Nøgne Ø: Svant /Hvit Alkoholfri Melkestout (Norway: Low Alcohol: 0% ABV)
Visual: Very dark brown to black. Thin charcoal touched off white to brown dash of a head.
Nose: Milky to cream. Treacle. Rich chocolate cake and coffee cake with icing cream. Brown bread dough.
Body: Bitter cocoa. Lactose. Moderate thickness body. Crushed bourbon biscuits. Light chalk. Brown bread. Light charcoal dust.
Finish: Light chalk. Chocolate drink powder. Brown bread. Treacle. Peppery.
Conclusion: One of the hardest things to get right with a low alcohol beer is the mouthfeel and that goes doubly so for the darker beers where you would expect them to be malt led with the accompanying bigger body.
This does fantastically at that, not super thick but well within the range you would expect from the moderate abv of a milk stout.
This is made even better by the fantastic aroma – thick, creamy and treacly – it really pushes the milk stout style from the offset. Simple. But really effective.
Probably thankfully for long term drinkability, the body of the beer doesn’t lean as heavy into the treacle. Instead it mixes bitter cocoa dust and sweeter crushed bourbon biscuit notes. There is a slight chalkiness, which feels like an off note and a low abv flaw, but apart from that this is amazingly solid.
The finish returns to a touch of treacle but drier here and underlined with a peppery character. For all the sweet milk stout flavours this beer isn’t afraid to push the more bitter or spice led underlying notes.
Not perfect but would be recognised as a good standard abv milk stout. As an alcohol free one in the dark beer, malt led style as it is it does great with a hard to do well alcohol free style.
Background: Third and final of the Nøgne Ø alcohol free beers I had picked up from Independent Spirit. Been having a lot of whisky and big abv beers recently so I have been massively raiding their low abv selection and thankfully they have had a whole bunch of new stuff in to try and do notes on. The other two beers had gone well, so I had high hopes for this, but darker, maltier beers often have a harder time of it in the low alcohol arena. Went for some big brash music to back this – Strapping Young Lad: City. That is some big banging tunes.
