Dugges Never Mind the Bollox

Still feeling lazy today so you get a Swedish beer from Dugges named Never Mind the Bollox. If you remember, Jared brought a bottle of their 1/2 Idjit to our Swedish party a while back.

Besides the fact that I love the name, this was quite an interesting beer. It's labeled as an IPA but from the start it didn't seem like that style at all. Big malty nose with the smell of aged hops. Spicy and earthy but not bitter. Big sweet body with lots of dark fruit and some malty breadiness. Sort of continues that way with the earthy hops perking up every once and a while to keep it from being too sweet. While the bottle clearly wasn't fresh, I thought it had been bottled in November 2011. However, I just saw a review on BeerAdvocate from February 2011 that claims to have seen the same notching so it must have been quite an old bottle. However, I can safely say it didn't actually hurt this beer and it was still pretty decent. I do wonder what it was like fresh though.

A Swedish Beer on Saint Lucia

For those that don't know, my wife is half Swedish and so we celebrated Saint Lucia day this year. Saint Lucia is a Swedish holiday where parents force their young daughters to wear crowns with lit candles on their heads which then drip hot wax all over them. Nah, just kidding. Well, okay, sort of kidding. It's really about how the Swedes thought December 13th was the darkest day of the year and so they celebrated Saint Lucia bringing them light. To remember this, they have children wear crowns with candles hence the melting wax. Nowadays, though, I believe they use electric candles so it's much safer.

We finally have enough room at our new house so we had some friends over to celebrate Saint Lucia this year. One was nice enough to bring a beer that was actually from Sweden, Dugges 1/2 Idjit, a porter.

Nose was full of roast, molasses and licorice. Really interesting. First sip had roast, coffee, a little saltiness, and some hints of licorice. The saltiness and licorice made for an interesting finish to the beer. Apparently, salty licorice is a thing and quite a favorite in Sweden so it makes sense to aim for that flavor. It actually reminded me a little bit of Deschutes The Abyss although only in flavor not body. This was pretty unique and it was really nice of my buddy to bring it.