Nøgne Ø

Nøgne Ø was started by two home brewers. Unable to stay at home we started Norway’s first microbrewery for creative brewing. The whole concept seemed like a good idea at the time but has ever since been described as an example of seriously bad or impaired judgment. Nobody in their right mind would work for free 5 years leaving their beautiful wives and wonderful kids for long laborious days in a homemade and ridiculously labour demanding brewery. There have been partners leaving and new partners coming in Nøgne Ø. If there is anything good to be said about working hard for free for many years, it is that natural selection works well in this way. Nøgne Ø now only consists of hard working and reliable stayers, with devout families.

Some times, when we get a momentary glimpse of sanity, we ask ourselves what we have achieved. It is quick to establish that there has been no wealth or fortune to this point, but we still think that we have achieved something. For ourselves, we have achieved some level of fame, at least locally, but also nationally in Norway.

What is more important though, is that we have been able to introduce beer culture to Norway. There was no India Pale Ale here before we brewed it. No Porters, Imperial Stouts, Pale ales etc. etc. Most Norwegians simply did not know that these beer styles existed. When we started Nøgne Ø, everyone thought we did not have a chance to succeed; after all how can you sell products nobody had ever heard of in a market where it is banned to even inform about the existence of these products. (Commercials for alcoholic beverages are banned in Norway). But things have changed. Magazines and newspapers are starting to write about beers, restaurants are increasingly more focused on matching beer with food, and people have started to care about beer. We at Nøgne Ø feel strongly that we have been one of the factors in making this shift in trends. We are proud to say that we have contributed to what you can call a renaissance of Norwegian beer-culture.

Kjetil Jikiun

Head brewer