Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew

Brewed by Nøgne Ø
Style: Smoked
Grimstad, Norway

This isn’t the prettiest barleywine at the ball but it’s got a big, intense flavor. For the most part, I really don’t care about a beer’s looks and that is also true here - just nitpicking. It’s a muted dark brown beer with little head - looks like a weak cup of coffee. The aroma is velvet punch of caramel malt with notes of raisins, prunes, brown sugar and molasses. The flavor isn’t overwhelmingly sweet for the size of the beer. It’s not terribly drinkable but good for 11% abv. It’s an excellent version of a big American-style barleywine.

Pours murky brown color with small tan head. Mild smokey aroma. Also some dark fruits and alcohol. Faint smoke flavor with lots of caramel and dark fruits. Too much heat and booziness from the alcohol for me. Medium body with mild carbonation.

Sampled on 12/18/2009. This smoked beer pours a dark brown color from a 50cl bottle. Small to no head. The aroma is brown sugar, caramel, smoke and wood. A medium bodied smoked beer. The malts are caramel and sweet with a touch of smoke and wood. The hops are earthy. Touch of smoke. The smoke flavors add to the malt and hops flavors without being overpowering. Interesting beer. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter with a touch of wood and smoke.

Bottled@Pikkulintu, Helsinki. Deep rubyish brown colour, not much head. Aroma is spices, leather, some notes of fruits and mild earthyness as well. Flavour is quite much the same along with some hints of alcohol. Still rather well balanced and nice.

Pours dark reddish brown with a very small head. Aroma- thick malt, honey, slight citrus, leather. Taste- big barleywine flavor, some spice from the rye with a tiny amount of smoke and salt in the end. Aftertaste is citrusy, sweet, malty.

Bottle. Medium-light smoke, huuuuuuuuuge, meaty malt nose. Pours a dark mahogany with a light tan head which lasted less than 15 seconds. Taste is dark and very dry, some big spice kicked up from the rye and a little booze coming through, warms to the extreme though there don’t seem to be any headache-inducing higher-orders in here. Tarry wood, maybe a little fresh tobacco, and light licorice. Delicious smoke edging peat; indeed, reminds vaguely of Scotch. Full body, light bitterness, light scorch in the long, long aftertaste. A brew of unexpected extremes, but a nearly unparalleled fumatory sipper. World-class.

Pours to a murky deep brown body with a thin ring of off-white head. The aroma is deeply grainy with rye and wheat. Pine and spruce hops balance it out. The flavor has a heavy rye and malted wheat. Mixed with a heavy bitter grass and pine hop. The palate is warming and medium bodied. Bitter on the tongue with a subtle chalkiness.

Bottled At Bishop’s Arms SoFo, Stockholm. Ckloudy, near black, no head. Orangey nose with licorice behind. Sweet and powerful with heavy doses of tar and asphalt mixed with grapefruit. Full bodied with dense mouthfeel. Syruped wrapped in licorice crowned with peppert alcohol. Feels more experimantal than complex or balanced. Alcohol and licorice dominates, and the sticky sweetness get a bit in the way.