Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

275 ml bottle, at The Beehive, Brentford, London. Deep golden colour, moderate head. Aroma like a decent standard bitter. Reasonably hoppy flavour. Not bad for a beer this low ABV.

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

(Bottle conditioned, 500 ml). Another new Yule/Christmas beer from the craft brewers of Nøgne Ø. Very dark brown to ruby colour, decent head. Nice aroma of dark malts, caramel and spices (cardamom and cloves). Unashamedly sweet with a velvety mouthfeel, but not cloying. Rich and malty flavour with caramel, distinct cardamom and cloves (also some ginger and nutmeg??). Sufficient hops and spices in the aftertaste. Very good beer! I’m sure it’s nice enough with cookies, but definitely a treat on its own!

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

(500 ml bottle). Bottle condtioned. Pours with an excellent thick & tan head. Pitch black, even when held to the light. In a blind test I'd probably say this was a stout (not Guinness!), maybe even an imperial. Aroma of roasted malts, coffee, cigar box, English pipe tobacco and dark bitter chocolate. Flavour is again roasted malts, coffee and dark chocolate. Not too sweet, excellent bitterness where you can sense the hops as well as the roasted malts.

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

(500 ml bottle). The Nøgne Ø micro brewery is in a class of its own (at least by Norwegian standards), so this beer is by far the best Norwegian "klasse D" (= grocery store market) Christmas/Yule beer you can get (all others are Vienna lagers). Deep copper colour, moderate head. Malty, oaky and toffee aroma with hints of spices. Malty flavour balanced by a decent bitterness. Rerate Christmas 2004: Colour seems even darker this year, plenty of yeast floaties. Flavour is maybe a tad spicier, well balanced hops. Impressively tasty for a Yule beer with a meagre ABV of 4.5%

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

(Bottle conditioned, 500 ml). The good people of Nøgne Ø have brewed as many as 4 different Yule/Christmas beers for the Yuletide of 2004. "God Jul" and "Julesnadder" are continued from last year with revised recipes, new ones are "Underlig Jul" and this one, their vanilla porter "Julenatt" (= Yule/Christmas Night). Black colour, thick tan head. Aroma of vanilla, roasted malts, hot chocolate and dark fruits. Flavour is rather sweet, dominant vanilla, roasted malts, coffee and plenty of chocolate. A roast and hop bitterness make the aftertaste tolerable. Nice for a change of pace, a decent "dessert beer" for those with a sweet tooth. But like I said in my rating of another vanilla beer: "there’s probably a reason most beers DON’T smell and taste strongly of vanilla". I’m not a big vanilla fan, but for those who don’t mind, this is probably as good as it gets.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

(Bottle conditioned, 500 ml. Courtesy of Erik Dahl, Venner av Nøgne Ø.) I received this remarkable beer with awe, mixed with great anticipation. Very few litres of #100 have been for sale to the public. Would I like it, or would the massive hops (80 IBU!) be too much for me? The cost of brewing it (= the massive amount of malts and hops required for a batch) made the brewers certain that it would be unprofitable as a permanent brew, particularly with Norwegian alcohol taxes. This impenetrable cloudy dark brown beer pours with a large to moderate tan head. Aroma is simply wonderful - Colombus hops galore, dark chocolate, leather, cigars, pipe tobacco, tar. The complexity remains in the flavour - extremely malty, very sweet, but also extremely bitter. The bitterness (which becomes medicinal and wormwood-like in the aftertaste) prevents me from giving this beer a full score. On a regular basis, I’d prefer Nøgne Ø’s God Jul (which is world class this year, IMHO) and also their Porter. But what a great experiment #100 is!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

375 ml corked bottle, champagne-style. Bought at Selfridge’s, London. ABV was 4.5%. Hazy reddish brown colour, pours with an impressive large tan head with a pinkish hue. Aroma is overwhelming ripe (over-ripe?) raspberries. Flavour is of course raspberries on a background of sourish brown ale (’cause that’s what this beer really is), but not as sour as I expected. Fairly sweet, but not cloying. Hints of cowshed. I wonder what this beer would taste like if the raspberries used had been less ripe - probably "fresher" and more sour and tart. As it is, it’s a drinkable and interesting fruit beer, but would hardly be my daily indulgence even if it had been available in Norway.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Ex Vaux beer, now brewed by Robinsons for "The Double Maxim Beer Company Sunderland", website www.dmbc.co.uk . 550 ml bottle, straight from the fridge (= served too cold) at The Shipwrights, North Hylton, Sunderland. Deep brown colour, darker than Newcastle Brown. Decent head. Malty and nutty aroma and flavour, hints of toffee, low bitterness. Fuller flavour than NBA, but not remarkable.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Cask conditioned at the Alexandra Hotel ("The Alex"), Derby. Very pale colour, low head. Fruity / citrussy aroma. Hoppy flavour, light bodied. Very nice for its strength.

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

Cask conditioned at the Smithfield, Derby. Golden colour. Lovely citrussy aroma. Complex hoppy, herbal and citrussy flavour. This is very good! - obviously related to its excellent low ABV brother, the JHB.