[BW] Beer Blog

Brewery: Nøgne Ø
Style: Barley Wine
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: A- (Community)
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.9 (98th percentile)
Serving: Imperial Pint-sized Bottle

*Gasp!* That’s right, folks. I’ve finally gotten around to posting a new beer review! I apologize about the few month gap in there, but things got pretty hectic and I just didn’t have much drive to review beer. Sure I had some great beers in that time, but I just wasn’t moved for some reason. Well that time has passed and I hope to post somewhat regularly again.

Today’s brew is Nøgne Ø’s #100 Barley Wine. This comes from the same Norwegian brewery that has continued to impress me time after time. In celebration of their 100th batch, Nøgne Ø decided to pull out all stops and brew a barley wine. Here’s what they have to say:

Our 100th batch, brewed for the enjoyment of the brewers, but popular demand forced us to release it commercially. This malty, yet light bodied ale has a massive hop bitterness. Most enjoyable in a comfortable chair in front of a roaring fire.

I may not have a roaring fire going on, but I do have a rather bright computer monitor. Let’s hope this is an acceptable substitute.

Appearance: Very dark caramel color with a couple fingers worth of tan head. Pours rather creamy compared to other barley wines. Not a whole lot of light gets through either.

Smell: Typical sweet aroma as with most English-style barley wines. Hughes of caramel, apple, and maybe roasted hazelnuts? I can’t quite put my finger on that last one.

Taste: Wow, definitely unique for a barley wine. Some of the typical English barley wine tastes are there, but the mouthfeel and overall experience is much closer to a cream stout. Definitely hues of roasted nuts, caramel, and even a little chocolate. By far the most innovative effort I’ve tried when it comes to barley wines.

Overall this is a very unique and incredibly delicious barley wine. Nøgne Ø continues to impress me with yet another world-class ale. Pick this up if you’re a fan of both barley wines and darker ales such as stouts or brown ales. Pass on this if you’re not on ales with heavier alcohol or prefer American-style barley wines as there is absolutely no citrus in this one. I’d also recommend finding a roaring fire. A computer monitor just isn’t the same.

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Brewery: Nøgne Ø
Style: Winter Warmer
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: B+
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.79 (96th percentile)
Serving: Imperial Pint-sized Bottle

On my latest trip to the Belmont Beer Station I picked this brew up for two main reasons. One is that I love winter ales and the other being that I’ve never tried Norwegian beer before. I’m all about killing two birds with one stone, so I didn’t think twice about picking this one up.

I’ll admit I don’t know a whole lot about Norwegian culture, however I do know that their relatively-close neighbors to the east, Finland, drink beer like it’s going out of style. However, what I’ve heard from my Finnish friend is that they drink crap beer. Is Norway trying to start a Scandinavian beer renaissance? I have no idea, but Nøgne Ø seems to be making an impact if their brews made it all the way to Portland, Oregon.

From their site - Nøgne Ø was created by two home brewers. Unable to stay at home we started Norway’s first microbrewery for creative brewing. Some times, when we get a momentary glimpse of sanity, we ask ourselves what we have achieved. We think we can say that we have achieved some level of fame, at least locally and among dedicated beer geeks around the world. But more important - before we started Nøgne Ø most Norwegians did not know much about beer styles like IPA, Porter or Amber. This has for sure started to change, and we do feel that we have contributed to what you can call a renaissance of Norwegian beer-culture.

I SWEAR I wrote about the possible renaissance before I read that on their site. Turns out these are my kind of brewers. Let’s drink!

Appearance - About as dark as mahogany can be without being black. Tad more on the red side than brown with a very thin lace of a head that dissipated almost immediately. Only a very slight amount of light shines though.

Smell - Malty with hues of spice coming through. Compared to other winter ales, this one has one of the mellowest aromas I’ve experienced.

Taste - First thing I noticed immediately was hues of coffee. The coffee taste suddenly disappeared, however, and toffee/caramel took over. As with most winter ales the alcohol comes through as well, but not too overwhelming as it’s at a safe 8.5%. The oddest and most unique aspect of this brew’s taste is the alcohol is just high enough to where it gives the same sensation (not taste) as a barley wine as the very last 1% of it dissipates off my palate.

Overall this is a very good brew and I can definitely see myself picking up some more before the winter is over. I am incredibly impressed and it has its own unique complexities to make its own segment of fans in what has become a huge selection of winter seasonal ales. This has also been an incredible introduction to Norwegian ales for me. Expect more reviews from this brewery in the future.

On an unrelated note, I propose that the US ditches the 12oz bottle and embraces the imperial pint-sized bottles. They’re the perfect size for pouring into a pint glass and just large enough to feel bad ass drinking out of, but not large enough to look like a total alcoholic.

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