Nøgne Ø God Jul

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

Bottle. Deep brown color, full foam. Very mild aroma, a hint of dark malt and weedy, herbaceous hops. Flavor is very interesting and complex and I can see why others like it, but I just don’t enjoy the profile. It has a lot of hints herbal tea, resinous hops and light malt components. Doesn’t seem very together. However, I had their Imperial Stout a couple days ago. Top notch stuff.

Nice American strong. Very Christmasy. Aroma of sweet caramel malt. Pour was a cloudy dark brown with a one finger tan head. Taste was very malty-mostly caramel malt and tasted a little like a chocolate malt milkshake. Could use a tad more carbonation, but all in all a very nice beer.

Pour is a black with a Irish stout like tan head. Aroma is nice with some chocolate, coffee and a decent helping of hops. Flavor is again lots of black coffee with a decent hop profile. Finish is thick and warming. A very good but expensive beer experience.

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!

Decent sized brown head of dense and creamy bubbles of varying size. Nice rich and roasty aroma with some dark chocolate, smokey malts, roasted grains, a little anise and little dark fruit. Quite a damn good aroma. Color is a very dark brown. Rich and roasty flavor. Some more smoke, roasted grains, little bit of burnt toast (carbon) and dark bitter chocolate. If I didn’t know any better I would say that this was a nice scotch ale. Nice alcohol warming. Lingering smokey grain flavor. Long finish. A damn fine Norweigen brew. I need to get me more of this! Big thanks to etowneraser for getting me this one.

500ml bottle. Dark brown body with a light brown head. Nice roasted malt aroma. Sweet warming mouths feel with chocolate, coffe and some spices and bitterness. Long warming, roasted aftertaste. Yet another well-balanced masterpiece from Nøgne Ø. This is hopefully a new definition of what a Norwegian Christmas beer could be, honest I’m getting a bit tired of every brewery struggling to copy each other’s wimpy version of a dark Vienna.

[bottle] Dark brown with a rich and creamy head. Sweet, hoppy, malty and somewhat smoked aroma. Flavour is dry and roasty. Very flavourful , hoppy and complex yet smooth and balanced.

Deep brown, thin tan head, slight red in the body. Nose is cocoa, cherries, toffee, a slight hint of dark fruit, restrained hops & alcohol. Flavor is cocoa, toffee, slight burnt fruits. Strong bitterness surfaces for a moment then fruit alcohol. Very nice body and a chocolate finish.