NORWAY

 
Nøgne-Ø Beers

    Nøgne-Ø # 100
  Nøgne-Ø Brown Ale
     Nøgne-Ø Dark Horizon
    Nøgne-Ø Imperial Stout
    Nøgne-Ø IPA
    Nøgne-Ø Pale Ale
     Nøgne-Ø Porter
    Nøgne-Ø Saison
   Nøgne-Ø Winter Ale
   

A year or two ago, not too far from Hell, in southern Norway, a local priest angered parishioners by ‘fraternizing with the devil.’ The ‘devil,’ in this case, is Kjetil Jikiun, brewer at Nøgne-Ø Brewery, where the priest has been taking brewing lessons. Kjetil cannot fail to find some humor in the reaction of some of his neighbors, but as a devout Orthodox Christian, he does bristle at the idea that brewing is the devil’s work.

In actuality, Kjetil is an airline pilot, who, on his frequent trips abroad, has found a taste for better beer, and especially for bold brewing styles. His attempts to re-create these beers as a homebrewer were so successful that he was strongly encouraged to follow his dream of brewing professionally. That dream became reality in 2002, when Nøgne-Ø was born.

Kjetil and his partners gave the brewery a subtitle -- Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri, or “The Uncompromising Brewery,” a plain statement of their mission: to make ales of strong personality and individuality, even if they would be challenging to the tastes of the general public.

Kjetil still pilots Airbus 340’s for SAS Airways . . . traveling for three days at a time, then spending his three days off at the brewery, while his airline colleagues are at home, resting up for the next wearying journey. The hard work is paying off, it seems: as of this writing, the top eight Norwegian beers on ratebeer.com are all brewed by Nøgne-Ø.