Dark Horizon 7
Nøgne Ø

330 ml bottle, bottle #14769/15500, best before 02.07.31, batch 23.08.21, 2366. Served in a snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with not quite an inch tan head that didn't stick around for too long. Not much lacing at all. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like coffee, burnt/charred malt, dark fruit, licorice and some dark chocolate. Taste is similar to the aroma, but there's also the addition of some earthy hops, dark bread and sugary flavors. Mouthfeel/body is full, it's slick and smooth with a low/moderate amount of carbonation. Somewhat boozy but not as much as I was expecting. Thought this was a good overall imperial stout, definitely worth trying especially if you're into bigger brews!

Challenging even for the most adventurous drinker, the stout series of Nogne O once again hits a crescendo of darkness. Their aged, coffee, imperial stout, 7th edition slumbers in on coffee bean before gracing our glass.

Onyx-black and with a mirror-like sheen, Dark Horizon 7 builds a scant and creamy froth before reducing to a lacy creme. Intense roast floods the nose along with a jolt of booze soaked fruits, dark chocolate, licorice spice and nearly oaken nuances. Firm but reasonable, it's malty impressions are highly roasty and carbonized with demerara and muscoado sugars to suggest cocoa, blackstrap molasses and sorghum.

As the flavors extend onto the middle palate, the malts billow into a bittersweet baker's chocolate flavor along with high espresso roast, burnt toast and grilled fruits. A sherry-like fruitiness of plum, red grape, blackberry, blueberry and currant rise to capture a fruit-forward tone before a bitter, spicy and licorice-late palate of charred wood, sharp and woodsy bitterness and firm vinous spice warms the gullet.

Full bodied but thinned from the booze, dried with the tethers of roasted grains and wood spices, the immense stout finishes fruity, spicy and pleasantly prickly with cognac-like booze. A full and long extension of alcohol-soaked roast is met with coffee and cocoa in a very bitter and lasting afterglow.

330 ml ordinary capped bottle in an oversized metal cylinder with a wooden lid - apparently you pay for more than the beer here. Batch #2466, bottle #11090 out of 15500. ABV is 16%, IBU 100. Purchased at Vinmonopolet Herbarium. Pitch black colour, moderate to small tan head. Strong aroma of coffee, molasses, brown sugars and dark malts. Rich and warming mouthfeel. Very sweet flavour, to some degree balanced by distinct bittering hops, and otherwise the same elements as the aroma. Also hints of chocolate and liquorice.