Norse Smackdown Saison

One of Norway’s most prominent brewmasters from Nøgne Ø joined forces with the brewmaster from Shanghai, China’s leading craft brewing innovator Boxing Cat Brewery to brew the Norse Smackdown Saison, a collaboration brew that would further introduce Nøgne Ø beer to the Chinese market.

Kjetil Jikiun (Nøgne Ø) and Michael Jordan (Boxing Cat Brewery) came together to brew the Norse Smackdown Saison when Jikiun arrived in Shanghai from Norway to support the market during Shanghai Beer Week 2014 – China’s original craft beer festival (May 23-June 1).  The two have maintained a friendly relationship since Nøgne Ø beers began being distributed in Shanghai in late 2013 through Cheers In, a French-owned beer boutique through which the new gastropub Liquid Laundry has been receiving their featuring Nøgne Ø Imperial Brown Ale.

The Norse Smackdown Saison is the collision of Norwegian Juniper Berries and Chinese Chrysanthemum Tea, both perfect for a Saison-style beer that is full of esters and aroma from Saison yeast. The beer has a hint of Rye to give the beer a slightly spicy note.

Two types of hops have been used for the Norse Smackdown Saison – the Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand, which have a wine/berry quality to complement the Juniper Berries, and the Sorachi Ace, which has a distinct lemon note with a slight cedar note.

The result is the refreshing golden ale with subtle spice character with lemon, berry and floral notes.

The Norse Smackdown Saison began pouring at Boxing Cat Brewery and Liquid Laundry on Wednesday, June 25, and will continue to pour until mid-July.

Press release from Boxing Cat Brewery:

Joyce Cha, Marketing & PR Officer Boxing Cat Brewery

info@boxingcatbrewery.com

Shanghai, China. June 27, 2014

"Beer of the Year 2013": Nøgne Ø Porter

Last week we received several awards for our beers at the annual ""Beer of the Year"-awards in Norway. Our Porter was awarded Beer of the Year, and in addition both Nøgne Ø Saison and Nøgne Ø #100 won their categories.

So in addition to winning it's category (Porter/Stout), Nøgne Ø Porter also won the prestigeous Beer of the Year award.

The Beer of the Year was awarded for the third time this year, and previous years winners were Borg Bokkøl (2011) and Ægir IPA (2012).

The Nøgne Ø Porter has been in our product range for 10 years and it is needless to say that we are very proud of this award.

We would also like to congratulate Kinn Bryggeri as category winner IPA of the Year (Kinn Vestkyst), Ægir Bryggeri with their Mai Helles Bock as winner of the Light Lager/Pilsner category and Lervig Aktiebrygeri for their award in the Dark Lager/Bock category with their 10 year Anniversary brew.

The awards are presented by Apéritif, Ølakademiet, Norbrygg og Ølportalen.

Snorre Q.Leikanger and Ingebørg Christina Nybø with the awards. Photo: aperitif.no

Beer Festival season coming up!

Do we love beer festivals? Of course we do! We do our best to attend as many as possible, to present our beers and to meet with our customers.

This season you will find us at the following festivals:

Barcelona Beer Festival, Barcelona, April 11. - 13.

Beer14, Oslo, April 24. - 25.

NVkF & Slow Foods Mat- og Vinmesse, Oslo May 22.

Danske Ølentusiaster Tap 1, Copenhagen, May 22. - 24.

Shanghai Beer Festival, Shanghai, May 31.-June 2.

Beervana, Bankok, June 7. - June 8.

Oslo Beer Week, Oslo, June 10. - 14.

GladMat 2014, Stavanger, July 23. - 26.

Bryggerifestivalen, Trondheim, July 31. - August 2.

Kristiansand Ølfestival, Kristiansand, August 23.

Øl og Matmesse, Stavsplassen, Tretten, August 30.

Grunerløkka Mat og Mikrobryggfestival, Oslo, August 29. - 30.

Bergen Ølfestival, Bergen, September 5. - 6.

Villagio della Birra, Buonconvento Siena, Italy, September 6. - 7.

Matstreif, Oslo, September 12. - 13.

What's Brewing, Haugesund, September 19. - 20.

Stocholm Beer og Whisky Festival, September 26. - 27.

Stocholm Beer og Whisky Festival, Oktober 3. - 4.

Arendal Øl & matfest, Arendal, October 25.

Ølfestival Tou Scene, Stavanger October 31. - November 1.

Nordic Brew Festival 2014, Arena Nord, Frederikshavn, Denmark, October 31. oktober - November 1. 

As there will probably be some changes throughout the year we will keep this blog post updated accordingly.

Our barrels need care

Nøgne Ø are looking for a dedicated person to be in charge of one of the most exciting jobs in the craft beer industry!

