Nogne O’s 100th batch, commercialized on a larger scale since it was first brewed. This rating concerns batch # 1311, brewed one and a half year ago. Moussy, medium thick, pale greyish beige, densely structured head with decent retention, residing over an initially clear, deep mahogany-hued copper coloured beer, turning misty and a tad more brownish with the yeast deposit added. Seductive and strong bouquet reaches my nostrils from a foot away and makes my mouth water: candied fig, pink grapefruit, roasted walnuts, sweeter chestnut, triple sec, toffee, dried mango, treacle or even faint soy sauce somewhere, pink pepper, rose water, armagnac, some green bitter dandelion, hints of wet pine wood, leather, moist hemp, dried tree leaves and even some vague dried mushroom, earthy beetroot, bitter honey, persimmon, cloves, soap (likely just the wheat), ginger. Lively but still clean fruitiness in the onset, malt fruitiness mixed with some restrained pear-, fig- and apricot-like esters, soft sourish undertone, light umami accents (hint of dried mushroom) in a softly but effectively carbonated environment with some mineral ’touches’ here and there; mouthfeel is unexpectedly oily, slick and resinous. Clean, subdued but full malt sweet body, very nutty from the start with a notable toasted bitterness towards the end as well as a lightly soapy wheat edge, while the initial ’clean’ and restrained fruitiness continues, all leading up to a dry, bitter, long finish of bittering, very spicy, leafy hops providing a truckload of beautiful retronasal aromas (pine, grapefruit, pepper) combined with the toasted malt bittersweetness, but also a fair amount of booze, not hidden all to well actually and provoking a somewhat wry, aquavit- or wodka-like alcohol burn on the root of the tongue, further enhancing the bitterness but distracting too much from the hops and toasted malts. The alcohol is big here and tires me a bit after a while; if this component had been more ’tucked away’, I would have rated this beer much more highly. Apart from that, though, this is still a wonderful, intense brew, clearly made to be sipped slowly and carefully, and worthy of this brewery’s quality standard, though to my taste not their most impressive creation. Maybe the alcohol will mellow a bit more with (long) ageing, but then the hops, which still provide a lovely but well-dosed ’New World’ fragrance and bitterness even in this older bottle, will have lost a lot of their effect as well so I guess it is up to the consumer to judge which aspect he wants to prevail. As for style: I cannot find any reference to double IPA anywhere but apparently it was originally intended as such, yet I could not agree more with the style designation of ’barley wine’ here, because that is clearly what it is: an American style barley wine, malty and hefty, but with a strong dosis of American hop bitterness (80 IBU in this case, not even that exceptional for a barley wine the American way). Note that in former versions (also on other Nogne O bottles) the brewery declared itself to be the only one in Norway to practice bottle fermentation, but since Haandbryggeriet came along, this was (justly) downtuned to the simple mention that "Nogne O ales are unfiltered and unpasteurized"...

Draft at Brouwers, left over from Hard Liver. Pours a dark ruby amber color with a fading fizz head. Aroma is booze forward, with sweet fruit. Flavor is very smooth, with caramel, soft cinnamon, and malt finish. So smooth and drinks easy.

Bottle from Sedona. They claim it's been aged for about two years. Pours murky brown with a small beige head. Aroma of smoked peat, pine, citrus, caramel malts, earth. Taste is smoke, licorice, rubber, pine, earth, dominated by heavy but tasteful licorice. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

0,5l bottle at home. Bottled 10/2014. BB 10/2019. dark brown hazy color, small off-white head. smells malty sweet, some hops, pines and sweet herbs, honey, some spices, light veggies. full body, soft carbonation, slick mouthfeel. tastes malty sweet, pines, sweet herbs, liqueurish, honey, molasses, spices, citric, light veggies. finishes with light bittereness and notes of veggies and pine notes. overall good one, rather sweet, has some distracting veggie notes.

Clear brown colour. Aroma is very floral and sweet. Flavour is very complex. Herbal floral and sweet. Lots of malt sugars. Thick and sticky.