The Legendary Duff Beer
DUFF Sales & Marketing E.K.

 

Nov. 2010: 330 ml bottle, brewed by Eschweger, ABV in Norway is 4.7%. Bought at MENY Stadionparken. Crystal clear extremely pale yellow colour, big white head. Grainy aroma of unhopped pilsener wort and boiled vegetables, not good. Sweet and sugary flavour, hardly any bitterness. What a stupid idea - brewing a purposely shitty American Standard pale lager in Europe, just because Homer Simpson would have liked it ... Taste is nothing, marketing is everything.

 

 

 

 

Brewed in Germany, so must adhere to the purity law one would imagine.

I thought this stuff would be terrible as it is obviously a gimmick, however I was pleasantly surpisred. The beer is okay with half decent flavour, nothing to write home about though.

The packaging states that the beer is a Lagerbier Hell, which would suggest it is a Munich Helles style beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

330ml Can from a Prague Mini-Market (59CZK):
Clear, light amber with a large, foamy head that is bone-white and holds okay initially before holding at 0.5cm.

Grassy hops & some skunk on the nose initially. There was a very light & faint citrus aroma coming through with more water than I would have expected or liked, there was some bitterness too.

Basic and fairly cheap (despite the cost) pale lager with some light malts and grassy hops with some earthy tones and a hint of biscuit. There wasn't a lot going on really.

Light to thin bodied with a watery, quite bland feel but it still felt like a lager at least, albeit a light one. There was a faint citrus tang & a dry, moderately bitter finish as well.

Not all that enjoyable & purely a gimmick, not up to the standard of the much cheaper, & better Czech lagers that were for sale in the same shops as this one. The beer was thin & bland with nothing going for it really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 330ml can with a BB of March 2014. ABV is stated as 4.7%. Given to me as a gift a little while back (from Switzerland). It's Duff - how can I resist trying it?

Poured into a pilsner glass. A clear golden colour with faint sediment and medium carbonation. Forms a decent head of white foam that lasts for a few minutes before disappearing. Some lacing. A subtle aroma of light, grainy malt with mild hints of stewed leaves and DMS. Slightly sweet and seriously bland.

Tastes of ultra-light malt with a crisp, dry finish. Notes of weak grain, mild stewed leaves and a twinge of cardboard in the background. Pretty clean, with a delicate bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth, dry and tingly, with effervescent carbonation and a watery body. A very subtle aftertaste of light malt and stewed leaves/veg.

Not too much going on here, which I guess was to be expected. Looks alright, while the aroma and flavour are exceptionally bland and watery. Average body for a mass-produced lager. At least it's clean and inoffensive. Nothing technically wrong with it, but the lack of character makes for a dull drinking experience. No need to hunt it down.

 

 

 

My neighbor and occasional trivia teammate travels for work on an infrequent basis, but he is always on the lookout for new CANs for me in furtherance of The CANQuest (TM). This is one of his recent acquisitions and I am quite excited about it!

I was hanging out in the alleyway with some of my neighbors, including Hank Hill, Boomhauer, Dale and Bill, drinking CANned Lone Star as is our usual wont when Dale mentions that one of his bowling league partners is coming by with beer. I was stunned when the guy's wife, sporting a huge, blue beehive, droped him off! He looked like That Yellow Bastard from "Sin City" and given his prodigious beer intake, I still wonder if he doesn't suffer from jaundice. His name was Homer and he had a huge cooler full of CANs of Duff Beer, which I heard was legendary, but I had never had any for myself. He was cool with allowing me to take one home for a review, especially after I turned him onto a Brewer's Art Ozzy in a CAN. We only ever drink CANs in the alley as the possibility of broken glass is not on in our circle.

I went with an inverted Glug following the Crack and got two-plus fingers of fizzing, foamy eggshell-white head with decent retention. Color was a golden-yellow (SRM = 5) with NE-quality clarity and my other drinking buds, Croesus, Mammon and King Midas were engaged in a fight to try some for themselves. Nose was clean, eliminating the possibility of it being an adjunct lager of any stripe. The nose had a hay field-like scent, intermingling the Noble hops with the malt nicely. Mouthfeel was medium and I got a pleasant, biscuity sweetness in the mouth and on the tongue. This was turning out to be much better than I would have imagined. I thought that it was going to be some crappy novelty but such was not the case, thank goodness. Finish was semi-dry thanks to their having found a good balance with the hops and malt and not allowing the malt to dominate as some examples of the style have, IMHO. I would drink it again, especially if that Homer guy shows up loaded for bear like he did today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appearance: It pours a clear straw body with a two-finger head. It looks okay and the retention is better than expected.

Smell: A sweet malt and corn aroma are noticeable. It is missing the floral notes found in a good pilsener. To be honest, there really is not much of a smell to it.

Taste: A sweet malt flavor and the tiniest kick of hops can be detected. Otherwise there is not much to note.

Mouth feel: It is light bodied and watery. There is a slight dryness in the aftertaste but more is desired.

Overall: Like most people, I purchased this beer just for the novelty of it. Surprisingly, it was better than I expected. While a poor example of a German Pilsener, there really is nothing overly offensive about this beer. I was expecting a more medicinal grain alcohol flavor but none of that was apparent. In fact, it was probably one of the most neutral beers I've ever had. I probably would not buy it again but I have certainly had worse.