Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew

Brewed by Nøgne Ø
Style: Smoked
Grimstad, Norway

500 ml bottle shared by Tmoney99. Pours a dark brown color with a small beige head. The aroma has caramel and roasted malts, herbal notes,and only a light dose of smoke. The flavor is only lightly smoked, but in other ways a fairly solid barleywine. Caramel and roasted malts, herbal, earthy, with some mild fruitiness with warming. The alcohol is warming, but doesn’t really play out in the flavor. I was hoping for a bit more smoked character, however this is a decent beer regardless.

Poured a hazy brown color with a beige head. Roasty malt aroma with a light smokiness. Some hops and you can smell a little alcohol. Smoky flavor dominates the roasty malt. Medium bodied and a fair amount of alcohol warmth.

Bottled. Pours out in a almost opaque dark brown color with a small disappearing bubbly tan-colored head. Rich and rather vinous aroma of smoke, toasted malts, caramel, neutral yeast and dark chocolate with hint’s of currant-leaves and cookies. Full-bodied with rich notes of cocoa, dark chocolate, smoke caramelized sugar, iodine, salt and cookies. Creamy and dense mouthfeel. Long rich and dense aftertaste of toasted malts, cocoa, burnt sugar, smoke and dark bread. Well-hidden alcohol. Dangerous and quite interesting stuff.

500 ml bottle. Dark brown and clear. Medium white head. Sweet juniper aromas, tar and smoke. Licorice. Sweet rich malts. Roasted dark malts. Clean, but sharp hop bitterness. A little rough, but very complex. Pepper and tobacco. A very tasty beer. Perhaps a little low carbonation level.

50 cl bottle. Pours a clear dark amber to brown body with a small light beige head that faded fairly quickly to a very thin ring. The nose is a mix of campfire smoke and tropical fruits, making for a very delicious conglomerate even if it’s extremely weird and unusual. There’s some candy like caramel and toffee but also that unmistakeable earthiness that only comes from rye. Very little noticable alcohol for the ABV. This smells so appetizing to me that it’s crazy. The flavor is really unique as well. The smoke and rye together really meld well. The underlying caramel and toffee Barley Wine notes express themselves a little heavier on the finish along with a slight band aide like phenol note. The finish really reminds me of a heavily smoky single malt scotch like Lagavulin 16. The mouthfeel is full and sturdy with soft light fizzy carbonation. Not clingy or sticky at all, with minimal to no alcohol heat on the finish. This was really frickin tasty. I’d drink this really often if this were a little more economical to do so here in the US. Awesome.

THOUGHTS: Wow. A smoked barley wine. Hid alcohol incredibly well. Surprisingly easy to drink for a smoked. Not overly smoked. Just enough to make it interesting. Almost like drinking an ancient beer. Oddly Christmasy. Flavor was way more complex than the aroma, and the aroma was fairly complex — so what does that tell you? An excellent beer as an example of the past. Very good beer overall. It was OK to good with chocolate chip cookies. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a medium to dark brown with reddish, amber highlights and a small, off-white head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing. The aroma was moderate to heavy, molasses and caramel; light to moderate pine and citrus hops; wood, smoke, brown sugar, bacon, BBQ sauce, barley wine smell and slight soy sauce. The hops and smoke blend together. The initial flavor was rather sweet; while the finish was very, almost harshly sweet and slight to lightly bitter with a long duration. There was caramel, apple, cherry, smoked meat, tar, charcoal, a little like BBQ sauce, molasses, a bit of alcohol, a little citrus, sweet orange, barley wine taste and wood. If it wasn’t so cloying it would be perfect. The medium body was syrupy and then a little dry, but very sticky on the lips with lightly fizzy carbonation and a ever so slightly metallic and lightly smokey finish.

500ml bottle. This is a beer I have wanted for a while, but the high price kept me from it. It is worth the price, this is a fine beer. I’ve had all but a few ounces of the beer and I have loved every sip. I cooled this down too much and served it way too cold. Served cold it was OK, but with it warmed up to just slightly below room temp, it really shines. The smoke, alcohol, spiciness and over ripe dark fruit aroma is very pronounced, but inviting. The alcohol and smoke combine to make some very unique smells, the sort of thing that would be disgusting if amplified much more, but real nice as a part of the beer and not the whole thing. There are several odd little notes, creosote chiefly amount them. I would also add molasses and medjool dates to the aroma descriptors. The beer has a murky browinish color with a short lived off white head. Legs galore. The taste is sweet, almost cola-ish at first (more like a cola mix lean on the water) with tons of dark fruit, most overly ripe and fragrant, black and white pepper, woodsy and spicy with a lingering bit of alcohol (burn.) Thick mouthfeel, maybe a lot of residual sugars, but not in an off putting way. The proteins in the rye probably help the body out as well. The choice of malts here is awesome, the smoke malt is enough to impart a wonderful flavor and the rye brings it’s own spiciness and body to the party, which is big anyway with an oversized barleywine. This would be the type of beer I would love to have a lot of.

Clear, deep dark brown body with garnet highlights under a creamy tan head that is of good size for the style. Complex aroma consisting of dark fruits, vanilla, and a touch of smoke. Simple, not as complex as the aroma but along the same lines.