Aurora Australis
Nøgne Ø

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent quad from the unlikeliest of partners, spanning the northern and southern hemispheres. Immediate aroma of pit fruit, pours out with nice fluffy head, murky brown body. Taste is plums and prunes, head lasts throughout session. If I didn’t know the pedigree, I would have guessed Belgian.

 

 

 

250ml bottle brewed 20.12.12

Gusher. Positively leapt from the bottle causing messy foam in the glass.

A - Opaque chocolate brown with barely observable edges topped by a sticky camel head that would put most stouts to shame. Despite the gushing, the head settles to a thick creamy cap.

S - Intended or unintended, this is SOUR. Yum. Nice and tart cherry aromas, hints of alcohol, oak and red wine.

T - Unfortunately, a sneaky bug has robbed most of the flavour. Initially the flavours are there, but then they just disappear leaving a dry acidity mixed with strong alcohol.

M - Medium with a dry sour finish.

O - Damnit. Aurora Borealis was one of my favourite EVER beers, but an infection has spoilt this one beyond repair. Save your pennies, and beware of bottle bombs.

 

 

 

250ml bottle, a rather dear, and shy little curiosity on the shelf today. Further investigation into the 'intercontinental and transequatorial quadrupel' label description reveals that this beer has indeed made a few trips across the world, first to get filled into Aussie red wine casks, then to make the long seaborne trek to Scandinavia, and then to get to we here in Western Canada.

This beer pours a murky, dark red-brick brown colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, densely foamy, and yet frothy beige head, which leaves a decent array of layered invading space ship lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs away.

It smells of strong red wine barrel notes up front - a tart cherry and raisin fruitiness, alcohol, and astringent wood staves - followed by a sedate bready caramel malt, musty yeast, softly sugary vanilla, a separate brown sugar sweetness, and a prominent earthy dryness. The taste is much more malty, the doughy caramel leading off, with a heady oaken character derived from the wine barrels - vanilla, toffee, a hint of ashy residue, and wood planks - a black cherry-led vinous fruitiness, edgy yeast, sugary plums, the suggestion of dry cocoa, and an earthy, leafy, and somewhat perfumed hoppiness, the alcohol doing well to hide out in those various guises.

The bubbles are definitely a going concern, sort of tightly frothy throughout, the body a sturdy medium weight, pretty smooth once you get past the wood, and a touch creamy. It finishes on a strong drying kick, prodded heavily by the lingering red wine, yeast, and hops.

While the inherently complex and sweet character of the base quad gets a bit of a work-over by the wine barrel treatment, things seem to more or less sort themselves out by the end. A balance, or perhaps detente, is achieved, keeping the booze, along with the sweetness, well in check. I'm a tad curious as to the particular casks they used here - my vote would be Pinot Noir - less sweet, subtle, and cherry up the wazoo.

Brewed at Bridge Road in Australia, shipped in red wine barrels across the sea to Norway and bottled by Nøgne Ø. I'm very pleased some of this made its way back to its birthplace. This was a 250ml brown bottle purchased from Oak Barrel in Sydney.

Pours a hazed, deep brown, with tints of red to the edges of the glass. Head forms a rather frothy mass of carbonated foam, but settles out to a decent crest of pale brown that leaves excellent lace. Carbonation is pretty fine, but the body is lighter than expected, and the bubbles flow through the glass rather swiftly. Looks good though overall.

Nose is great. Certainly you can smell the red wine oak character: plenty of vinous tones coming through, giving a fragrant but restrained fruitiness with tannic overtones. Deep malt, but not a lot of esters or yeast character. It lacks some of the dark sweetness of the Borealis, and certainly the smoky whisky tones, but the red wine is a fine addition in any case. It's still a tasty brew.

Similarly on the palate, the red-wine is quite dominant, although here there's a slight booziness on the very back of the palate which gives a lilt of depth to the beer. Still, a most definitely vinous almost-tartness on the front, slight fruitiness and a lingering tannic astringency. The frothiness of the carbonation makes you think otherwise, but it really does take on a lot of the red wine characteristics.

Overall. I certainly like it. I feel as though this has been overwhelmed by the red wine characters more than the Borealis was affected by the whisky—the Borealis was a more complete beer in and of itself. But I'm not one to pass up a sea-voyage aged wine-barrel quad, and there's certainly a huge amount to appreciate in this beer.

Bottle: Poured a deep cloudy brown color ale with a large foamy head with good retention and light lacing. Aroma of strong residual sugar with some vinous notes and some dry fruits notes. Taste is also a very interesting mix between some residual sugars; some brown sugar notes with some vinous notes which kind of re-balance the sweetness. Body is full with limited filtration and good carbonation with no apparent alcohol. Interesting but I would be really curious to taste this beer without the red wine notes.

