Stone/Nøgne Ø/Jolly Pumpkin Special Holiday Ale

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

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.

I bought a couple of these in Colorado and found another in a box waiting for me at home from my buddy Jim. I didn’t bother to read the label and had no idea this was a spiced beer. Served in a English pint glass. The aroma is malty, with a subtle spiciness that is reminiscent of cinnamon or clove, subtle juniper, somewhat nutty. Smells pretty good. The juniper is the only really identifiable spice, but only because I knew to look for it. Dark crimson color, nearly brown, with a thick oatmeal colored head. Malty, nutty, with a complimentary spiciness. A fair amount of residual sweetness holds up the spice into the finish. This reminds me of some of the Anchor OSA’s that I have had. All in all, a nice holiday beer, but not a daily drinker.

Crushed with CaryTheDude and JakeBra. Brown pour with than head. Aroma of a xmas tree. Burnt clove, some cinnamon stick. Flavor is nice and very spicey, but I wish it had more jolly pumpkin funk. Overall, pretty good, not great.

(bottle from OSLO, thanks Al!) Pours dark reddish brown with just a thin off-white head. Strong aroma of toasted chestnuts, hops, and spicy rye, which reminds me of an India brown ale. There is some alcohol noted as well with some sage and chocolate showing up as this warms. The taste is really unusual, but in a good way with a prominent juniper flavor, that turns more sweet and caramel-like right before the finish. The finish is initially quite bitter as the juniper again asserts itself and yields some pine needle, but as it wears on it becomes both toasted and earthy, with the sage showing up here and lingering well after drinking. Even after five minutes between sips the sage is still present, and it imparts a flavor of lettuce. The mouthfeel is creamy and smooth with soft carbonation. At first I had no idea how this interesting combination of ingredients would turn out, but upon drinking I can say that this was indeed a successful experiment.