Barrel aging beer is a fascinating craft that we wish to focus even more on at the brewery by hiring a person dedicated to our barrel aging programme.

Primarily we are looking for a person with an above average interest in craft beer and flavours. Preferably you are creative, open to many differing flavours and aromas, and have a fair knowledge of the craft beer brewing process.

As responsible for our barrel aging programme you will be in charge of, and responsible for, laying plans for barrel aging beers, organizing and evaluating the beers in the barrels, quality control, blending and bottling. You will be working independently, and the job will include a fair amount of manual labour. Furthermore, the job will involve various tasks at the brewery, such as aiding the cellar man, cleaning, labelling and helping out at the warehouse.

We prefer if you have a driver’s license class C and a permit for driving a fork lift.

Place of employment: Grimstad, Norway.

Hours: 08:00 – 16:00. Longer hours will occur when needed.

You will answer to the Production Manager.

Please contact the Production Manager Edvard Hortemo for more information: +47 924 44 886. Applications to be submitted to Edvard@nogne-o.no

Mishaps can be a good thing

Sometimes things just doesn't go exactly as planned. 

There are so many factors that make hand crafted ales really fascinating. As when one of our brewers  pitches the wrong yeast to a batch of Tiger Tripel (brewer not mentioned by name...). 

Well, occasionally these things happen and we just have to make the best of these situations.
We soon realized that the beer would not be a Tiger Tripel as we know it, so we began brainstorming.

Pouring the whole batch out was never an option, so our creative brewers came up with a couple of ideas on how to turn this batch into a very special beer.
Several options came to the table. All from far fetched ideas like... well, let's keep those a trade secret... to more feasible ideas like adding flavoring by mixing in different berry juices to the brew.

We decided on the latter, added a good amount of blackcurrant juice to the batch and left the wort to ferment again.
In a week or so we will be ready to bottle a batch of our brand new one-off beer: Cassis Tripel! We hope you will enjoy it!

Another milestone at Nøgne Ø

Today is the day we pass 1 million liters (8386 US barrels) brewed at Nøgne Ø this year. Last year we brewed approximately 900.000 liters (7547 US barrels), so our brewers have been really busy this year.

The beer being brewed is an old and dear one. Our English Bitter at 4,5% ABV. Nøgne Ø Bitter is a light session ale with an assertive hop aroma of East Kent Goldings. It was actually one of the first beers made at Nøgne Ø. First time brewed on May 15. 2003!

The Nøgne Ø brew team have been working hard this year: From left: Rune Karlsen, Ingrid E.Skistad, Edvard Hortemo (Production manager), Kjetil Jikiun and Rolf Tore "Toa" Vik.

Nøgne Ø Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri AS is proud to announce new owners

On November 25^th 2013 Hansa Borg Bryggerier acquired a majority share in Nøgne Ø.

This paves way for Nøgne Ø in better reaching out to its loyal customers both in Norway and current and future export markets.
Nøgne Ø will continue to be based in Grimstad, Norway, and will keep up the hard word on maintaining its portfolio of quality beers and sake, as well as developing new and experimental products.
Founder and head brewer Kjetil Jikiun will maintain his position as head brewer after this transition.

Hansa Borg Bryggerier is a family owned group of regional breweries: Hansa, Borg and Christianssand Bryggeri. Its owners have over 4 generations showed that they are committed to stability and supporting local brand and employment.
Hansa Borg Bryggerier also has its own spring water production under the brand Olden by the western Norwegian fjords.

Nøgne Ø is Norway’s oldest and largest craft brewery. The brewery is also the only maker of sake in Europe. Their award winning products are exported to 30 countries on 4 continents.

The shareholders selling shares in Nøgne Ø is Cecilie Mohr, Tor Jessen, Anne Cecilie Nybø, AHT Invest and Kjetil Jikiun.
With the conclusion of the sale, the share situation is the following:

• Hansa Borg Bryggerier 54.44%
• Tore Nybø 15.63%
• Anne Cecilie Nybø 10.13%
• AHT Invest 9.91%
• Kjetil Jikiun 9.91%

Kriek of Telemark

A proper fruit beer should be sour and that was what we aimed for when brewing Kriek of Telemark. A beer brewed with Norwegian sour cherries and a secret ingredient that we believe has added a perfect touch to this beer.

The Lindheim Gardens located in the small village Gvarv in Telemark grows wonderful sour cherries. Perfect for a proper Norwegian sour beer. The beer has an intense and inviting red color and has an ABV of 7%.
We are very pleased with how this brew turned out and we hope you get the chance to enjoy it as well.

One celebration, two brews!

