Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew

Brewed by Nøgne Ø
Style: Smoked
Grimstad, Norway

Bottle. Medium-light smoke, huuuuuuuuuge, meaty malt nose. Pours a dark mahogany with a light tan head which lasted less than 15 seconds. Taste is dark and very dry, some big spice kicked up from the rye and a little booze coming through, warms to the extreme though there don’t seem to be any headache-inducing higher-orders in here. Tarry wood, maybe a little fresh tobacco, and light licorice. Delicious smoke edging peat; indeed, reminds vaguely of Scotch. Full body, light bitterness, light scorch in the long, long aftertaste. A brew of unexpected extremes, but a nearly unparalleled fumatory sipper. World-class.

Pours to a murky deep brown body with a thin ring of off-white head. The aroma is deeply grainy with rye and wheat. Pine and spruce hops balance it out. The flavor has a heavy rye and malted wheat. Mixed with a heavy bitter grass and pine hop. The palate is warming and medium bodied. Bitter on the tongue with a subtle chalkiness.

Bottled At Bishop’s Arms SoFo, Stockholm. Ckloudy, near black, no head. Orangey nose with licorice behind. Sweet and powerful with heavy doses of tar and asphalt mixed with grapefruit. Full bodied with dense mouthfeel. Syruped wrapped in licorice crowned with peppert alcohol. Feels more experimantal than complex or balanced. Alcohol and licorice dominates, and the sticky sweetness get a bit in the way.

Bottle from Whole Foods (Bowery/Houston). Nice dark brown body with minimal head. Malty and vanilla nose. Taste of molasses, caramel and dark fruits. Warming towards the finish, with the 11% abv in full evidence. Nice one.

Clear, very dark amber with a small, tanned head. Aroma of sweetish malt, smoke and tar, grilled sausages, and salt. Flavor is smoky and salty with sweet-caramely malt, and a touch of alcohol. Quite full-bodied with slightly foamy carbonation and some alcohol burn. Interesting, enjoyable, different.

Bottle.
Pours a thin, average mahogany with dark highlights (make sense?) and a nose of smoked malt, smoked wood, and a touch of dark fruit. Flavor is a chalky, smoky malt with a quick flourish of alcohol-soaked dark fruit (raisin and plumb) and a faint smoked red wine finish. Average mouthfeel. Borders on being a great beer, but can’t quite jump that hurdle.

Pour is dark brown with almost no head. Aroma is malty, only lightly smoky and a touch of juniper and cinnamon. The flavor is mostly rich toffee malt, light peat, and faint clove. The smoke is present too, but not as much as I would have expected. It was a nice beer and I did enjoy it with some smoked meats which made it much nicer.

500mL bottle from Colorado Springs. Brown color. Low carbonation. Sweet and malty. Slightly oxidized hops. You would think with 30% smoked malt it would be smokey, but the smoke is light. Has age dulled the smokiness? Fairly bitter. Alcohol is well hidden, and yet it is somewhat difficult to drink, kind of medicinal, and yet I drank it anyway.