Nogne 0 has gotten some nice attention lately here in New York City where their portfolio of available brews is increasing and more people are taking notice of their excellent takes on almost any style imaginable.  When I noticed that they threw their hat in the Saison ring and was simultaneously encouraged by Stinky to check it out, I knew it was probably going to be a winner.  Nogne’s Saison pours a deep Orange color, closer to red than blonde, which right away gives it a distincitive look.  A large amount of crackling off white head is evidence of a lot of carbonation, which continuously releases a lot of great aromas for a long while after the beer is poured.  There’s apparently no extra spicing in this beer, only the aromas and flavors lent by the Saison style yeast, and that’s quite an accompilshment because there’s a lot of complexity in both departments.  Even though this is an appropriately dry Saison, there is a decent amount of maltiness and body, and the herbal and citrus notes do a lot to compliment that and prevent it from overwhelming the beer.  One of the better Saisons to come from anywhere outside of Belgium, Nogne scores again with this very balanced, very delicious version that would go very well with almost any food imaginable — I’m thinking a nice Steak, but I’m usually thinking about Steak these days, so that doesn’t say that much.

At an event at Spuyten Duyvil a little while back, I had the opportunity to sample some of the beers of Brasserie De la Senne, a Belgian brewery in the Senne Valley, where certain Belgian beer styles are said to have originated.  The beers are difficult to find in the United States, and as it was a joint “event” with the greatest brewers in the world (Cantillon), I was more than pleasantly surprised to learn that Senne’s Saison is actually blended with some of Cantillon’s young Lambic beer.  This Saison pours a pale golden color with a slighter quantity of carbonation than the Nogne version, but still enough to keep the drinkability nice and high.  There is a tartness in both aroma and flavor here, in addition to an array of sweet, spicy, and citrus notes which all come together in one of the more complex variations on any style I’ve ever had.  Easier-going than a Lambic, more adventurous than the average Saison, Senne’s version hits so many notes that really all you can say is that once again, Life is Beautiful.  Also check out Senne’s website for some of the best beer label artwork ever.

Drinking Holiday Beer with Mr. Beer Santa

Winter Beers aren’t really my favorite category — Winter Warmers, Christmas Beers, whatever you call them, they can be overspiced, cloying, and just plain weird when you get the wrong combination of ingredients together.  Unfortunately for me, my birthday falls in the heart of Christmas Beer season, and since birthdays are the time when you get together and make people buy you beers, I usually end up drinking a lot of them.  Fortunately for me, my friends are mostly beer geeks, and I spent my birthday at Spuyten Duyvil, not some shithole bar with no choices, so all of the christmas beers I drank that night were awesome.

The Sturdy Brewers from De Struise went for it with their Winter Beer and called it “Jesus.”  Sure, it’s actually Tsjeeses and is in Dutch, and has another meaning, but for me, it’s Jesus beer.  Like the other beers I’ve tried from De Struise, J-word presents an extremely complex package of flavor and aroma.  It pours a cloudy, thick yellowish/amber color, and smells positively heavenly as soon as you bring it to your grill.  I smelled oxidized sherry flavors, white wine and grapes, spicy, and sweetness.  Tasting it was a similar experience, with the characteristic malty Struise flavor, mixed in with ground spices and intense malt sweetness.  A bit of bitterness keeps this balanced for the most part, but it’s intense.  Worthy of the name for sure, and a hell of a way to keep warm in frozen NYC.

Fantome’s “Noel” beer is one of the few I haven’t had the chance to try that I know about, and I’m pretty sure I drank a fresh bottle, though I’m not sure.  It had a smoky, black appearance, and a smoky black taste.  A Dark Saison is a rare treat, and since Saisons are all that Fantome brews, that’s what we have.  Brewer and artisan Prignon likes to tuck special ingredients into his seasonal brews, and with this once I got lots of dry malt sweetness, the classic Fantome barnyard action, and a big hit of smokey chocolate.  Nice.  A Stout by way of Belgian Farmhouse un-Orthodoxy? Another wonderful Fantome creation and a great experience — a really wonderful bottle.

