Stone / Jolly Pumpkin / Nøgne Ø Special Holiday Ale
Special Holiday Ale brewed with spices. Chesnuts, Juniper Berry, White Sage, and Caraway Seed. [Stone likes these alphabetical, but in this case it would be impossible creating two duplicate beer names -GT2]
3.7
507 reviews
Escondido, United States
Community reviews
Bottle at home with friends, courtesy of André. Thanks man! Pour is murky brown with a slight red tint and small cream head. Cardboard, dark fruits, caramel, light juniper, and nutmeg in the aroma, but definitely oxidized. Taste is heavy malt, cardboard, spice, caramel, heavy oxidation, stale bread, and pine needles. Medium body with high carbonation. Definitely the worst of the three. Bleh.
Bottle @ Stephen’s house courtesy of André. Thanks! Pours a clear, orangish brown appearance with a small white head. Cardboard, caramel, light toffee, mild spicy aroma. Oxidized, rich caramel, toasty malty, a touch spicy, dull paper flavor. The spices are gone in this one now. Probably either my second or third favorite of the three in the collaboration.
Pour out of bottle, thanks Andre! Dark reddish pour with white head, aroma brought notes of caramel, pumpkin, dark fruits, spice, toffee, hints of slight oxidation, lots of earth. Taste is oxidized slightly boozy mess, slight pumpkin, spice, finishing fairly sweet. Eh.
330 ml bottle at Cardinal. Pours deep amber with a small film of a head. Rich aromas of dark dried fruits, spices and some vanilla. Rich spicy flavors. A good bitterness to balance the sweetness. Nice mouthfeel. A great ale for the hollidays.
Dark, garnet color. Dark cherry nose. Chocolate forward notes, woody after taste. Wife notes Frankfurter taste.
Scents are a bit faint on this beer, bit of alcohol bite and some dark fruits. Taste is some plums and other dark fruits, caramel/toffee sweetness, pretty good beer.
355 ml bottle. Vertical tasting with Nøgne Ø / Jolly Pumpkin/Stone version.
Pours murky brown color with a minimal head. Aroma of raisins, plums, caramel, toffee, yeast and some malts. Flavor of ripe fruits, plums, raisins, yeast, malts, caramel, spices, some toffee and some wooden red wine notes. Smooth, creamy palate.
5336
35,5 cl bottle @ lusikka, no BBE info
Vertical with Nøgne’s version, this one was more sweet, round and slightly worse
Aroma has cinnamon and some fruits – feels more sweet and American than Nøgne. Flavour is sweet and quite different from Nøgne. It has cinnamon, vanilla, syrup and herbs. Spicy notes are more weak. Reminds me of a bun.
Bought from Perry’s Liquors at Livermore, perhaps a bit old bottle. At least feels like it.
355 ml bottle.
Pours a black colour with a small head. Aroma of sweet caramel, nutmeg, cardemom and pepper. Flavour of sweet malts, caramel, nutmeg, pepper, sourish berries and some bitterness. Medium bodied, oily mouthfeel and soft carbonation. Finishes sweet and malty with subtle spiciness. Great.
355ml bottle (vertical with the 2010 vintage Nøgne Ø version)
Pours dark brown with a tiny head. Aroma of strong spicy notes, ash, grainy malts, juniper and cinnamon. Taste is malty, sweetish, spicy and fruity with ripe fruits, juniper, cinnamon and nutty notes. Finish is spicy and malty, with some grainy notes. Nice, quite malty and spicy christmasy ale.
(Bottle). Super Yummy hoppy aroma, spicy, fruity with a hint of orange. The taste is quite special, very spicy and hoppy and with hints of citrus and orange. The malt flavor keeps all sprawling spice flavorings well in place. The alcohol is well hidden. A nice beer!
Bottle at Man in the Moon, Stockholm. Wow, amazing aromas, the taste is awesome. Liqorice, ginger and raisins all over. An incredible brew.
10th July 2010
Cloudy dark brown beer. Light tan head. Spice on the nose. Neutral palate, smooth and fresh. Sweet dark malt - smooth. Nicely integrated spice - tastes like cinnamon and cloves. A fruity undertone - vaguely pumpkin. Nicely spiced beer. Not overdone and not dry. Smooth all the way.
Creamy head,dark brownish/red..
Aroma is a complex spice/malt with blackberry chocolate.
Taste is great with nice body creamy chocolate malty sweetness, thick smooth carmel chocolate with berry notes and a nice complex spice.Very unique interesting beer with a refreshing spice lingering presence.Wow. very wow and unique.
Bottle (Nøgne-Ø bottling) at the PourHouse in Westmont, NJ. Pours a hazy dark chestnut with a camy light khaki head and a lot of lacing. Mild citrus aroma at first gives way to a nice bright caramel, grassy, herbal nose. Aggressive hops are nowhere to be found in the flavor but they play an important supporting role alongside the earthy, spicy, malty, nutty flavors. Some semisweet chocolate, vanilla and toffee in there as well. Creamy texture. Long, mildly sweet finish with just a hint of bracing hop bitterness. A sure Top 10 Winter/Holiday bw for me.
Bottle 355ml @ yngwie
[Courtesy of yngwie] Pours clear deep ruby brown with a off-white head. Aroma has notes of malt, caramel, dried fruits, licorice and fruity hops. Taste is medium sweet and light to medium bitter. Body is medium to full, texture is oily, carbonation is soft.
