Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout Highland Edition

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Half liter bottle courtesy of Maltzilla (thanks again Diego) pouring deep dark with tall dark mocha head. The aroma is dry malt balls, toffee, chocolate and faint barrel notes. I’m getting virtually no peat or Scotch like notes. The taste is smooth as silk and velvety too and initially brings up notes of mild booziness, peat and a barrel wood sensation. It doesn’t take more than another moment before chocolate, toffee, malt balls and mild vague hop bitterness join in and take this to the finish.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Well helllooooo. For some reason i was expecting overdone smokiness and scotch like the Mikkeller black hole version, but this was well done. I tasted little to no alcohol (9%) but the beer had some of the sherry/port characterisitics of worldwide stout, as well as the slightly sweet and smoky scotch, roasted malt and lots of chocolate. excellent beer if a bit pricey.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

500 ml unlabelled bottle, courtesy of Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. Pitch black colour, big chocolate brown head. Lovely aroma of whisky barrel (possibly used for sherry before whisky?), but the whisky elements are not overdone - also notes of chocolate, dark dried fruits, vanilla and coffee. Full and rich mouthfeel. The flavour has a pronounced malty sweetness and well balanced roastiness, again notes of oak, sherry, dark dried fruits, vanilla and coffee - also moderate notes of tar. An excellent example of how good oak aged impy stouts can be, when the balance is just right.