Nøgne Ø # 100 (Batch 100)

Brewed by Nøgne Ø
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Grimstad, Norway

500 mL bottle from Belmont Station, Portland, OR. Wow! I see this is not a barleywine as the label indicates. Instead it is a dark double IPA. Awesome. Pours a cloudy dark brown with a two to three fingered dark tan head that lasts for a long time. Small amount of carbonation and great lacework. Aroma is caramel and apple cider. Mouthfeel is creamy and balanced. Lots of roasted malt, hops, pine, and spice. Maybe some milk chocolate. Alcohol is nicely masked Very warming, complex, and overall excellent. I can see how it may be interpreted as a barleywine but this doe not really fall into any one category of beer. My favorite of the Nøgne Ø family by far.

Bottle shared by alexsdad06. Poured a reddish brown color with a moderate frothy off-white head that lasted with good to excellent lacing. Heavy complex roasted malt, caramel and earthy hoppy aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Medium to heavy bittersweet flavor with a medium to heavy bittersweet and small alcohol bite finish of moderate to long duration. This is a standout beer.

500ml bottle. Nicely hoppy nose, resinous, floral, grassy and citric, combined with a fair amount of darkly toasted malt sweetness and honeyed black bread, perhaps some faint oak as well. Deep mahogany color, bottle-conditioned, with a lasting, fine, ivory head. Flavor begins with a touch of dark roasty malt, turning much hoppier and quite bitter from there with a generous degree of pine, spice and citrus, and finishing with a brief flourish of dark sweetness and malt flavor, mingling with the mighty hop presence and gentle alcohol late. Finely effervescent, sharp and warming on the palate, very full-bodied. An interesting hybrid American-style strong ale, quite nice in fact.

Bottle. Pours black with a thick light tan head. Aroma of slight hops and lots of caramel malt and apple skins with a slight roastiness. Flavor of light roasted malt, light bitter chocolate, with a hoppy finish. Very ASA like or even stout/porter like with the roasted malt presence. Creamy, smooth mouthfeel. Nice beer!

Bottle. So to add to the confusion of the labeling versus the intended style versus the unusual malt profile for said style that makes some believe a new style on ratebeer should created...this tastes like an imperial stout to me. Aroma of some hops (grassy? maybe some pine?) on a chocolate milk base. Flavor of that chocolate milk with a mildly roasted character and a somewhat bitter finish, but always as a lovely addition to that crazy chocolate milk, more turning it to semi-sweet chocolate milk, gloppy with lots of intense cocoa. Creamy, silky, a pleasure to quaff.

This is a wonderful beer. So full of personality. Hoppy, sweet, malty complex and a joy. Beautifully structured appearance with a full and lasting head. Very strong too. It lasted me well over half an hour, as I just sat their and became increasingly impressed :o)

Pours deep mahogany brown with a huge sturdy creamy tan head. The aroma has deep nutty dark caramel brown ale style malt, citric earthy hops, citric / earthy hops and fairly sweet candi sugar like traits. Medium / thick body with semi-soft carbonation. The flavor starts like the aroma, but is a bit sweeter with some alcohol presence and dirty hops. The finish dries out and has thick barley wine style malt with earthy hops. This is a good beer, but strikes me more as a barley-wine has stated on the bottle than the IIPA as it is listed here.

Summary: IIPA? Barleywine? Imperial porter? Whatever it is, it’s tasty. Aroma: Aromatic and citric hops are complemented by dark fruit and roasted malts and a bit of gumball. Appearance: Darkest brown, opaque, with a billowy tan head that leaves sheets of lace. Flavor: The hops are there in a big way, coniferous and citric, but they are nearly overmatched by a huge spectrum of roast malt flavors, molasses, cola, caramel, aniseed; it’s not until the finish that the lingering hoppy bitterness is clearly distinguishable. Palate: Softly creamy from the carbonation, caramelly thick moments, warming in both an aromatic and an ethanolic way.