Nøgne Ø God Jul

Brewed by Nøgne Ø
Style: American Strong Ale
Grimstad, Norway

Pours dark brown this thin tan head. bready aroma with flavors of malts, caramel, filburt nuts, chocolate, and roast. well balanced with a nice bitter finish

Bottle at RBESG Grand Tasting 05. Hoppy, pond water smell. Brown beer. Hoppy, tart, and whilst flat, it does have a crispness to the flavour too.

This dark brown ale poured with a fluffy brown head that lasted a while. There is a pleasant chocolate malt aroma. There is a hearty caramel malt flavor with nice balancing hops. Very tasty.

Rating for Nøgne Ø Winter Ale

Deep garnet, impervious to light in my wide-bodied Duvel glass. A creamy, khaki head is slow to form yet rather quick to leave... soon only a frothy, mochaccino skin. Light soaps and shoe leather corrupt an otherwise well-malted base aroma which finds semi-sweet chocolate and dark fruit as well as coffee bitters and spice. A full, fluffy mouth carries rich, malted flavors and a citric fruitiness before a finish which finds a bitterness that sways between the chocolate and coffee found in the nose. By far my favorite of the four beers I’ve tried from this brewer in the past few weeks.

<font size=-4>"Pint" bottle from <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/illinois/chicag Lakeview Liquors, Chicago, IL 60618</font>

Black with a brown edge, no head. Aroma is chocolate, caramel, chocolate syrup, soy sauce. Taste is chocolate, soy sauce and mollases.

Pours a deep brown with a small tan head. Aroma of roasted malts, coffee, and some sweet figs. Taste is roast, chocolate, and dark fruits with a well balanced bitterness and a nice dry finish.

500mL bottle, no date. I also have a review last year from General_Gao, but some day I’ll add my backlog. Ah, gotta love the gushers spilling on my computer, carpet, couch, and whatnot. Fuck! Very deep ruby brown--damn near opaque--with a two finger brown head, fading down to a 1/4 finger head by the time it took me to wipe up everything and Resolve® my carpet. Roasted malts, chocolate malted milk balls, nutmeg and misc. spices are dominant. Quite chocolatey with some sweet caramel and chocolate chip cookie dough. Flavor was roastier, though there are still some sweet chocolate and caramel notes again, cookie dough and raisins following with some warming alcohol. Though what I stated sounds somewhat like a RIS, it didn’t taste like one at all. The roast never got very strong. Semi-dry finish with bitterness reaching a 2-3. Moderate carbonation with a medium full body. I originally had this a 7-4-8-4-16, but think it deserved an extra point as it warmed.

500 ml, "God Jul" version. ("Winter Ale" version for 2009 update). Huge head fizzes out of the bottle on this opaque black beer; settles down and lasts well with some nice frosty lace. (Winter Ale version head was much more tame - even better!) Chocolate, evergreen, juniper, vanilla, orange-caramel and slight hickory on the nose. Front taste is spicy orange, cocoa, dark-roasted nuts and coffee balanced well by some earthy-spiced whiskey and toffee. Charred mesquite and bitter-grass herbs catch up and finish strong, leaving a cured tobacco, charred oak, whiskey and peanut aftertaste. Medium-heavy body is roasty dryish, and drinkably smooth with some light tingle. Super complex brew. God Jul indeed!