Stone/Nøgne Ø/Jolly Pumpkin Special Holiday Ale

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Escondido, California USA

Bottle. Pours dark brown with a small, fizzy, light brown head, diminishing with fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (cookie, caramel, nutty), heavy hops (perfume, spruce), average yeast (leaves, dough) with notes of plum, dates, nutmeg, alcohol, and brown sugar. Full bodied, alcoholic texture, lively carbonation, and a bitter-dry finish. Long duration, moderate sweetness, heavy acidity and bitterness. The alcohol is a bit warm and harsh, detracting from what this beer could be.

Pours dark brown with a little bit of head. Definitely taste the berries in this one. I gues that is Juniper berry doing that. Ever so slight yet refined/smooth taste of honey. Hides alcohol very well. Taste of hops and berries dominate. Also get apples and dried cranberries. Great mouthfeel, if it weren’t a sin I would keep drinking this one all night. Medium bodied, and does not leave much lacing behind. This is a fun collaboration and different in an awesome way.

Murky brown color. Nice off white head. Medium bodied brew. Spices of ginger, clove, and coriander predominate over some sweet malt character. Throw in some bready, yeasty, and dark fruitiness. Interesting and different.

Traded bottle. Pretty good. Like you took a more hoppy Belgian Ale and crossed it with a porter. Notes of chocolate and roasted malt. Maybe a little medicinal/astringent in the finish but still a nice winter warmer.

brown body with amber highlights, no head, sweet ginger nose, HUGE FLAVOR, so much flavor, wow, rich ginger and spices, vanilla, huge hop flavor, syrupy malt sweetness, strong rye flavors, mild woodiness, dark roast bitter finish, big hop bitters, really big mouthfeel, syrupy and dense, a lot of food value in this ale, just a fantastic ale, really just incredible, best christmas ale i have ever had, if you can find this, BUY IT!

I love the smell, a hint of cinnamon. Deep amber with a good and small creamy head. Overall good taste but with a bit too much of a sage aftertaste.

12oz bottle. Pours a dark red foggy color with a very minial off white head. nose is spicy. some date notes and a hint of chocolate and some dark fruity notes like apples and plums. Palate is stingy with a full body and a smooth finish. Flavors of apples and plums with some chocolate notes.

Bottle: Pour was a dark amber with a nicely sized cream head. Very earthy nose with some toasted malt accents, berry and herbs. Medium bodied...unlike any JP brew I’ve ever had. Flavor starts with some toasted malts and fades to a dry, earthy middle...ultimately finishing with a very dry berry note. Decent brew but not groundbreaking given the contributing breweries.