Tasted as part of a line up of all three versions
Appearance - Pours a garnet/mahogany color with a thin off white head. The head settles quickly. Nice clarity. Good lacing.
Aroma - Pretty strong aroma. Smells like a spiced (think holiday spice not pepper spice) beer. Despite being a rye beer I don’t really get much in the way of rye spice.
Mouthfeel - Low/Medium level of carbonation. Wouldn’t guess it’s 9%. It somewhat dries out my mouth.
Taste - Overly spiced. Large aftertaste of the spice. Very rich and malty. I get a little of the rye but it’s overpowered by the spices used. The juniper is very dominate.
Overall - Not my favorite winter ale/warmer but still better then a lot of the other ones I’ve had. Out of the three versions I tasted this ranks third in all categories.
Wow. Pours syrupy, opaque dark amber with a thin brownish-white head. Aroma is sage, vanilla, very sweet, earthy, grass, herbal, mint, chocolate. Taste is sage, berries, mint, alcohol. Smooth. Very interesting; very tasty.
Head: none
Smell: herbs, anise,spicey,boozey,almunds,sweet
Taste: spicey,malts,coffee bitter,bit of caramel,yeast,dry end, earthy after
Bottle. Lots of dark fruit flavor. Very thick and almost syrupy. Spices are very present in the nose and towards the end of the swallow.
500th rating! Time to start the Holiday season with this one. 12oz bottle pours a murky brown amber cola with hardly a trace of off-white head. Aroma is full of juniper, with sage, roasted malt, and slightly nutty. Juniper and spices work really nice in the alcohol noticeable but covered nicely by the sharpness of the juniper and sage, with chestnuts, roasted malts and licorice. Pretty complex, nice!
Bottle from atom. Looks like flat soda in the glass. Almost no head was present, and after that it leave a few sparse bubbles along the neck of the glass. Aroma reminds me heavily of soap. Definitely get the juniper, sage, and a bit of the caraway. The aroma leave a slight burning sensation in my nose. Bleh! Taste is a bit better, but still has loads of spice and pinesol character. Leaves an awful after taste. This is just bad, folks.
Bottle. Pour dark amber with a small head. Intense aroma from the start. Nuts, raisins and lot of spices, in fact a bit too much for my taste. I remember it was kind of "special" when I first tried it some years ago, but it seem even more "special" now.
Mörk färg med mycket enbärsdoft. Den dominerar även smaken som dessutom är ganska syrlig, lätt rostad med lite brända toner, mycket kryddor som nejlika, kanel mm. Efter 1,5 år i källaren hänger alla smaker ihop men det går inte att komma ifrån att kryddorna är i mesta laget.
12oz bottle.
Reddish brown pour with some off-white head. Heavily spiced aroma - nutmeg, roasted malt, and juniper berry. Flavor is nutty, spicy, roasted - very interesting and reminds me of the holidays.
Dark amber with a small white head. Spicy and malty.Malt, spices and hops. Full body with a unbalanced, bittersweet aftertaste.
0.33l bottle shared with ClubGonzo. This version pours a dark nuttybrown body with a small caramel head. Aroma is quite herby and spicy. Can sense some nutmeg, lots of licorice, dark malts and some burned wood. Feels a bit milder and perhaps a tad thinner in the mouthfeeling than Nøgne’s did. Has a smooth and light slick mouthfeeling and it’s quite soft carbonated. Really nice flavors with lots of spices; there’s sage, cinnamon, nutmeg with notes of junipers, licorice, dark caramel and it ends light warming with some buttery tones in the finish. Really nice and balanced flavors. Big thanks to Inbreak for sharing this bottle with us!
A - Pours a rich cloudy red-black color with a finger of frothy off-white head atop. The head fades down leaving behind some spots of lace.
S - The aroma is a wonderful mix of spices including cinnamon and nutmeg with a balancing amount of sweet caramel malt in the background.
T - Starts off with the spices from the aroma with the addition of some clove and again a nice balance provided by the sweet caramel malts. Through the middle, the caramel malts get a bit stronger and richer with some brown sugar jumping in as well. The finish is a mix of sweet and spice elements that linger.
M - Medium-plus bodied with moderate carbonation. Feels smooth and just a bit syrupy. The spices provide a nice dry mouthfeel, especially at the finish.
D - Very drinkable. The spices are very nicely balanced with the malt flavor and they never get too strong.
Bottle, shared with Palme. A special thanks to fellow beer geek Kai-Sindre Solheim who’s not on Ratebeer (but should be) for pulling this one out of the cellar for us to have a triple Special Holiday Ale tasting in the wake of our good times in Copenhagen! :-D Pours a deep, near-black mahogany body with a small off-white head. Aroma is licorice, cough syrup, herbs and deep malty tones with hints of nuts and molasses. In the mouth, there is cough syrup, herbs, hints of juniper, burnt caramel and wood. Complex and flavorful, this is truly a great version of the series.
Bottle, May 2011.
Dark pour, decent head. Deep caramel aroma, heavily spiced with the juniper quite forward. Gentle sweetness, deep roasty flavors pushing into burnt malt territory, enough residual hop bite to keep things crisp. Alcohol is a bit strong in a cough-syrup sort of way. Overall the spices come off a bit overblown, but the beer works pretty nicely nonetheless.