Nøgne Ø # 100 (Batch 100)

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

Bottle - sampled at the RBESP 2005
Red chestnut colour, creamy brown head. Aroma has big piney hops, cocoa and coffee. Milk chocolate in the flavor, slightly sugary, plentyfull piney and citric hops. Good body. Milk chocolate aftertaste.

Reddish, very dark, almost brown. Standard head. Malty flavour and quite bitter finish. Very dry and quite sweet. Very complex and interesting.

Rerate, First batch imported into the US sampled on 11/26/07: Pours a barely-transparent dark mahogany with a frothy, nicely-lacing dark tan head. Aroma has a lot of fresh piny grapefruity hops and sweet dark caramely malt. Starts full-bodied, rich and sweet with nice flavor and bittering hop balance toward a bittersweet finsh that hides the alcohol quite well.

Sampled at the RBSG ‘05 bottle tasting courtesy of Ungstrup: Transparent mahogany pour with a nice, frothy, well-lacing light tan head. Has a dry, lightly toasted aroma with some mild caramel and chocolate and a touch of hops. Body starts with a full, sticky caramel sweetness and nice, crisp, fresh European hoppiness. Well-balanced and enjoyable, I just wished the hops jumped out a little more in the aroma, like most double IPAs.

Bottle. Deep brown in colour, lasting tan coloured head. The aroma was of hops (oranges, lemon zest), caramel malts, slightly sweet. The flavour had tons of hops (pine, oranges), sweet caramel malts, earthy. Wonderfully balalnced mouthfeel, medium body, high carbonation. Finishes with some spice and a lingering hop bitterness. Very nice.

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I finally got another bottle of this 2 years after first trying this. It’s exactly as remembered. A fantastic IIPA with wonderful balance. Nøgne Ø is an absolute fantastic brewery.

500ml bottle obtained in a trade with <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?U target=blank>MPA, thanks Mads.
Opened on October 26, 2007.
Best Before August 7, 2011.
Batch #164.

A hazy very dark red beer with a huge brown head. The aroma is quite hoppy - subtle, but still with a sharpness from the hop acids. The flavor is lovely quite malty sweet, with some notes of caramel to start off - I just got the thought - is this an IIPA? But soon after strong notes of hops hit me - at first just subtle aroma hops, but then the bitterness strikes - and it strikes quite hard with lots of alfa acid. The bitterness totally dries out the mouth - while the alcohol warms the throat. To me this is a little too malty and not quite hoppy enough to be an Imperial IPA - so I’ll go with ChristianSA with the style description as Imperial Brown Ale.

Huge light brown head. Darkest IIPA I have seen. Relatively light aroma, malty with a promising hop nose. Big dry hop and alcohol flavor. Dry chocolate and strong malt could be a Barley Wine or IIPA. Each mouthful is a meal. Fills the stomach, the senses and then the alcohol wave hits.

Bottle. I would sware the label said this was a barley wine. Nonetheless, big, flavorful, chocolatey sweetness dominates. Not a huge hop presence. Was my bottle mislabeled. Not true to the style, but very good.

April 2007. Dark brown body, good creamy tan head. Hoppy aroma over malty backbones. Pleasant bitterness is remarkably well balanced. Quite sharp bitterness in the finish is startling but sort of pleasant. Average to medium palate (3+). Very good. 8/4/9/3+/18 - 4.3 <P>RBSG 2005. The pronunciation is half the fun! A Danish air drop in what looked like a bomb proof case courtesy of Ungstrup. Dark brown body, with a small beige head. Alcoholic aroma, malt and hops. Green leafy, resiny notes. Flavour is very leafy green hops, over some contrasting dark malt. Medium palate. Intriguing. I remember enjoying this more than my recorded numbers seem to indicate but will allow the historical record to stand. Thanks Jens! 7/4/8/4/16 - 3.9