444. Mikkeller Rauch Geek Breakfast

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without booze and family, would it? Our coffeecake brunch needed something to round it out, and that something was Mikkeller’s Rauch Geek Breakfast, renamed for the U.S. market because we’re easily confused. Now that’s the breakfast of champions! Since Mikkel Borg Bjergsø is a gypsy-brewer, this beer was brewed and bottled at Nøgne Ø in Grimstad, Norway. You know what that means, don’t you? Grimstad water is in the house! This is our second beer from Mikkeller; the last one was Simcoe Single Hop IPA.

Described on the label as a “smoked oatmeal stout brewed with coffee,” Rauch Geek Breakfast pours a rich dark chocolate with plenty of red in it, and a fair amount of garnet highlights as well. There is minimal head retention for the brief cafe au lait colored foam produced during the initial pour, and subsequent pours dissipated pretty quickly as well. The nose is mostly smoked malt and that slightly sour aroma that comes with smoked beers—there is a bit of darker malt sweetness, but it is pretty well buried under the smoked malt. Opening with chocolate and smoke flavors, Rauch Geek Breakfast moves into a roasty and smoky middle that is also dry and lightly mineral-ly. There is a touch of coffee, but it comes across more as roasted flavors—the smoked malt seems to be covering over the coffee almost completely. The finish features a return of chocolate along with a light peat-y smoke character with a touch of sweetness to close things out, followed by a lingering smoky sourness. Rauch Geek Breakfast has a silky smooth mouthfeel via the oatmeal; there is also a fair share of dryness, which is either created or accentuated by the smoked malt, and a slight accumulation of warmth in the back of the throat. The carbonation helps dry out the beer as well, but is only minimally present across the profile. An interesting and enjoyable beer, but one that comes across more as a dark smoked beer than it does as an oatmeal stout—the smoked malt character is excellent, but it does cover over other more nuanced flavors in the beer, like the coffee.

From Beer News: “It is the same recipe as Beer Geek [Breakfast Stout] but with all the base malt replaced with smoked malt.”

ABV: 7.5%

(12/25/2010)

439. Nøgne Ø/Jolly Pumpkin/Stone Special Holiday Ale

Hot damn! Hold the presses! Holiday AND collabo? Dag, that’s like a little slice of heaven! Even further, this is a collabo remake from 2008, when the original was produced by Stone in San Diego. So it’s like old school and shit. For this beer, Kjetil Jikiun from Nøgne Ø, Ron Jeffries from Jolly Pumpkin, and Mitch Steele from Stone all got together to produce a beer that would make beer geeks scream like 13 year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. And I’d like to apologize to 13 year old girls for comparing them to beer geeks. But my favorite part of this beer is the name: I like that Special is used to describe Holiday—I guess that Holiday is no longer special enough by itself, and requires further qualifiers to make the holiday season even more special. Get ready for next year’s Super Special Holiday Ale.

Special Holiday Ale pours a hazy and murky brown—kinda like that sweet ol’ Mississipppi that the folk were drinking by the glassful back in the day—with a minimal tan head that actually thickens and has better retention as the beer warms. The nose is spice mixed with dry fruit; we’re not talking fruit cake or anything, but there is a chewy dried plum aroma underlying the initial spice burst. As it warms, a dark Belgian candy sweetness develops and the spice diminishes, although the fruit sticks around. With even more warmth, the sage starts popping out more distinctly. When initially poured, the flavors were rather muted: chewy malt sweetness in the front, a drier middle with slight spice-related flavors, and finishing dry with a touch of bitterness and juniper tang. As the beer warms, the front contains juniper along with the chewy malt sweetness, and plum and raisin dark fruit flavors emerge in the middle. Chewiness increases across the profile, and the white sage starts playing with the juniper in the lingering finish, mitigating and balancing the bitterness. The body is medium with a chewy yet dry mouthfeel, and the carbonation is medium to light. There is a slight residual mineral/spice character that lingers past the sage/juniper/bitter finish that detracts from the complex flavors that exist across the profile—it is a bit of letdown after all of the interesting and balanced flavors that play across the palate, although this too disappears as the beer heads to room temperature. Nonetheless, an interesting beer. Even if it needs the special to make the holidays complete.

We Three Kings be making the beer...

From the bottle: “This is the second Nøgne Ø release of Special Holiday Ale, which was first brewed in San Diego in 2008. Each brew is following the same recipe, including Michigan chestnuts, white sage from southern California and Norwegian juniper berries, but differences in brewing and aging practices produce different beers. Cheers to being different! Skå!”

