Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri from Gothenburg is arguably the coolest of the new generation of Swedish microbreweries. With their eye-catching ‘Miami’ coloured bottle labels and tongue-in-cheek brand names Dugges have always succeeded in making their beers look good as well as taste great.

I’ve personally had more than one enjoyable session at the Stockholm Beer Festival propped up against their stand, when it was all High Fives, me talking a lot of bollox and then leaving feeling a bit of an idjit.

Dugges was early to embrace American hops in its beers, creating a succession of innovative and generally well received beers. They’re largely responsible for making Swedish beers fun again, creating a buzz based on humour but with very serious beers to back their micro-message up.

I say all this as a precursor to what’s coming next because I really like Dugges. Really I do.

But I don’t like their Spring Beer Lager.

It wasn’t that long before things started going wrong. When I poured the beer into the glass I noticed it was a rather cloudy pale copper colour with a thin slightly yellow head – strange for a premium lager I thought. The first line in my notebook reads: ”Is this beer ok?”

I was partially reassured by mild hoppy smells of grass and orange but they were muted by something else unpleasant and yeasty.  In the mouth things went from bad to worse. The body is quite thin, with some initial malty sweetness followed by a short-lived bitter finish. The third line of my notebook reads: ”where are the hops?”

It all culminated with the strong taste impression of wet paper, a classic tell-tale sign of oxidized beer, which leads me to wonder if I stumbled upon a dud bottle. I hope it was, because this beer was stale and dull and Dugges is normally anything but.

So take this review at face value with a disclaimer that I may not have experienced Dugges Spring Beer at its best. I’d be very interested to hear what you all thought of it and will revisit it again to see whether I was just unlucky this time. If I was then forget all of the above, or as Dugges themselves would probably say, Never Mind the Bollox!

Dugges Spring Beer Lager

A Premium Lager

4.7% ABV

Systembolaget Article Number: 1479