Nokken
Surly Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From a 16oz can:

Appearance: Hazy gold, good head.

Smell: Tropical fruits, spicy.

Taste: Strong fruit flavors, pretty complex. Citrus, overripe tropical fruit, kind of a mealy fruit texture. Spicy/yeasty, fruitcake. Kind of a jackfruit note. All sorts of weirdness.

Overall: Very interesting beer, lots of weird spicy/fruity flavors that seem over-ripe or on the edge of rotten. That's where I get the jackfruit note--meaty weird fruit. Worth trying.

Partly cloudy, golden yellow body; great carbonation; one-finger thick head, white and creamy. The smell infuses notes of honey, oats, and mild citrus; a bit of pear and peach, too. The taste incorporates elements of honey, citrus, basil, and a twinge of woodiness; somewhat bitter. Heavy body; warm and a bit chewy with residual sugars; dull sweetness undercut with an overall pleasant dryness on the palate.

This beer reminds me somewhat of a Belgian triple with its residual sugars and flavors. Not quite a farmhouse or saison, not a tripel, and not a mead, but melding elements of all three beer styles. Tasty and interesting.

 

Pours a hazy golden in color, topped with an off white head. Good lacing and head duration. Quite hazy altogether, but not truly opaque.

Spicy and yeasty on the nose, somewhat aggressively so. Notes of sun ripened peach and plum, with a spicy ale yeast underlying.

Sweet, lightly spiced and lightly citric/tangy on the first sip. Not much in the way of dryness here, and it feels it’s weight as the viscous spicy slurry costs the tongue and palate. True to form? Or at least much like a few other strong Belgian ales (Saison) which I’ve enjoyed over the years.

Sweetness approaches cloying. Barleywine-like.

Not an easy drinker per se, but quite easily-drinkable for its strength.

Overall it’s very good and quite robust, and best suited for cooler weather (outdoors), or an air-conditioned easy chair lifestyle.

 

Slightly hazy pale amber with a dense head that had good retention. Aroma of citrus but nothing that screams saison or Belgian to me. No sign of alcohol. Odd flavor of citrus hops and yeast phenols. Does not really blend together well. Alcohol warmth in the finish but surprisingly not harsh. Bitter and dry which reminds me of another brewery habit of hopping sours and ruins them. It also does not taste at all like a Belgian IPA with all the citrus. Where the dryness helps is in the body. Not quite effervescent but nicely carbonated. This is yet another miss by Surly which is continuing a streak for quite some time. I want a winner from them again someday. Better than that Electric Sombrero of Crap but that is damning it with faint praise.

 

Pours a beautiful hazed golden color with a thin white head, Smell is fruity with yeast ,malt and candi sugar. Taste is floral and herbal, Belgian yeast mixed with honey and baked bread . A sweet mouth feel with a well hidden ABV.

 

This beer pours a pale gold with a large head. The aroma is fairly mild with a slight honeybread note, a little resin, pistachio, overripe melon, and tree sap. The flavor is also quite mild at first, with dried honey and honeybread, juniper, coriander, raw oats, rye bread, and maybe a touch of sourdough. The motuhfeel is medium to full, with a slightly syrupy quality, and moderate gentle carbonation. Overall a unique and interesting beer - not sure I love it, but I like it, and I like how different it is.

Thanks to a stellar trade with mindtrip2012 I scored this just released collaboration with TRVE brewing.

L: Golden orange true hazy translucence, with a three-finger beige froth which slowly fades to a lasting cap with clingy marshmallow lacing.

S: Smells strongly! of lemon-lime and orange zest and a decent bit of mellon, and a sour apple note as well.
Wow. The Kveik yeast shines in this brew.

T: Pure filtered orange juice (the best you've tasted) with zests of sourer citrus fruits, balanced by big cantaloupe and a nice candy sweetness. Lastly touches of a double IPA malt character and mineral spirits. The lagery aspects of the pilsner malts are quite subdued (or overwhelmed!) Quite complex for a citrus bomb.

F: Medium weight, lighter than expected. Rich and smooth with only the faintest touch of alcohol so you know you are drinking beer!

O: This is my fourth Kveik brew and while Matchless Voss IPA was really good, this is a definite star. Even the head tasted deliciously citrusy. A splendid cirtus-sour pucker at times, this was overall a complex brew that did not strike me completely as a Saison, or IPA. It is truly innovative and it's combination is quite unlike anything I've had.