I am always on the lookout for new beers that come into the Reno area, and one just arrived recently that I had seen before. Over Christmas, in Portland, I told you that I had found a cool beer named "Ø" amongst other foreign beers (I eventually settled on Hinano Tahiti, a French Polynesian beer). Apparently, the brewery itself, not the beer, is named Ø, and it's actually not Ø, it's Nøgne Ø, Norwegian for "naked island". I can't remember the style that I saw in Portland, but the one on sale at Booze Bros. was their Porter. It came highly recommended, so I had to snag it, even though the price tag was a little steep. (Not as steep as in Norway, where it can fetch €12, or $17, a bottle, more than twice what I paid.)
Nøgne Ø (full name "Nøgne Ø - The Uncompromising Brewery" when translated from Norwegian) was started by two Norwegian homebrewers, Kjetil Jikiun and Gunnar Wiig, in Grimstad, Norway (a town about 4 hours SW of Oslo), in 2002. Jikiun, an airline pilot, started homebrewing in 1997 after bringing homebrewing supplies back from Seattle and Chicago. He met Wiig and, after months of persuasion, convinced him to join him in his pursuit. You see, like many countries (including the US), Norway's beer market is dominated by two main breweries, Carlsberg-Ringnes and Hansa-Borg, which control 85% of Norway's beer market. Combine that with strict alcohol control laws (no advertising, alcohol more than 4.75% ABV must be sold in state-run liquor stores, Internet legislation, high taxes, etc.), and it seems unlikely that any micro could survive.
And yet, Nøgne Ø (and many others) has, mostly thanks to exporting 70% of its crop to more tolerant countries. Even though they've had some pretty rough times over the last 7 years, it seems as if Jikiun and his crew have found their niche introducing new beer styles (mostly ales and bottle-conditioned beers) to Norwegians and sharing their interpretations with the rest of the world. The porter in particular was first homebrewed by Jikiun in 2000 and was released commercially in 2003. Jikiun himself has a soft-spot for this particular beer; says Jikiun, "Our porter was developed by me, and I am the one who have made the adjustments required, when we have changed brewing equipment or there has been inconsistencies in malt/hop supplies ... [it] is my baby." (Various pages on Nøgne Ø's site that can't be direct-linked, All About Beer November 2007)
Here come the stats:
Nøgne Ø Porter
BREWERY: Nøgne Ø Brewery, Grimstad, Norway
US IMPORTER: Shelton Brothers, Belchertown, MA
STYLE: Porter
FIRST BREWED: 2000 as a homebrew, 2003 commercially
CALORIES/SERVING: Never tested
BITTERNESS: 30 IBUs
ABV: 7%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 16.5° Plato (1068.04)
MALTS: Maris Otter, Munich, caramel, black malt, and chocolate malt
HOPS: Centennial and Northern Brewer hops
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 50 °F (10 °C)
FOODS TO PAIR WITH: Dark chocolate, cheese, red meat dishes
AWARDS: 2008 World Beer Championships Silver Medal (Robust Porter)
I got all but First Brewed, Calories, and the Awards from Nøgne Ø Porter's website (no direct link, so go to the Homepage → Our Beers → Porter). The rest was generously provided by Kjetil Jikiun, head brewer at Nøgne Ø. Tusen takk, Kjetil!
The head exploded out of this beer, even while I was trying to pour it the right way; it emerged a large fluffy copper color. The beer itself was an extremely dark brown, so dark that no light shone through it, despite my efforts. The smell was very pleasant, with a malty and slightly hoppy aroma with strong sweet coffee and chocolate overtones. The beer itself tasted sweet and malty with a larger amount of hoppiness than its smell. The finish dissolves into a strong coffee aroma, but it doesn't leave a bad aftertaste.
Overall, Nøgne Ø is a very well-crafted and complex beer. The beer, and the brewery, deserve all the praise they get for improving the quality of beer in Norway. Jikiun and company are doing something special in that part of Scandanavia, so pick one up in one of the 43 states Shelton Brothers distributes Nøgne Ø's beers to, or also in Finland, Sweden, or Japan for that matter.
Skål!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Nøgne Ø Porter
Monday, October 1, 2007
Anchor Porter
Today has been a hell of a day. After having a great weekend, I come back to work to be kept continually busy with meetings and things going wrong. I thought I was going to go insane with all the problems that kept cropping up. It was like facing the Hydra; when one problem was finished, two more popped up in its place. Then, on top of all that, my wife and I were cooking a pizza when it slipped off the oven rack during removal, having it land on the bottom of the oven and catch fire. We managed to smother the fire and wave out the smoke, but now our place smells like burnt pizza, and we of smoke.
