I’m not sure if native English-speakers are fully able to pronounce Nøgne Ø. I usually go for Nog-Knee Oh, which sounds about right. Founded in Grimstad in 2002 – a place name that sounds as if trolls should live under the bridges – Nøgne Ø quickly became heralded across Europe for their beer. This is in part due to the sheer variety of styles they produce, which rapidly built them a following amongst the beer geeks*, ensuring an almost cult-status.

However, the success of the brewery is mostly down to the hard work of co-founders Kjetil Jikiun and Gunnar Wiig – not to mention their ingenuity. The difficulties faced by the fledgling company were enormous. Local drinkers at that time knew very little about non-native beer styles – and as alcohol advertising is not allowed in Norway, Nøgne Ø had a major problem. As their website puts it – “…how can you sell products nobody has ever heard of in a market where it is banned to even inform [people] about the existence of these products?”.

With no facility, no money and no marketing, what they achieved is astonishing. Anybody thinking of setting up a brewery should read the fascinating Nøgne Ø story. After having rented a rundown garage, they found a 5,000 litre milk vat on a scrapheap and persuaded someone to cut it into three smaller tanks. Using home-made equipment to brew had it’s issues – “…whenever we used the brewkettle the whole brewery would smell like burning oil, and if the doors were not open it would be hard to breathe”.

Clearly, their early success was driven by the resourcefulness of Kjetil and Gunnar – and the people they brought in to help (often for free). Their more recent success in part hinges on their export rate – over 70% of what they produce ends up as far away as Japan, Australia and the USA. Recently we’ve noticed a sudden surge in Nøgne Ø beer appearing in the UK, which is fantastic. Previously an online order and a lengthy wait would be needed to get their distinctive Ø-branded bottles – but now there are three stockists in Edinburgh alone.

As a modern, relatively small-scale producer with numerous fans in the beer community, they are free to experiment more than others – and the results are frequently big and boozy (hence this feature appearing during our strong beer month). Their most famous offering is Dark Horizon, an annual 16% imperial stout (the first iteration of which contained half a ton of Demerara sugar).

I asked brewmaster Kjetil about his philosophy on strong beers such as this. “The majority of Nøgne Ø beers are strong because we are a reaction to bland 4.5% lagers,” he said. “We chase the big flavours. In a different scene we would probably have made different beers.” He fully praises British brewers for producing flavourful, session-strength beer, and acknowledges the difficulty in doing this – I get the feeling that if the Norwegian beer scene of 2002 had had numerous big-abv brewers, Nøgne Ø might have gone down a different road.

Having said this, Kjetil doesn’t see strong beer as being a problem issue. “In my opinion most strong beers have a stronger and more intense flavour. This will in turn make the drinker sip the beer more slowly. When it is really cold, you need something strong (and warming) to give comfort. When you load in lots of hops you need body to get good balance.” One beer that does this in spades is their strongest offering – Red Horizon (17%), brewed with no.7 yeast from the Masume sake concern in Nagano.

I’ve no idea what the first six are like, but this one does wonderful and frankly bizarre things to the beer. Fermented very slowly, to let the microbes do their thing as long as possible, Red Horizon is fruity and woody – then has a quite clearly sake grain aftertaste. It’s a classic example of a “Hang on…do I like this?” beer – several attempts at it are needed. Of course, by then your brain probably doesn’t care much, as you sit drinking happily, looking at the embossed tin that the beer comes in.

Nøgne Ø do magnificent things (not all of them over 7.5% – their 4.5% Brown Ale is very good, and Inferial is an alcohol-free imperial stout). The joy, however, really rests in the big-hitters. From a brewery that has seemingly defied all the odds, they truly are one of Europe’s real success stories.



*Some of whom also live under bridges



Kjetil emailed us soon after this post came out – according to him, the correct pronunciation of his brewery is Nugneh-Uh. Next up in our protest month of beer only over 7.5% – we’re releasing a special BeerCast as our panel gets to grips with four very different British beers over this abv. Expect fireworks!