Special Holiday Ale - Nøgne Ø, Stone Brewing Company, Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales

I was especially proud of finding this bottle of at the liquor store, not because it was particularly rare but because it was on the clearance rank. I'd seen a few bottle of these on the shelves over the holidays but didn't get around to picking one up. Even though the holidays are a month behind us I couldn't pass up getting a bottle of this collaboration for half price. The timing worked out well because just enough time had passed that I was no longer burnt out on holiday seasonal beers. After picking up this bottle I realized something a little strange...

Collaboration ales are great, you take two or more brewers together to create a new product that is usually more than just the sum of it's parts. I had high hopes for the Special Holiday Ale because it was a collaboration between Nøgne Ø, Stone Brewing and Jolly Pumpkin. I've had a few Nøgne Ø beers at tasting and I really liked them, I've heard many great things about Stone's beers and Jolly Pumpkin is really just icing on the cake. Part of my excitement came from being able to have a beer that was brewed by Stone and Jolly Pumpkin, two breweries that aren't distributed in my neck of the woods. The funny thing about it is that it took a small Norwegian craft brewer to put their name on the label of beer distributed in middle America.

The Special Holiday Ale was brewed with chestnuts from Michigan, sage from California and juniper berries from Norway. The beer was brewed in Grimstad, Norway and bottled/distributed by Nøgne Ø. The drinking experience was a little different than I expected....

Going into this I was looking for big huge flavors in a super dark beer with a double digit ABV. For some reason the word collaboration makes me think the participating brewers just threw everything that had into one beer... It quickly became apparent that this wasn't the case here. The Special Holiday Ale is dark and close enough to 10% to concede those points, but the flavor is quite different than I was expecting. The sage and juniper flavors in this beer give it a flavor a bit closer to a Quadrupel than a Winter Warmer... not enough that I'd change the labeling or anything, but that was my impression. The chestnuts, malted barley and rye give this just enough grainy flavor add a touch of Porter to this otherwise spicy non-Quadrupel ale.

It's a unique flavor combination but one that I'd go back to the discount rank for. This beer will taste the same at full price and I think it's worth picking up.