Bottled@RBESG 2006. Extremely dark brown, close to pitch black colour, with small beigeish brown head. Aroma is alcohol, vanilla, chocolate, some toffee (almost fudgeish) notes, as well as roasted malts. Flavour is chocolate, smoke, roasted malts and some softer dark fruits. The finish is caramel, vanilla and a bit coffeeish. Alcohol gives indeed a sting, but for being 16% in alcohol this is very well done. I believe aging would do it better.

500ml Bottle. I’ve been one of the few lucky to follow the development of this marvelous creation from the start to the release. From a wonderful, strong brew with a bit raw alcohol character this has matured to a perfect, well balanced world-class beer. The biggest surprise is how the alcohol manages to be this well hidden. This is actually the most balanced beer above 10% abv I have ever tasted, simply impressive. The body is totally black, not possible to see trough. The head has a delicious small rust-brown color. This is just the definition of a perfect appearance for an imperial stout. The aroma is very powerful; you need some time to adjust before taking the first sip. Espresso coffee, bitter chocolate, dry fruit, roasted malt, vanilla and port. The flavor has the same elements as aroma, but in addition some kind of elements from really fine well matured vine. All these elements of flavor are experienced so incredible well balanced together. It’s a rather sweet beer, but not in a sticky way. It’s powerful but not more than you easily manage to empty a whole bottle by yourself. It so close to perfect I can imagine, and the only reason to not go all the way to the top of the scale is the usually ratebeer reason: You never know what to expect from the future, so you have to leave room for something possibly better. God knows what that would be?

I cannot think of a bigger honor for a beer geek then to be able to name a world class beer. In June 2006, I first sampled a mystery beer from Nogne in paper cups in front of Tokyo station, thanks to Nogne brewer, and pilot, Kjetil. The beer blew me away and I went home and sent several suggestions to Kjetil, but was passionate in my plea to call the beer Dark Horizon. Kjetil got back to me and said the name would be tweaked to Nogne Dark Horizons. As the beer comes out of the bottle, it would be easy to think it is an Imperial stout or used motor oil. However, the nose paints a completely different picture. Sherry, port, dark chocolate, molasses, bourbon, burnt raisins, dark cherries and a touch of smoke. Extremely intense mouth of dark chocolate, smoke, dark fruit, dark cherries, strawberries, truffles. With hop bitterness tickling the back of the throat. Alcohol is fairly well hidden. The dark chocolate and dark fruit finish only lingers for a brief six or seven hours. What the hell is this beer? Stystically challenged IMO, but when you have tasted heaven on earth, why care?

Bottle conditioned, at Ølkulinarisk Aften, Kristiansand. This beer nearly left me speechless - I’d never have expected a 16% ABV beer to be this wonderful and well balanced. I think yngwie’s description nails it pretty well. LOVELY aroma and flavour, where notes of oak, fortified wine, coffee and chocolate come in front. A great match with chocolate dessert, could probably also have been a great match with the very mature stilton cheese we had as the previous course (NØ Amber was a bit light-weight for the stilton IMO).