Jolly Pumpkin / Nøgne Ø / Stone Special Holiday Ale
by Paul Arthur on Apr.17, 2009, under ale, beer, herbed beer, spiced beer
Background: Collaborative brew between everyone’s favourite Michigan brewery, everyone’s second-favourite Norwegian brewery, and Stone. Brewed on Stone’s equipment, but the recipe was worked out via emails between the three head brewers and they all helped with the brewing. The recipe incorporates juniper berries from Italy (standing in for Norway, since they were unable to source any from there), white sage from California, and chestnuts from Michigan. In addition to the other spices, caraway seed was added as a complement to the 25% rye in the malt bill.
Nose: Green, herbal hops, followed by a touch of sage.
Taste: Lots going on. Very clear sage note, with spicy rye and juniper also quite evident. Caraway and a medium hop bitterness come through in the finish. Indistinct hop flavour; if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say an English hop variety. The 9% ABV starts to become evident after a few sips.
Overall: Very unique. Definitely not a session beer, but for an occasional taste sensation it’s quite nice. (Especially since I love sage.)
February 11th, 2010 on 8:03 AM
[...] is undergoing extended barrel aging, like many of their beers). See my notes on the first here. This release uses the same recipe, but was brewed and aged at Nøgne Ø in [...]