In July this year we reached another milestone at Nøgne Ø. Our 1000th batch was brewed. As usual this was celebrated by brewing a very special brew. Well, actually we brewed two very special brews. Batch #1000 and batch #1001, with an ABV of 10.00% and 10.01%. Obviously. They are quite similar, though the colours differ. They were both brewed with exotic Middle Eastern spices, inspired by 1001 night (Arabian Nights). Ingredients also includes malted barley, malted wheat, demarara sugar, hops, yeast and Grimstad water.

We decided to present these 250 ml bottles in a delicate two-pack.

Available at Vinmonopolet from November 1st.

Humlehøsting hos Bosnar for Wet Hop Ale

Onsdag morgen dro Rune og Tore til Slovenia for å være med på humpleplukking på Bosnarfamiliens gård nær Celje. Denne humlen blir (i stedet for å bli tørket) lastet i kjølebiler og kjørt til bryggeriet vårt så hurtig som mulig. Målet er å brygge norges første øl laget med fersk humle- Wet Hop Ale!

«Torsdag var det omvisning med Blaz på ulike humleåkere med "voksenopplæring" i humledyrking. På ettermiddagen og kvelden ble det tid til en tur til Ljubljana, før vi ble kjørt hjem til Blaz for kveldsmat Solvenian style. Det var en enorm gjestfrihet vi ble vist – med mye tradisjonell og hjemmelaget mat.
Fredag startet før 07.00 og humlehøstingen var i gang da vi kom til humleåkerne. Det var rundt ti personer involvert i ulike oppgaver og alt var pakket ferdig i 45 kasser til kl 16:00. 
Da reiste humlen i en Polsk registrert kjølebil på vei til Nøgne Ø.
Alle som reiser i området er invitert til å komme innom dem, noe både Rune og jeg vil anbefale!»

Wednesday morning Rune and Tore went to Slovenia to attend harvesting hops at Bosnar family farm near Celje. This hops is (instead of being dried) loaded into refrigerated trucks and driven to our brewery as quickly as possible. The goal is to brew Norway's first beer made ​​with fresh hops- Wet Hop Ale!

"Thursday we had a nice tour with Blaz on different hops fields and got an insight in hops cultivation. In the afternoon it was time for a trip to Ljubljana, before we were driven home to Blaz for supper Slovenian style. It was a tremendous hospitality we were shown - with a lot of traditional and home made food.

Friday started before 07:00 and hops harvesting was underway when we got to the field. There were about ten people involved in different tasks and everything was packed ready in 45 boxes to 16:00. Thereupon the hops hit the road in a truck headed for Nøgne Ø. 

Anyone traveling in the area are invited to stop by them, both Rune and I would highly recommend! "

 

Nothing is like celebrating own achievements.

We have just brewed our 1000th batch. Worth a celebration, we thought. Ingrid baked cakes.  Everybody helped out in eating. Batch #1000 will be sold in two-packs. #1000 and #1001 together. The latter became the main inspiration for the flavour profiles of the two.

 

Brewing with Maine Beer Company

This time, Collaboration Time 3rd was brewed with Nøgne Ø!
Our Head Brewer Kjetil Jikiun visited Maine Beer Co in Portland, Oregon.

Label for the upcoming ale!

On location with Maine Brewing Co!

In Portland!

Nøgne Ø's India Saison takes gold in Canada!

Calgary International Beerfest:

Our India Saison has been awarded the gold medal in the "Belgian Strong Ale" category, eh! Kjetil was in Canada to receive the honor and bask in the glory, and the golden proof now adorns the wall here at the brewery. India Saison was brewed for the first time in the fall of 2011 in collaboration with Bridge Road Brewers, Australia, and we would like to share this award with Ben and guys down in Beechworth. Cheers mateys, eh!

Hop-heads unite: Global Pale Ale in stores now!

Nøgne Ø’s Global Pale Ale is available in a supermarket near you as of right now!

Supermarket?! Yep, your eyes do not deceive you. Our GPA has only 4.5% alcohol and is therefore available in stores like Meny, Kiwi, Spar, Ultra and Joker. Coop, ICA, Rimi and the rest are joining the party in July. If you cannot find it in your local branch, ask, nay, DEMAND, they stock it for you.

So what is GPA? It’s hops. And lots of them. We here at Nøgne Ø love hops. We love hops so much we went all around the world to pick the cream of the crops in England, Slovenia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, USA, Germany and Australia. We couldn’t decide which ones we wanted to use, so we used them all! 13 different hops in total. From all around the globe. Now, that’s global indeed.

Get ready, people, because this beer will knock your socks off.

Look what arrived in the mail today!

