Beer- #290 – Nøgne Ø – Red Horizon 2. edition

Beer in a can :-), Nøgne Ø Red Horizon 2. edition

Brewed by Nøgne Ø, in the Style of an American Strong Ale and they are in the exotic Grimstad, Norway.

This is a 250ml bottle (tiny) of a 13.5% ABV beer, which translates into 2.7 standard drink units, this is 405 calories! Also has an IBU of 100

This product is unfiltered and unpasteurized. Contains; Grimstad water, malted barley, malted wheat, hops and sake yeast No 7.

It says importantly that this is from batch 741, brewed 12/20/2011 and is best before 20th december 2016. They all are 🙂

We brewed this ale with the famous sake yeast No 7 from Masumi Sake in Nagano, Japan. On advise from Masumi’s master brewers, we fermented this ale very slowly at low temperatures to bring out No 7’s fabulously fruity character. This product is unfiltered and unpasteurized. Please enjoy chilled! Special thanks to Masumi!

Love the way that this is packaged, mind you how much that added to the cost who cat tell, and of course the fact that the shop had a 20% off beer day today made it an easy easy choice.

Sour aroma is what I pick immediately opening, not off-putting sour, just is sour.

Of course no head, what was I expecting. Well a head to be honest. It looks terribly flat but I did hear a hiss on opening.

So here goes. Cracking aroma in the glass, all fruity and rich. And <insert swears word> wow!

What a full full mouthful taste this has, startling! Lots of rich depth, a lovely amount of bitterness, and plenty of flavour textures to enjoy. All this in such a small package.

There isn’t really a lot to indicate that this is a ‘big’ beer at 13.5%, but it does have that astringent tang at the end. But the lovely nose aroma when you go to drink only gets better even with slight warming.

Not to be quaffed then this is a beer that I’m sipping and quietly enjoying, puzzled over it’s complex nature.

The pdubyah-o-meter says make this a 10. You just don’t get beers like this every shopping trip. A total treat for the tastebuds .

As it warms you get much more sticky toffee qualities and a much fuller mouthfeel, carried on a tip tongue of bitterness, but with immense fruits and richness. Let down only by the lack of a head on pouring, blame the workman, I would suggest that for this less is most certainly more.

Would I offer you your money back if you didn’t like it? This might be one of those beers where possibly not. I can begin to tell why this might be too bitter, or have too much astringent in the carry, but there is no way you’d pick this as being a big hitting beer. Perhaps I should have finished with this and not let it finish me first :-). If you can try this please try it.

Nøgne Ø appear to be the darlings of the craft brewing scene, or that may just be me and the dissonance of seeing their name, on this occasion I’m really impressed. It’s been a long time between Nøgne Ø beers for me, and I can’t imagine why I’ve avoided them, perhaps I should have a closer look at the shelf next time.

Music tonight is again those nice people – Tame Impala, this though isn’t music for everyone, unless you like psychedelic rock that is. Like my beer I like a change and challenge, and although I don’t love it, Im not not loving it.

AMERICAN STRONG ALE

Not a style, per se, but the only logical category to incorporate the plethora of strong, stylistically vague beers coming from American micros these days. Some are related to English Strong Ales, but with more hop, while others are ultra-strong variants on the IPA theme. But no matter how varied their origins or characters might be, all are intense, potent, with generous quantities of hops and malt.