Cola
Dugges Ale- & Porterbryggeri AB

4.5% abv sour brewed with coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, lime, and vanilla... This one was a miss for me - looked like cola on the pour, but the sour tang overpowered all nuance for me and left an unpleasant lactic aftertaste - I didn't finish it...

It pours like a bottle of Coke - cola brown, ruby edges, fizzy brown head, and a light ring a carbonation at the edges. Nose is uncannily like a cola - perhaps the only difference is there's a slightly more herbal quality than a standard Coke or Pepsi. It certainly captures the citrus nuance that Coke has with the beers addition of lime - it somehow indicates lime without being citrus forward. In terms of flavor, it begins to deviate from cola, but in a logical and honestly interesting kind of way. It's as if all the sugar has been stripped from a soda, leaving a significant citric component (here the lime is very prominent), along with some light herb and spice (vanilla for sure, nutmeg, and some light menthol). Mouthfeel is a little thinner than a cola, while the carbonation is lighter and smaller. This is a very interesting, well-executed, and delicious beer. IMHO in other hands this beer would be turned out thick, sweet, and adjunct heavy; however, Dugges made a beer that makes you rethink cola by stripping away its sweetness, using beer to help you see something very familiar in a different light. Also it tastes really good.

 

i cant believe we still do not have a generic sour category here on BA, this is not a berliner, but its not a wild ale either, something we need to fix. in any event, this is a mighty unique brew, a dark sour modeled on cola soda, done with lime, vanilla, cinnamon, coriander, and nutmeg, insanely weird, had to try this when i saw it. looks like cola in the glass, minus the rising head and attendant fizz on the pour, it settles to almost flat looking pretty immediately, but the aroma is spot on, i mean this literally smells like a glass of cola, incredible how they recreated this so faithfully with these ingredients. if i pick it apart i can get lime and vanilla above the other elements in both the smell and the taste, but i prefer to let it be cohesive and just enjoy it. the flavor is a bit sweet at first with the vanilla and the malt, even a little rum thing to it, but its also got a nice little pucker. at first i thought it was weird that this was sour, but drinking it, it makes sense, helps this from being too sugary, and the acidity is clean, giving more snap to the finish. the spice mix is excellent, the lime makes it taste really fresh, and i think they have done a really good job making this taste a whole lot like the soda, i really cant even believe it, the nose especially, but the flavor is right here too. it seems like this little brewery has found a niche for themselves with the highly flavored beers, they all sound like gimmicks but then taste so good. i was super impressed with this, even though i never thought i needed beer to taste like cola, i sure appreciate the effort. not to be missed!