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Monday, February 20, 2012

Here I am at home with my car a couple of blocks away at the bank. Stop in to get my bank on, and bam, the damn thing won't start back up. So what does one do in such a situation? That's right, drink beer, and fix the fucking car later.

Nogne O has quite a reputation 'round these here parts. If the mouth on their bottles were smaller Andy would probably get all intercoursey with them. So when I saw this at BDBS, I immediately grabbed it so I could review it before any of the other rabble could get to it. Apparently the guy who won the 2010 Norwegian homebrew championship brewed this up at Nogne O...I sure hope they give him a chunk of the profits.

The head is, well, IPA head, pretty standard. The nose is really interesting. Most IPAs have a lot of light fruits, like citrus and green apple and such. This one's got some of that, but there's also something a little darker, like strawberry. It's light and would be hard to detect without a proper glass, but it's there, and definitely unique. The flavor's is pretty malty but dry (thank Odin it's not sweet), and the hops are nice and busty. There isn't really any complexity in the hop flavors, though, more just straight bitterness, and that's too bad. That kind of seems like a common theme with some of these malty IPAs- the weight of the malt whittles off the nuances of the hops. Or maybe they just can't get fresh enough hops up there...I'd imagine it's not ideal growing conditions in Norwaydia. All in all, this is pretty decent. Not my favorite, but there's definitely nothing off about it, and it once again shows that Nogne O is capable of some good stuff. And that strawberry thing on the nose is noteworthy. I'd say if you like the East Coast IPA style, definitely check it out. But for me, put it next to Maharaja, Racer X, or Pliny, and it doesn't quite stack up, particularly at the price. But then again, nothing really would.