That's when I decided to crack open one of the beers I purchased last Friday: an Anchor Porter. The Anchor Brewery was opened during in San Francisco in 1871 by German immigrant brewer Gottlieb Brekle as something different (name and date unknown). It was bought by another German immigrant brewer, Ernst F. Baruth (with his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel, Jr.) in 1896. It was at this point that it was renamed the Anchor Brewery, and it continued the tradition laid down from its previous owner producing steam beer (or beer brewed under primitive conditions with no ice), or California Common beer. Steam beer is now a trademark of the Anchor Brewery. After surviving the 1906 earthquake, sudden deaths of owners, Prohibition, fires, and World War II, the effect of 1950's television advertising by the big boys hurt craft brewers, and the brewery was on the edge of closing for good. In 1965, a man by the name of Fritz Maytag bought a majority of the brewery for a few thousand dollars and slowly, but surely, turned the brand around. In 1972, their Anchor Porter was first brewed, bottled for the first time two years later. They now brew 8 beers at their Mariposa St. brewery and show no signs of stopping, thanks to the current microbrew wave that's been growing since the mid-1970's. (Anchor's history parts 1, 3, 5, and 6, Anchor Porter homepage)
Here are the stats:
Anchor Porter
BREWERY: Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, CA, USA
FIRST BREWED: 1972
CALORIES/SERVING:
BITTERNESS:
ABV: 5.6%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY:
MALTS: 2-row barley
HOPS:
SERVING TEMPERATURE:
FOODS TO PAIR WITH:
AWARDS:
I got the first-brewed, ABV, and malt information from the Anchor Porter website. I will call the brewery tomorrow for some addition information.
This beer was a very dark brown, almost black color with a billowing tannish head that bubbled furvently, then suddenly stopping to keep its pillowy form. When I poured the rest of the beer, the head looked like a mountain range:
The aroma was a faint hint of dark chocolate, but its taste was more of a caffeination transitioning to a black coffee flavor. I certainly appreciated that their porter had a lot more flavor than the others had. The problem is with the aftertaste; it just kept building as I drank the beer, something I tend not to like about most beers in general. But, like I said, it had a good taste, so I can't complain.
I liked this beer a lot better than their Steam Beer and Liberty Ale, but that's my opinion. It has a rich enough flavor to stand out from other straight porters I've had before (save Alaskan's Smoked Porter). Pick one up the next time you're out and about.
Prost!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Did you ever have one of those days where everything went wrong? I did today. It just seemed like no matter what I did, the computer code I was working with just wouldn't work properly. I won't bore you with the details, but it drove me mad. That's why at the end of the day I was looking forward to the next beer I could review. For this one, I selected a beer from my home state (and there are plenty to choose from): the Deschutes Brewery's Black Butte Porter.
The Deschutes Brewery was founded in 1988 in Bend, Oregon (in the middle of the high desert) by Gary Fish (who is still the president). It started off as a small brewpub in Bend, a city along the Deschutes River, for which the brewery is named (des chutes is French for "the rapids"). At that point, it started by brewing three beers, Black Butte Porter, Bachelor Bitter and Cascade Golden Ale. The Black Butte Porter is named in tribute to Black Butte, an extinct volcanic cinder code located near Sisters, Oregon (NW of Bend). A planned resort community nearby is also named Black Butte due to its view of the mountain. Other information about the brewery is that it is completely vegan (their clarifying agent is an algae called Irish Moss) and that they moved into their current brewing facility in 1993. They also brew tons of specialty beers, some of which appear to only be available at their brewpub or thereabouts (they may serve them at their forthcoming Portland brewpub, due to open April 2008). Finally, they use a process called Kräusening (don't ask me how to pronounce it) where actively fermenting beer, yeast, or wort is added. Hair of the Dog also does this, but they call it "bottle conditioning" (see my review of Ruth). (Deschutes Brewery information and FAQ, plus info on the bottle itself)
Here are the stats:
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
BREWERY: Deschutes Brewery, Bend, Oregon USA
FIRST BREWED: 1988
CALORIES/SERVING: 192 per 12 oz. bottle
BITTERNESS: 30 IBUs
ABV: 5.2%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 13.735° Plato (1056)
MALTS: Chocolate, wheat, and mid-level caramel
HOPS: Cascade, galena, tettnanger (not "tettenanger")
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 44°F (6-7°C)
FOODS TO PAIR WITH: Beef with heavy sauces, steak, ribs, BBQ, chicken (basically any meat you can grill)
AWARDS: A ton...
The calories, first brewed, bitterness, ABV, and awards information came from the Black Butte Porter website. The rest came from a phone call I placed to the brewery on September 19th, 2007. Special thanks to Jimmy Seifrit of the Deschutes Brewery for answering my questions!
This is a very dark opaque beer, with a rich dark brown color, almost black; the accompanying head was a light coffee color and refused to go down, its puffiness lasting for upwards of 5 minutes as I enjoyed the beer. Its aroma was of a sweet dark chocolate type that was pleasant to my nose. The taste also had this dark chocolate flavor with some coffee undertones combined with a slight bitterness, which pleased my tastebuds enormously. The aftertaste finished almost clean, with just a slight hoppy aftertaste. I can handle slight hoppiness in my taste, but not my aftertaste.
Overall, this is a great beer, and it's plain to see why Deschutes stands by this brew. It's coming up on its 20th anniversary next year, and who knows what this brewery will do to celebrate. I only wish I could be there.
Prost!