Nøgne Ø God Jul Whisky Barrel is the regular God Jul that was cellared 2 1/2 years in whisky casks. Jet black with strong boozy and whisky aroma. Lots of roasted malt, wood and bitter chocolate in the aroma. Medium to full bodied being a bit thin that what I had expected. Dark fruits, prunes, roasted coffee, whisky and oak on the palette. Very nice but the original is a lot betted.
Nøgne Ø Half A World Away is an Imperial Red Ale collaboration brew with Holgate Brewhouse from Victoria in Australia. Ingrid from Nøgne Ø and Nick from Holgate Brewhouse exchanged jobs and lives to make this beer happen.
Dark amber with a beige head, the aroma of lingonberry, red fruits, malt, brown sugar and caramel. Tasted a touch sweet and syrupy, mostly malty with some caramel and raisin tones. Medium bodied and more like a dubbelbock than an Imperial Red, was hoping for more hops here being an Imperial to balance out the malt sweetness more.
Nøgne Ø Red Horizon is one of 3 beers in the latest Horizon series (Red,Sweet,Dark) and I have heard lots or review about the other 2 beers being very sweet so I decided to try this one first. Red Horizon is an intriguing brew. It’s brewed with a sake yeast from Masumi Sake of Nagano, Japan, making this possibly the first beer to be made with something other than your traditional beer or champagne yeast.
The whole packaging here is very impressive and I am sure the content of the bottle lives up to this, poured a reddish orange color with a little white head that disappeared very quickly. Coming in at 17% I expected the head to not last long and the legs and lacing on this beer to be wine like. Everything about this beer had me thinking barleywine, the initial aroma had some alcohol in it along with some orange fruits and spices. The alcohol was there but not in your face and this beer took me quite a while to “sip” it all down, not that I was complaining as it gave me more time to discover this beer.
Some malt in the body but here again the alcohol was on the palette, more tropical fruits and spice, quite a lot of apricots. The malt gives off some nice sweetness, possibly some molasses here also along with plums, all stone fruits I can get here, I just love this beer. Mainly because it is sweet, fruit, like a barleywine and because of the high alcohol a great sipping brew and the balance between sweetness, fruitiness, alcohol and taste is just perfect, the cognac of the beer world!
