Sunturnbrew

Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew, seen this Nøgne Ø beer in the past but never know why I never tried it back then, either way I now have consumed the 2 bottles left at BA Vasagatan and will roam the streets of Stockholm to get my hands on  more of this superb smoked barleywine. The first batch of Sunturnbrew was so small that it was only available in Norway and is quite limited and hard to get here in Sweden. I love to drink barleywine, especially when the alcohol is not overpowering and the mouth is not ripped to piece when it is overly hopped, with just 50 IBU this was not the case. On the nose there was some caramel, roasted nuts, roasted malt, some smoke, dark bread, cola and tones of dark fruits & berries. Maybe this is meant to be the case but Sunturnbrew could be easily disguised as a winter warmer, julöl or a brown ale as it has most of the characteristics in these 3 styles of beer.

There was slight liquorice there but more to the taste than the aroma, sweet malt again, brown sugar like in sweetness, cola, some smoke and a nutty, chocolate, coffee finish that was just lovely. Where is the 11% alcohol here I ask? It did not hit me once when drinking this beer and this is a first for a barleywine style beer. It might be hard to distinguish smoke from roastiness as this was the case with some of the malt grains in the beer, more maple than honey and slight hops bitterness throughout the length of the beer. Medium bodied, with the smokiness in the beginning, malty backbone in the centre and the end dominated with dark fruits and slight bitterness like you get from dark chocolate. Slightly rum like with the spice and warm it gave off, I just adored this beer and without a shadow of a doubt give it my highest ratings and look forward to trying this beer again in the future.