Nøgne Ø Two Captains Double IPA
Brewed by Nøgne Ø
Style: Double IPA
Grimstad, Norway
Founded in 2002, by Gunnar Wiig and Kjetil Jikiun, Nøgne Ø is a Norwegian beer that has been kicking ass for a while now on the various online beer review sites.
Nøgne Ø, is an old Danish word for “Naked Isle”, highlighting the barren and rugged landscape off Norway’s rough coastal waters. It was selected from a 19th-century Norwegian poem called Terje Vigen by Henrik Ibsen.
In 2013 Hansa Borg Bryggerier, a family run Norwegian brewery and distribution company which markets beer, bottled water and carbonated drinks, acquired a majority share in Nøgne Ø. This resulted in Nøgne Ø growing in production in size and output, and now make more than 30 different styles of craft beers and ales, and export to more than 40 countries worldwide. The styles include seasonal beers, a wide variety of pale ales, Belgians, lagers and traditional ales, porters and stouts and anything else they can think of. For a while they also produced their own version of Sake, a first in Europe, but have since discontinued this, best to leave that to the Japanese I think!
Review: 0,33l brown bottle of Nøgne Ø Two Captains Double IPA: 8.5% vol.
Listed in the top 100 breweries in the World by a certain beer rating site every year since 2006 to 2018, so this better be good so. It will be my first try out with a beer from Norway.
This award winning beer, first brewed in 2010, had its recipe made up by an airline captain and part time homebrewer Jan Halvor Fjeld. Nøgne Ø’s head brewer at that time was also a pilot, hence the name, Two Captains!
Interesting brown bottle with a logo that looks a bit hisptery, an “avant garde” style.
On pour looks great, a lovely amber colour and a small but decent white head. Doesn’t look too bad at all, very inviting.
The white head although small does maintain very well, small but steady, Some good lacing apparent.
It really is a good looking beer, lovely to watch it swirl about in the glass, has a deep look, that captivates. Very good so far!
The smell was also lovely, had the “wow factor”, gorgeous in fact.
Deep smelling, IPA style, like a good ale, floral and hop notes, but the citrus and lemon stand out a lot here. Also got a nice whiff of caramel.
The aroma is a nice combination of lemonade and fermented fruit drenched in alcohol. Amazing on the nose, a very seductive smell and one so powerful they could sell as a perfume.
So to the taste, and well……..wow! It is very strong in the taste, all that double hopping has produced one hell of a strong tasting beer. Hopped to hell, and very, very bitter, very strong in the taste.
All a bit “urgh” to me, finding those hops are just impossible to enjoy, going down very slowly and with great difficulty. Too strong and bitter to truly appreciate or enjoy. One for the hardcore IPA heads to like, but not for me. And to be fair to them they do warn on their website that this isn’t for the faint hearted..
The extreme bitterness (100 IPU) is very overwhelming, killing everything in its reach. Got the hops for sure, but also found the caramel, the fruits and the sweet malts.
Very strong in the alcohol too, they are using English ale yeast so therein lies the strength of this brew, can feel it for sure, and don’t mind admitting I was a bit pissed after the two bottles. The 8.5% is definitely alive and well here, all clean though. I can imagine downing a few of these bad boys you would be on your head in no time! But I wonder if it is possible to drink more than two with how bitter and disgusting they are? Best avoided………
Windhoek Lager is a beer brewed by the Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL), a Namibian brewery founded in 1920. Namibia is a country in southwest Africa of about 2.5 million people, in case you were curious, where the famous sprinter Frankie Fredericks was from, remember him? Windhoek is the country’s capital and the name given to the lager. 
Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika), then as South-West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and the South Africans. That perhaps might explain why they have some colonial throwback to brewing German style beers in accordance with the old Reinheitsgebot, also known as the “German Beer Purity Law”. As a reminder, the law prohibits the use of any flavourings, preservatives, or colourants during the brewing process and allows only three traditional, natural ingredients: malted barley, hops, and water. Following the rules means a slower more nuanced quality produced brew as opposed to a mass produced beer doled out quickly in a matter of days by speeding up the process with additives and inferior ingredients.
Overall it is a solid look. Ok
Founded in 1912, by Amsicora Capra, Birra Ichnusa is brewed in Assemini, a town near Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, the beautiful mediterranean Italian island. It is named after the Latinized ancient name for Sardinia, Hyknusa.
Not much comes out of the small bottle for sure, the carbonation making the beer appear alive, buzzing around like mad.
Urgh, far too much with the hoppy aftertaste. Unfiltered, yes I know.
Founded in 1876, by James Speight, Charles Greenslade, and William Dawson on the South Island of New Zealand in the city of Dunedin. The Speight’s Brewery brew Speight’s Gold Medal Ale, a bit of a New Zealand institution. Popular amongst the working man and Scarfies (A Kiwi university student) for generations, offering up a unique taste of NZ beer.
They call this beer “The Taste of New Zealand”, ok well lets see. It is my first beer from the home of the Kiwi and the All Black. 
An interesting aroma, a kind of perfumy note on the nose, all nice and fruity. The smell is very nice. Also a bit like a stout aroma, with caramels and very toasty. Quite distinctive. 
Calanda Bräu is a Swiss brewery from the small town of Chur, which is reputedly the oldest town in Switzerland, and lies next to the waters of the Grison mountains, which are part of the Alps.
Sold in Coop supermarkets nationwide in Switzerland.
Taste is sweet and light, of course, nice and soft on the tongue, nice enough, but quite light in flavour but enjoyable enough all the same.