Nøgne Ø Two Captains

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………