Norwegian Beer Takeover: Nøgne Ø’s Tasting at Jing-A Taproom

Founded in 2002 in Grimstad, Norway, Nøgne Ø has since become world-famous craft brewery renowned for its dark beers, active cooperation, and barreling techniques. In order to complete their recent Imperial Saison co-brew with Jing-A, the Stephen Andrews, brewer and barrel cellar manager, and Tore Nybø, managing director, of the Nøgne Ø team travelled all the way from Grimstad to Beijing. During their stay they also gave a Nøgne Ø tasting session to the Beijing Homebrewers Society and held a release party for the Imperial Saison on Saturday at the Jing-A Taproom.

The two Norwegians didn't travel light and brought over several of their own beers. Among those were several impressive bottles, including a Russian Imperial Stout (9 percent ABV), equal parts sweet and bitter, and full of dark chocolate and vanilla notes; Tyttebær (8 percent ABV) a co-brew with Danish brewery Mikkeller, which was tart and sour, thanks to the use of sweet berries in the brewing process; Summer Sommer (7.5 percent ABV) was another collaboration beer with Garage Project from Wellington, New Zealand, a strong golden ale with smooth texture, and brewed using rye malt and Pohutukawa honey.

“Cooperation is important for us, since we are so far away, so that’s the way we participate,” said Stephen Andrews. I was also surprised to learn that “since the Norwegian government changed advertising standards last year, we are now finally allowed to have pictures of our beers on the website. Before that, it was tough to advertise our soup.”

Since Nøgne Ø has a sake brewery, and Jing-A has been brewing Koji for a while, they decided to brew the special imperial saison together. The resulting Imperial Saison is a saison/sake yeast blend and brewed using Chinese orange peel (陈皮, chén pí). Even at 14 percent ABV, it is surprisingly light in body with a citrusy kick, and the deep savory flavors would go perfectly with a round of fresh sashimi. Co-brewed in May 2015 in Norway, and aged in bottles for one and a half years, Kristian Li and Alex Acker confessed that “the beer didn't turn out the way we designed, but it is surprisingly good – that’s the fun part of brewing.“ This special beer is now available at Jing-A taproom.

Besides the bottles, the Nøgne Ø crew carried five kegs, including M.O.L.E. Russian Imperial Stout (9 percent ABV), Kriek of Telemark (7 percent ABV), Aquavit Saison (8 percent ABV), and my favorites, the Rød Jul (8 percent ABV), which features a dose of spices, and aromas of apricots and figs, that may make it our go-to winter beer, and Tigris Obscura (8 percent ABV), a mixed fermentation of wheat wine with blackberries in oak barrels. Since they only carried one keg of each beer, we'd suggest heading over as quickly as possible to ensure you get a taste before taps run dry.

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos courtesy of BHS, Tracy Wang