Nogne O #100 Barley Wine-Style Ale

Type: barley wine
Origin: Grimstad, Norway
Price: $9.99 per 0.5 L
Website

I have heard way too much about this brewery from Andy and Samer that I had to try one. The price is a bit unsettling, but it is worth every penny. Shit from Norway is supposed to be expensive anyways. I went for the barley wine because it offered me the best $/ABV ratio of any of their beers and Andy has already reviewed their most popular ones. Also, barley wine is a very technically difficult beer to produce well, and I thought if anyone could do it, Nogne O could. On the open, I am hit by some wonderful sweet malts with absolutely perfect freshness. The pour was a bit darker than I was expecting, almost like a reddish porter. After the pour, the smell is a very syrupy, alcoholy malty hop mixture with some nice spice notes that I cant figure out. There are also some dark berry notes buried in there. Upon tasting, I knew it would take awhile to truly get everything since I just ate dinner (tortellini with Sriracha - fantastic combo). Nothing is too outlandish on the taste, there is just a really nice combo of malts, hops, spice and alcohol. Also, who can turn down how perfect their labels are. Perfectly understated, classy, and nice simple Scandinavian charm.