Nøgne Ø # 100 (Batch 100)

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

(Bottle at Plan B, Copenhagen) Pours hazy brown with floaters. Medium sand coloured head. Aroma of chocolate and violets.Grassy/flowery hops. Notes of fudge. A tiny warm smell of clorine/alcohol. The flavour is chocolate, alcohol and some swedish julmust. Bitter hop ending. Medium body. Some liquorice. Second try: Pours dark red to drown. Flowery, piny aroma with violet and chocolate. Big malty backdrop. Undertones of grapefruit, lime, orange and some caramel. Pretty smooth moutfeel. Bitter flavour with orange chocolate, flowers, pine and grapefruit. Pretty unique (I)IPA because of the well notable chocolate tones. Marsiblursi likes!

Steve (shp555) originally brought this to trade, but then generously offered it to us to taste in line for the 07 Alesmith BA release. Thanks Steve! Dark amber color. Fine bubble head. Sweet (I like sweet). A tiny bit of hotness, possibly from a higher temp fermentation. Still pretty good. Medium to heavy body. 3.9-4.0.

Bottle courtesy of Ib4lb. Pours a dark brown color with thin white head. Aroma is sweet and malty with notes of vanilla, booze, caramel, muted hops, light pine. Flavor is sweet and malty with notes of vanilla, booze, brown sugar, caramel, sweet honey and light spice, Generally medium body with a pleasing light floral hop finish.

Bomber courtesy of GMCC2181. Pours a muddy brown with a 2 finger billowy head and nice delicate lacing. Nose is light floral and pine hops and sweet caramel malt. Taste is dark fruits and caramel upfront with a nice bitter resin finish. The label says barley wine while it’s listed as an IIPA here. It’s almost a cross between the two. Nice full mouth feel. Hides the alcohol well. Interesting brew and very good. Thanks G-Spice!

Bottle from a trade with Boutip. Thanks a lot, Phil! Lost my notes on this one, so this rating will be short and sweet: I really liked this beer. Very heavy, thick, velvety mouthfeel--almost like an imperial stout at times. Hops are present but mainly in the background and finish. Lots of caramel malts, brown sugar, some oak. I agree with some of the other raters, this beer feels like more of a hybrid of a double ipa and either a bw, imperial stout, scotch ale, or just its own new thing. Definitely doesn’t have the balance you would expect in a double ipa, but that said, it’s still great. My favorite Nogne product to date.

Bottle from Ughsmash – thanks Jason! Wow. Dark brown with a cocoa laden tan head that slowly dissipated leaving some splotchy lace. Aroma of chocolate, citrus, alcohol, spice, nutmeg and sweet malt. An imperial IPA? A barley wine? Perhaps neither, but this thing was begging for me to try and it I wasn’t disappointed! Taste of citrus, chocolate, caramel, pine, alcohol, roasted malt and fruit. Smooth, creamy with a nice lasting bitter finish. I’ve yet to be disappointed from Nogne O and this one takes the crown as it’s one really good beer. It might not conform to a style out there but I’m now no the lookout for more of this one!

[bottle at RBSG] Almost opaque dark brown (IPA?) with a tight off-white ring. Bourbony toast aroma with some hazlenuts and strong, citrusy hops with a hint of pine. Salty at first from the piney hops with some caramel in there, but really a bit bland for such a nice aroma. Low bittering, but I prefer that in this style (80 IBU? hah.) Medium body with moderate carbonation and a clean finish. Why is this beer so brown?

(on bottle)OK, some would say; "don´t rate this when you can´t make it out", but hey, it says that it holds another 5 months on the label. BUT this IIPA has totally lost everything after 5 months behind glass. NO hops at all in the aroma, only crystal malt. Like a doppelbock, so I diged it. The flavour was the same, sugarish and sweet,like a real bock, but, even the finish was not even close to be burning. Well, it actually fits my theory about those huge beers having trouble on bottle, so...