MIFB beer year bros are back together for a tasting! I'm back in LA for the weekend and long last able to sample one of my favorite breweries, all the way from Norway, Nogne O. I bought this bottle in December and David has held onto it. After spending a year together drinking beer this is only the third time we've sampled barley, hops, yeast and water since September. We just got back from wine tasting in Santa Barbara where I was the sober driver and still managed to leave the town with food poisoning. That's what I get for not drinking - let this be a lesson to you all.
We're at Nick's apartment where he is working on creating a side business with a series of novelty t-shirts. His first creation is a beautiful pinup with a butter stick for a face, an old play on the "but her face!" Clever stuff Nicholas. Bruce Lee approves of the sketch, but what about the barleywine?
With 10% alcohol and 80 IBU, this promises to be a big, aggressive barleywine. The paramount Barleywines for me has to be the Stone Old Guardian series or the AleSmith Old Numbskull and based on my previous Nogne tastings, I'm hoping for the #100 to join the ranks. Apparently the #100 was a small batch made for the brewery, their friends and visiting brewers, but its popularity encouraged Nogne to begin large production on it.
There's a lot of sediment and the beer pours a thick head, which probably means this beer could be aged for quite a while. The booze rises up with the rest of the aroma including dark fruit and cocoa, smelling like a dank and unrefined belgian quadruple. As the aroma teased, this beer isn't ready for the world yet. The alcohol burns quite a bit and the mouthfeel is rather lackluster. I expect barleywines to really punch you in the face with flavor, but this is underwhelming despite the molasses, cocoa and roasted grain flavors emanating from the glass. This one looked oh so good....but her taste!
TRANSFORMERS rating
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| Survivors of the Santa Barbara Wine Tour |
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