Explosive opening.
Pours murky dark brown with a small head.
Nose shows red wine, heavy oak with vanilla notes, rich malt, sultanas, caramel, fruit cake, golden syrup, even some soft phenols. Lovely.
A mixture of sugary sweet and boozy tannin-laced drier flavours. some fruit cake again with more golden syrup. Very long-lasting finish. The red wine is a little aggressive, overpowering the malt complexities.
Lovely syrupy body.

Pours a dark black, perhaps a tinge of red on the sides. Nice head/lacing.

Smell is pure red wine barrel. Redcurrant, raspberries (red fruits), a little lactic. Like a Raspberry Roll-Up. Behind that are the more quad-y dark fruit notes, some fig and plum, but they are definitely in the back. Also a hint of yeast. Dark fruits are a little rummy.

Taste has slightly more traditional quad notes, but it still has the red wine barrel floating above prominently. Also has a slightly leafy tobacco from the barrel. Boozy and drying oak. Bitter and astringent finish.

Mouthfeel has nice quaddy dark Belgian malt, a bit of sourness and some booze.

This beer requires measured sipping and even the 250mL will take a fair while to get through solo. Interesting and unique interpretation of a quad- very barrel-dominant at this stage in its lifespan, much as the alternate Nogne-O brewed version was. Drinks as much like a Shiraz or Merlot as a quad.

Well done to Bridge Rd as one of the best beers they've brewed.

An excellent beer to be savoured - highly tasty and enjoyable

aroma: candied dark malt and slight spice with slight citrus and oak. Like a malt wine.

taste: whiskey, oak, candied malt, caramel. musky-malty-red wine, brown sugar with slight plum pudding and very slight sourness/funk. Rich and dark.

lots of different flavours going on - sensational beer.

This is definitely a massive effort transported by sea and pours a ruby red hue with a beautiful two finger everlasting head and lacing everywhere looks sensational,the smell is red wine,oak,red berries and a touch of funk I love it,the mouthfeel is full bodied and moderately carbonated with tastes of slight red wine,red berries,a nice funkiness and finished like a sweet red wine and overall it's bloody drinkable and I enjoy this and way better than the Aussie produced version I will buy more of this cheers.

 

I had no intention of reviewing this beer, just adding it to the hads but given the fact the previous 2 reviewers didnt know that this beer was infact aged in red wine barrels, theyve not done it justice.

Basicallly; this is one of the creamiest, smoothest, and most complex quads that I have ever had and the redwine barrel aging during its transport from australia to norway gave it a strong vinous flavour that is fairly sour; but not overly dominant, jsut adding to the complexity of this great beer.

If you like wine barrel aged/sour beers, you will appreciate this for sure. If you like quads/strong rich ales and dont mind the fact its a bit sour, I would think youd like it as well. Given the previous 2 reviews, those dudes took the sourness to be an unwanted infection; while it was intentional and worked quite nicely in my opinion.

The only downside; an expensive little fucking bottle...but given the circumstances, its not surprising its on the pricey side of things.

Thanks to jonpacker (Reddit) for this interesting beer, which he brought back from Norway. Looks interesing at least. Shared with rudzud.

Nice fluffy head for the abv, good lacing and decent retention, dark molasses mahogany color no light coming through really.

Nose had a slight infection, lots of red wine, light barrel infection, light vanilla barrel, bit of a dark sweet malt, slight acrid dark roast like malt, maybe a hint of caramel and candy but not much, faint cocoa, that's about it.

Taste again with mild barrel infection, red wine flavors, light vanilla barrel, mild sour wild infection funk. Then mild sweet malt, candy, caramel, but not much, little cocoa, bitter acrid roast, etc. Not much left for beer other than the barrel infection. Finish us sticky syrupy flemmy, little barrel infection still, hint of darker malts.

Mouth is med to fuller bod, decent carb, touch of warming booze but a little slimy.

Overall bad. Barrel infection unfortunately, which sucks since this beer looked really interesting.

This was brewed at Bridge Road Brewers in Australia, then put in red wine barrels and shipped back to Norway via boat and aged at sea! Thanks to JLindros for sharing this rare bottle.

A - Poured into a Kate the Great tulip a deep dark muddy mahogany hue with a nice big one finger tan head that leaves light lacing and a thin blanket. Very good head for the ABV.

S - Aromas of weird funky barrel notes, faint chocolate, light red wine and grape musk, light roast malts...no real quad affects at all really....just strange and intriguing.

T - Taste is...not that good kinda like the nose. Cardboard, wine barrel, faint chocolate, light roast, faint sour notes...kind of an unpleasant mess. Already there's no alcohol though! Definitely a barrel infection thing going on here.

M - Mouthfeel is average, alcohol is hidden nicely.

O - Overall I was very underwhelmed by this beer. Just an infected mess.