Its always fun to get package deliveries. Especially when you don't know what's inside.
This just arrived at the brewery!

Gold Award from The International Brewing Awards 2013:

The diploma in all its glory

...and the medal of course

Graeme Coates spends a week at Nøgne Ø!

Graeme Coates, the winner of the UK National Home-brew Competition, just spent last week with us at the brewery. We would like to thank him for his stay, and hope he had a blast.

Graeme actually worked as an assistant brewer the whole week, and it was all a part of the grand prize in the UK National home brew competition. Working at Nøgne includes loading of the mill, dumping yeast, pasteurizing sake and of course a lot of cleaning! 

Graeme is originally from the south of London, and currently lives in the Oxford countryside. The 33-year old software tester got quite a change of pace from his usual work, and we always enjoy an extra hand in the brewery. 

Mr. Coates started home brewing about 4 and a half years ago, and his goal was actually to save money. Needless to say that didn't work out very well. He is now brewing a variety of beers, and among them is the competition winner, which is a Swarch beer. He tries to make a better beer than the commercial ones, and strongly focuses on hygiene, temperature and yeast control. 

When we asked him witch of our beer he enjoyed the most, Graeme said that Tindved is definitely an interesting one, and that you can't miss the #100. We agree with you Graeme, and hope you enjoyed your stay. It was nice having you, and good luck with further brewing!

Here are some pictures!

Graeme watching the mash-in.

Important to keep the mash temperature just right.

Calaculating the amount of hops needed! The Global Pale Ale this time.

Loading the mill. 1500 kg for the IPA !

At the bridge: Thanks for your stay Graeme!

Nøgne Ø at Beertopia!

Nøgne Ø was in Hong Kong!

The largest craft beer festival in Hong Kong, Beertopia, was better than ever this year. Nøgne Ø was there!

The young festival started in 2012, and have already managed to feature over 1,700 attendees tasting over 90 different beers from around the world. This isn't just a tasting, the festival also includes food, live music and lectures among others. How can we make this experience better? By serving our fantastic norwegian ale!

The goal of the Beertopia is to provide an opportunity for people to taste and learn about the quality beers they might not be aware of. Since this is the first craft beer festival in Hong Kong, it focuses on bringing beer to the forefront, and by this raise the interest of craft beer in general. 

Beacause of this, it was important for us to be there. Here is a picture from our stand:

Beertopia in Hong Kong is better than ever. Nøgne Ø was there!

Judging at AIBA 2013 – new method in the making

Nøgne Ø making headlines in the Herald Sun last week!

They're poring over the word's best brews:

A panel of international judges will assess the value of liquid gold, taste-testing the world's best brews.

The 43 experts will sip hundreds of ales to determine the top of the pots at the Australian International Beer Awards at the Melbourne Showgrounds.

"The AIBA brings together the best of the best in the beer industry and this year we've seen a 12 per cent increase in entries from 2012, which is a clear testament to the calibre of the awards,"

said chief judge Brad Rogers from Byron Bay's Stone & Wood Brewing Company.

The malt liquors will be adjudicated on their appearance, aroma, flavour and body, and style.

Australia's most popular beverages received a frosty reception in the past, witch punters preferring the potions from boutique and craft breweries. VB knocked off lager rival XXXX Gold as the nation's top-selling beer last quarter. The Sales explosion was due to the hard-earned thirst-quencher's beefing up its alcohol content back to 4,9 per cent.

Judging at AIBA 2013 – new method in the making…. 

Brewing Lemongrass Ale today!

Our brewer Rolf Tore Vik aka Toa in action!  Chopping approx. 20 kg lemongrass stalks today, an  occassional reminder of his previous proffesion as a Gourmet Chef.

Homebrewers Day Part II

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for a fantastic Homebrewers Day Part 2! We hope you enjoyed yourselves, and look forward to next year´s event brewing Imperial Python Pilsner.

The competition was judged by 5 judges, and they all individually rated the beers a score of maximum 50 points based on RateBeers Tasting form. 

The scores were then added, and divided by 5. You will find the 3 best beers in the following classes: 

Amber (best beer based on WBC style-guidelines of the classical Amber Ale) :

Jan Arild Helle 39,2

Harald Wegge 33,6

Paul Lund 33,4

Creative (best beer):

Ole Kristian Nylund 39,2 

Sveinung Hodne 36,6 

Sven J. Guldbrandsen 36,4 

The 1st prize where 3 bottles of the not-yet-released Dark Horizon 4. edition!

Tore, our General Manager, is addressing the crowd. Its time for the competition results.

And the winner is…..

This guy! For the best creative beer. (Ole Kristian Nylund)

Afterwords, its dinner, sharing and socializing on the menu.

Welcome back next year!