ABV: 8.5%
OG: 22° P
IBU: 50
Ingredients: Grimstad water, malted barley, malted rye, malted oats, hops, white sage, carraway, juniper berries, chestnuts, yeast

(12/15/2010)

296. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

The latest and most recent Bigfoot from Sierra Nevada (well, besides yesterday’s beer); we got a growler of this from the Party Source last week when I was passing through to get some new ink work done at Ink Well Tattoo in La Grange, KY. Including yesterday’s beer, our previous Sierra Nevada beers include 30th Anniversary Fritz and Ken’s Ale, Kellerweis, Celebration, Torpedo Extra IPA, Anniversary Ale 2009 and Harvest Wet Hop Ale 2008. As well, I would like to point out that I am still not completely convinced of Sierra Nevada’s sincerity...

Bigfoot 2010 is a deep rich copper that pours with very little head; the nose is malty, with just a touch of hop bitterness, but nothing very distinct. The front is very malty—big and sweet and caramelly, and the middle is equally big with the bitterness, although not much in the way of distinct hop flavor. The end is a partial combination of both the front and the middle: the sweetness returns, and concludes with a good dose of lingering bitterness. You can almost taste the youngness of this beer—the big caramel and big bitterness do need some time to marry and mellow to make this beer more linear and drinkable, although the bright fresh flavors are very enjoyable. While the carbonation is a bit low (well, it was a growler), some more age is gonna be the key to bringing this beer together. Nonetheless, a delightful beer as it currently stands

From the Sierra Nevada website: “This year marks the 25th release of Bigfoot. Our award-winning barleywine boasts a dense, fruity bouquet, an intense flavor palate and a deep reddish-brown color. Its big maltiness is superbly balanced by a wonderfully bittersweet hoppiness.”

ABV: 9.6%

OG: 23° P

FG: 6° P

IBU: 90

Malts: 2-row Pale and English Caramel

Bittering Hops: Chinook

Finishing Hops: Cascade & Centennial

Dry Hops: Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook

Our friend Jeffery also brought over a bottle of Nøgne Ø #100 to drink along with the Bigfoot. #100 has a fruity raisin nose, and a good share of fruit in the body; the front is fruity, while the middle has chocolate and brown malt flavors along with some bitterness. The carbonation was rather low, and there was some slight warmth from the alcohol, although it was very well-balanced for a 10% ABV beer.

From the Nøgne Ø website: “Our 100th batch, brewed for the enjoyment of the brewers, but popular demand forced us to release it commercially. This malty, yet light bodied ale has a massive hop bitterness. Most enjoyable in a comfortable chair in front of a roaring fire.”

ABV: 10.0%
OG: 23.5° P

IBU: 80

Malt: Maris Otter, Wheat, & Chocolate

Hops: Columbus, Chinook, & Centennial hops

(4/22/2010)

287. Nøgne Ø Dobbel India Pale Ale

This beer is a collabo (and yes, I still love that word) between brewmasters Kjetil Jikrun of Nøgne Ø in Grimstad, Norway and Toshio Ishi from YoHo Brewing in Nagano-ken Kitasaga-gun, Japan; it was brewed and bottled at Nøgne Ø.

The color is a cross between amber and copper; the deep rich reddish-hued fluid has an aggressive rocky ivory head that hangs around and paints down the side of the glass. Starting with a lot of caramel malt flavor, a bit of spiciness, and light darker fruit flavors, Dobbel IPA moves into bitterness in the middle before ending with a lighter candy sweetness and some lingering spicy bitterness. There is not much is the way of hop flavor besides the spiciness, and the malt flavor does have some amber ale characteristics to it—deep, thick, and rich with a malt complexity that, while lighter that of the DIPAs we’ve previously had, does have some darker fruit characteristics to it. Dobbel has a medium body with medium carbonation, although there is a decent carbonation bite. There is also some puckering on the tongue and a light astringency from the hops. Enjoyable and interesting, but we did expect a bit more excitement and hop punch; the balance is more towards the malt in this beer, even with the 100 IBUs. It is slightly reminiscent of Rogue’s Cap’n Sig’s Northwestern Ale, which is described as an India Red Ale. We’d be interested to know more of what the brewers’ intentions with this beer were, but since most of the descriptions are in Norwegian or Japanese, we’re not doing so well translating them. We’ll see what their respective websites has to say.

OK, their websites weren’t really helpful either. We’ll let you check out the label and do your own deciphering (you know the game—click on the label to get a larger version). Good luck!

ABV: 8.0%
IBU: 100
OG: 19° P
Malts: Pilsner, Munich, & Crystal
Hops: Millenium, Centennial, Chinook, Amarillo, & Brewers Gold

(4/13/2010)