beer adviser, Jymi.

Firstly the advice from Kompaan: WATCH YOUR BACK.. They call him bitter and merciless – we call him the HANDLANGER!

So I get scared way easier than the usual person I have to admit. I honestly look at the bottom left corner of the TV sometimes if a jumpy moment looks likely to happen in Emmerdale.

The Kompaan discription of this beer seems creepy to me, like the Handlanger may seek then find you at any moment. I’m sure this was not the brewery’s intention but either way, I scared me.

Now the advice from yours truly: OK, crazy creepy aside the first thing to note about this brew is it does not taste like it is 8.2%. Not even close. Unless you drank a certain amount of these you would have no idea you were drinking an 8.2% monster. Bizarrely it almost tastes weak!! DANGER DANGER…. HIGH VOLTAGE!

Kompaan’s Handlanger pours a beautiful colour with an almost soapy, lively head. There are notes of caramel throughout with the odd hint of banana. But is it the monster of a beer that it should be?

Quite simply, No

… this isn’t a monster of a beer. Far from it. I mean it’s nice enough but with the name HANDLANGER, a big ol’ ABV and the label of Double IPA I just wanted a bit more if I’m honest.