The Norweigan brewery Nøgne Ø’s Peculiar Yule rounded out the trio of Darkness that I entered into on my birthday night, and it definitely packed a hell of a wallop.  The first, second, and last thing you notice about this beer is the crazy amount of ginger on the nose and on the pallette.  Inbetween there is a rainbow of dark malt, deep fruit, and a nice hit of bitterness as well.  Normally I wouldn’t be so craazy about such a spicy beer but this really hit the spot — it was dry enough, weird enough, and drinkable enough that I could really get into it.

Spuyten Duyvil did a public service by highlighting so many excellet Winter Beers (and giving me a great reason to take a year off from drinking them), and as usual I was rewarded for trying things I “wouldn’t normally” drink.  I drank a lot of beer on my birthday night/weekend/week — more to come from the “first of 09″ selections.

The first Stone beers that really caught my attention were its massive, insane IPAs.  Ruination is one of my all time favorites, and the regular Pale Ale and IPA are no slouches either.  Once I got hooked on their brews, though, I was able to see how many different things they were capable of, and their obsession with Belgian Yeast flavors has been evident in their Vertical Epic series.  Cali-Belgique is an attempt to marry the massive citrus and floral hop aromas of West Coast IPAs with the tropical, warm fruit nose of Belgian Yeasts, especially evident in their Golden Ales, but prevalent in various forms all around the Motherland.  Without a doubt, Cali-Belgique is a huge success, managing to skirt the line between the two styles in a way that is both uniquely Stone and unequivocally Belgian influenced.  Cali-Belgique pours a bright copper color, like a classic west coast IPA, with tight bubbles and a quickly dissipating head.  The nose is an awesome mixture of Belgian Yeast and West Coast IPA hop aromas, with almost no malt noticable at all.  Sipping this beer gives off great fruit and citrus from the hops which mixes very well with the fruit flavors from the yeast. An assertive yet transparent malt backbone which is a tiny bit thin for my tastes with a bitter beer like this, but they seem to be taking the dryness cue from the Belgians on this.  I was really glad to hear that Stone would be making this a year-round style, and this represents a very successful volley in the Belgium-influenced-us-and-then-we-influenced-them-and-now-they’re-influencing-us-again thing.  I’m glad New York City is smack in the middle between California and Belgium — we see a lot of good crossfire.

One other way that Stone is exploring the possibilites of brewing and stretching the boundaries of commercial beer is to participate in collaborations with other breweries.  Collaborations are all the rage right now, both in the US and in Europe, where “gypsy brewers” like Mikkeller wander the continents and collaborate with brewers they admire.  In this case, Stone is collaborating with BDB favorite Jolly Pumpkin and Norweigan trailblazer Nogne 0.  The popularity of collaborations has been overwhelmingly positive, resulting in a bunch of new beers that wouldn’t have existed if certain juggernauts had not put their heads together in a creative way.  The Stone/JP/Nogne beer is a holiday ale, meant to highlight indigenous ingredients from each brewery’s environment — Chestnuts from Michigan, Juniper Berries from Norway, and Sage from California.  This beer is also brewed with 25% rye malt, which gives a lot of spicy balance to this otherwise pretty huge beer.  This ale pours a dark brown with red highlights, accompanied by a small, quickly fading white head.  The aroma is fantastic — hints of Sage and Juniper berry come through, and a hint of spiciness from Hops and Rye.  There’s a good deal of body in this beer, which makes it appropriate for the style, but there is dryness on the finish that doesn’t make it difficult to get through the 12oz bottle. Relatively high ABV makes this a sipper, but the flavors that run through this beer, especially as it warms up, are fantastic.  The juicy quality from the Juniper berries stood out most for me, and I don’t get much Chestnut at all, but I’m not sure what to be looking for there.  Overall, this is a successful beer that has a lot going on, and is about as focused as a collaboration between three brewing luminaries could really be.  Each wanted their say, and they got it — the result is a great beer, a step forward for craft brewing, and a unique flavor and aroma profile that would be very difficult to recreate.  Check each brewery’s website for accounts of the brewing process — it sounds like it worked out quite well.