It’s time for my second beer from Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri this week. The first one left me feeling a little flat but my hopes were high for their 1/2 idjit Imperial Porter, the ‘younger brother’ of Dugges floor-kissing’15% ABV Idjit Imperial Stout.

At a ‘mere’ 7% ABV 1/2 idjit is still a porter worthy of it’s imperial tag. When the word imperial is used in conjunction with a beer these days it really means ‘drinker beware’, as imperial-style beers are invariably extreme both in terms of flavour and strength.

The term imperial doesn’t originally relate to porter at all but in fact to Imperial Russian Stout, a beer brewed in the 18th century in England for export to the court of Catherine II of Russia (who  apparently liked a drop of the strong stuff). It had to be strong (normally around 8-12 % ABV) to stop the beer freezing on its way to the Baltics.

That’s enough history lesson for one day. Let’s get to the beer.

Dugges 1/2 idjit pours an inky black with a short-lived praline-coloured head. The dominant aroma is instantly recognizable – burnt toast – backed up with smells of bitter dark chocolate, cold black coffee and charred wood.

Dugges themselves promise a distinctive taste of salt liquorice and yes it was there but not at the levels I had feared (I bloody hate salt liquorice. It’s supposed to be a sweet for goodness sake. Salted tyre rubber more like).

Much more pleasant were the beer’s delicious coffee and cocoa tones, a burnt brown sugar sweetness and a sprinkle of cigar ash in a bitter/dry finish. There was some salt and sappy pine courtesy of the hops, which played nothing more than a supporting role to this porter’s impressive malt cast.

Oh yes, my faith in Dugges is restored! No half measures with this beer. You’d have to be a complete idjit not to try it.

Dugges 1/2 idjit

An Imperial Porter

7% ABV

Systembolaget Article Number: 11729 (but only available for a couple more months, so hurry while stocks last).

Yesterday on BeerSweden’s Facebook page I asked people to decide which beer should be the next reviewed here – the critcially acclaimed 1/2 idjit! imperial porter from Swedish micro Dugges in Gothenburg or a relatively unknown (and rather more difficult to get) amber ale produced by a Norwegian brewpub from Flåm that looks like it comes straight from the set of The Fellowship of the Ring.

The people voted (well about 5 of you actually) and asked for the Rallar – which meant I got to try my first ever beer from the Ægir Brewery, which has the distinction of being named Norway’s Brewpub of the Year in 2008.

The story behind this brewery’s name is wonderful. I’ll let their website explain:

”In Norse mythology, Ægir is described as a giant, the brother of Kári (Wind) and Logi (Fire) and the master of the ocean. Ægir’s hall is lit not by fire but instead by bright gold. Every year he invites the Norse gods to a great feast in his hall, Brime, where the beer and the food are magically transported to the guests and the drinking-horns fill themselves (editor’s note – got to get me one of those). According to Odin, Ægir brews the best ale. He has the world’s biggest brewing kettle, a mile deep, which Tor stole from the giant Hyme and gave to him. In Ægir’s hall the gods were never allowed to fight, and anyone making trouble was banished for all eternity (editor’s note – gulp…better be careful what I say then).”

All of Ægir’s beers are unpasteurised and unfiltered, which became pretty obviously the moment this beer hit my glass, pouring a murky chestnut brown with a noticeable yeast ‘throw’ as I reached the bottom of the bottle.

I wasn’t expecting a lot of hop character from this beer as amber ales tend to display a distinctively malty nature. Ægir uses no less than six different kinds of malts in Rallar. However I also wasn’t expecting the strong smells of yeasty bread dough it threw up. It was as though most of the freshness had already left this beer. It reminded me of the smell in the darkest parts of the woods in autumn, when mushrooms push through the wet fallen leaves and cover the roots of moss-covered trees.

To taste Rallar delivered a little more. The malts of course were there, giving the beer a nourishing, quite heavy feel with some brown syrup sweetness and faint chocolate. The hops were almost non-existent which made Rallar anything but refreshing.

Without wanting to incur the wrath of any gods I wasn’t that sold on Rallar Amber Ale. I understand that Norwegians are the butt of jokes here in Sweden very much like the Irish are to the English and the Canadians are to the Americans but Rallar Amber Ale could never be called a joke of a beer.

It’s completely missing a punchline.

(Editor’s note: 1/2 idjit next up!)