Nøgne Ø Porter

Brewed by Nøgne Ø
Style: Porter
Grimstad, Norway

Pours a deep dark brown with a creamy tan head. Aroma is roasted coffee, fruit, and chocolate. Flavor is nice and smooth with a chocolate sweetness and roasted coffee finish.

Bottled. Beer is very dark warm brown, nearly opaque. Head is large, creamy, beige, frothy and diminishing. Seagulls on the snifter. The aroma is full, rich, strikes a nice balance between resinous hop and roasty malts. Malty with moderate-to-heavy notes of roasted grain, chocolate, moderate notes of molasses, coffee, light notes of toasted bread crust, creamy roasted nut butter; Moderate-to-heavy notes of resinious hop, lighter amounts of herb/thyme and grapefruit oil, traces of sweet tobacco; Light yeasty note of basement, trace of dough. Intermittent trace notes of woody vanilla, cola and tropical fruit. The flavor is moderately sweet, lightly bitter, trace acidic with a longish, warm, lightly bittersweet finish. The body is full, the texture is velvety and the carbonation is lively. Luxe in every repect.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, brown, mostly lasting. Body is black (not opaque), bottle conditioned. Aroma is moderately malty (roasted grain/nuts, chocolate, coffee), lightly hoppy (herbs, apricot). Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, creamy/velvety texture, lively/soft carbonation. Aroma is straightforward, but quite pleasant. Very nice flavor balance, apperance, and mouthfeel. Just a little short of world class, but still yummy.

Pours a dark brown color with a brown head. Probably the darkest head I’ve seen on a porter. Aroma is rich of roasted malts, chocolate, slight coffee, molasses, and just a very slight hint of alcohol. Begins with a very strong roasted malt flavor with lots more coffee then the aroma led on to believe. The roasted flavors give way to the sweeter flavors of molasses and dark fruit. Has a pretty decent, slight bitterness on the finish that I was not expecting. A very delicious porter.

Sampled April 2007
Pours with a three-finger thick, frothy, light brown colored head that dissipates fairly quickly, but ultimately retains a thin layer of foam on top of the beer. The body is simply black in color. The aroma has notes of dusty chocolate, roast coffee beans, a touch of burnt grain huskiness and lots of pronounced, dark-malt derived character.

The taste is sweet, yet still the body is fairly light. It has a medium heft to it as it rests on the palate; it does not have the heft or rich feeling that I might have been expecting from the aroma. Dusty chocolate flavors are noticeable up front and the finish has a distinct espresso character of burnt acidity, and a suite of roast coffee bean flavors. The beer dries out considerably after the first few sips and it is not quite as rich as I was hoping. Still this is a fairly tasty tipple; one which I am quite content to finish.

Bottle drunk on 4/27/07
Gushing bottle eventually settles out to a medium clarity and a very deep, bakers chocolate brown. Some burgundy highlights and a large, well-retained medium-tan head that laces well.
Brown sugar and maple start things off sweet, but it only lasts a moment before dry chocolate and a plethora of prunes, raisins and figs add a delightful vinousness. Some minimal coffee notes are found in a moderately strong roastiness, coupled with soft vanilla and other pale malt notes, sitting on the finish. Very clean, but also very fresh and easily discernible as unpasteurized/unfiltered. You gotta love the yeast these guys use. It has a delicious earthiness and seems wonderfully English. More berry-like vinousness/tartness emerges as it warms, but balancing this is a chewy, light fudge-like note. Love the relative lack of "hardness" or breadiness in this one. Aroma strength is medium-high to high, with no alcohol or flaws perceived.
Soft and velvety, with ample malt body, the beer nonetheless remains much lighter in feel than the abv would suggest. Sweet chocolate layered atop gooey toffee and caramel, with some dry roasted barley adding a bit of tannin. Chocolate malt adds some light coffee hardness, which keeps the sweetness level balanced. The main force is a deliciously fruity, vinous berry-and-prune flavor that brightens the beer considerably. Natural carbonation is in moderate quantity, and though there is some chewiness from the malt, the beer remains very drinkable with no sign of its abv. Hop bitterness is moderately apparent on the finish, with only a bit of floral-like flavors seen throughout. Black malt flavors sit on the end: anise, very dry cocoa and some scorched maltiness.

black body with small brown head..a nice roasted, smoke-filled chocolate aroma leading to a creamy chocolate, roasted malt backbone with touches of grain and other earthy characteristics

Damn good stuff, nothing over the top here, just right.Hugh coffee aromawith hints of sweet fruit.Pours a nice murky color with a small, thin , lacing head.Roasted malts and coffee with a small coffee, bitter end.