Collaborations are huge now, Dogfish Head with Sierra Nevada, Stone with Troegs and etc. They’re all the rage for two reasons, it allows other brewers to pique the brains or others and try new things and it also allows breweries that are at capacity try something new. Tonight’s beer is a collaboration between Norway’s Nogne O, California’s Stone, and Michigan’s Jolly Pumpkin, to create the Special Holiday Ale. 

The bottle indicates the ingredients as:Ingredients: Grimstad water, malted barley, malted rye, malted oats, hops, white sage, carraway, juniper berries, chestnuts, yeast. This collaboration definitely makes the chestnuts and sage flavors apparent in a nice balanced way, giving a nice brown ale flavor with an underlying earthy sage flavor. The juniper berries aren’t hugely noticeable, but as it warms they come out more.

This beer is a good beer, I wouldn’t buy it again, but it’s one of the few beers with a nut flavor profile I actually enjoy. The cold weather certainly enhances the drinkability of this as it warms my body with each sip. -Mark