O for Awesome

8 Wired Brewing Co./Renaissance Brewing Co./Nøgne Ø

Marlborough, New Zealand

Imported by Shelton Brothers, Belchertown, MA

A collaboration between Norway and New Zealand. Loosely based on a mix of our three flagship beers: Stonecutter Scotch Ale, Hopwired IPA and Batch #100.

ABV: 9.0

ABW: 7.2

COLOR: N/A

BITTERNESS: 75

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: N/A

AVAILABLE: CA, CO, HI, IL, IN, KY, MD, MA, MN, NJ, NY, NC, OR, PA

This 9 percent beer is the result of a remarkable collaboration between two Scandinavian brewers, Soren Eriksen from Denmark and Kjetil Jikiun from Norway. They used only New Zealand malts and hops to create a russet-brown beer with a big creamy head that leads into an aroma of fresh tobacco, roasted malt, liquorice, espresso coffee, burnt fruit and peppery hops. There’s rich, creamy malt in the mouth with peppery hops, bitter coffee and dark fruit followed by a long finish with smooth, dark malt, bitter hops, burnt fruit and coffee.
- Roger Protz

Tongue seems firmly in cheek here—the label is pretty entertaining. The liquid itself is more brown than amber, and the aroma is pungent, a blend of fruity hops and toffeelike malts. The massive hop attack is focused and sharp as a hatchet blow, but admirably clean. The malt can barely peek over the hop wall, but has enough heft to hold things together. This is a beer for dedicated hopheads, with an aromatic emphasis on malts, but a palate featuring big bitterness. Your move. My move is braised pork belly.
- Garrett Oliver

Roger Protz
Author of Complete Guide to World Beer and 300 Beers to Try Before You Die. Respected beer authority and editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. and www.protzonbeer.co.uk.

Garrett Oliver
Garrett Oliver is the brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, the Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer, the author of The Brewmaster’s Table, and a veteran host of more than 800 beer dinners in 15 countries.

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