Boatrocker Nordjet 2021

"We LOVE licorice here at Boatrocker, and have an affinity with salted licorice from the Nordic countries."

That's how Boatrocker open the description for this spin on their iconic Ramjet barrel-aged imperial stout. In truth, you needn't have read those words to get the message as it comes through loud and proud from the moment you crack the can. Nordjet came into being as a marriage of an extra aged barrel of Ramjet with macerated salted liquorice and natural liquorice extract, with the resultant beer as far from the OG as any of the variations I can recall – even the Dramjet twins.

And that's down to one thing and one thing only: the liquorice. As someone camping nearby who we'd met in the William Creek pub earlier in the day put it – on the occasion of his first encounter with an imperial stout of any form, let alone one aged in Starward barrels: "It's like a Darrell Lea Dark Chocolate Liquorice Twist." And he's bang on, albeit rather boozier and rather more intense.

James Smith

Published July 2, 2021 2021-07-02 00:00:00