EUROPE’S FIRST SAKE BREWERY
A BEER NO ONE
SEEMED TO UNDERSTAND
A SAKE NO ONE
SEEMED TO UNDERSTAND
Nøgne Ø was founded in 2002 and is located in
Grimstad by the coast of Southern Norway about
300 km south of Oslo. The English translation
of Nøgne Ø is ‘Naked Island’ and derives from
a poem by Henrik Ibsen in which he describes
the barren outcrops of rock off Norway’s coast.
After years of struggle Nøgne Ø had finally become
a great success story - but instead of resting on
their laurels co-founder and head brewer Kjetil
Jikiun searched for new challenges.
The name Naked Island also evokes a symbolic
picture of what the two passionate Norwegian
home brewers Gunnar Wiig and Kjetil Jikiun did
in early 2002 when they decided to found a new
brewery. They had a vision to bring diversity and
innovation into the Norwegian beer scene, which at
that time was dominated by industrial lager beers.
Despite an enormous urge to share their passion
for high quality beer, the first years were extremely
hard for Nøgne Ø. People in Norway were not
used to the bold and full-flavoured ales that the
brewery represented and pubs would frequently
decline their offer, complaining that such beers
wouldn’t sell.
The brewery was on the verge of bankruptcy several
times during the first years, but the team at Nøgne
Ø didn’t give up and kept brewing, believing in
the potential of their beer.
After years swimming upstream Nøgne Ø finally
started to gain credibility. They started to export to
the large US market and in 2008 the brewery took
home two medals in the prestigious International
World Beer Cup Competition.
From then they have gone from strength to strength,
and Nøgne Ø is today Norway’s leading and largest
supplier of bottle-conditioned ale.
Kjetil had fallen in love with the flavours in sake and
combining this with his fascination for its brewing
techniques, sake became the new challenge. Over
the years Kjetil had made several trips to Japan
where he had built a strong network of people
within the sake community who could help and
give advices on how to get started with his newest
project: 裸 島 Hadaka Jima - Nøgne Ø sake.
Following the same style of his beers, Kjetil wanted
to brew a sake with character and integrity; a bold,
rich and full-flavoured type. As one of the steps
to achieve this, he decided to use the older and
more traditional Yamahai method that utilises
natural lactic bacteria to produce the lactic acid
that is needed to clean out the environment in
the Shubo (yeast starter) in order to give the best
conditions for the sake yeast to grow. Other notable
brewing choices were the use of Japanese Ginpu
sake rice from Hokkaido and in one of the sakes
(Yamahai Motoshibori) he even decided to use
naturally occurring yeast.
When Nøgne Ø presented their first sake in spring
2010, history seemed to be repeating. The feedback
was exactly the same as they had received years
before when they first went out to the market
with their beers. Restaurants declined their offer
and complained that their sake wouldn’t sell. But
unfazed and despite a lack of support, Nøgne Ø
understood what they were doing and kept brewing
and believing in the potential of their sake. And in
2012 their efforts paid off when they took home
two medals at the London Sake Challenge: A gold
medal for the Yamahai Motoshibori and a bronze
medal for their Junmai Shu.
MUSEUM OF SAKE JOURNAL 29