AT NØGNE Ø WE MAKE REAL ALE!

Se the menu to the left for presentation of our beers!

More or less 98% of the beer marked in Norway consists of light, filtered and pasteurized lager-beers. Lagers can be good, but for us diversity is important and one of the main reasons why we in the first place decided to start Nøgne Ø. Due to this we have decided to only stick to top-fermented and bottle conditioned beers.

We prefer beers to be complex, fruity and full bodied and making real ale is for us the right method to make such beers. Help yourself and read more about our different styles of beers from the left menu.

Bottle Conditioned Ale

 We at Nøgne Ø make bottle conditioned ale – or «living beer» as some prefer to call it. When we refer to ale we mean beer brewed from malt with top-fermenting brewer's yeast that ferments rather quickly on high temperatures. This usually makes the beer complex, fruity and full bodied. We do not filter our beers, but it is fermented the second time in the bottle from which it is served.

This is done by adding a small amount of yeast and fresh wort to the beer just before it is bottled. Bottle conditioning is done to add natural carbonation, as opposed to filtered beers which are carbonated using high pressure gas injection. This process does not add much alcohol to the beverage. Bottle conditioned beers are usually carbonated entirely by the natural action of the yeast. This method of making beers cause that the final conditioning of the beer takes place in the bottle.

Filtered beer tends to have a relatively short shelf life, rarely more than a year, as many compounds in the sterile beverage break down into unpleasant tasting ones. Live yeast inside the bottle acts against these processes, giving the beverage a much longer shelf life. A good bottle conditioned beer can maintain its drinkability for many years, and some can be aged for decades.