Nøgne Ø Toshi Double IPA

I don't know about you, but I'm burnt out on all of the collaborations between Yank brewers as of late. The resultant beer rarely lives up to the hype, and often the two (or more) constituent beers are far better than in some sort of ad-hoc blend or collaboration.

But on the other hand, Norway's Nøgne Ø has had some good luck with matching up their unique outlook of the brewing world with other brewers' strong points. For example, I think the three-way Jolly Pumpkin - Stone - Nøgne-Ø Special Holiday Ale was successful due to the two things: Stone's branding and distro, and everything else thanks to Nøgne Ø. And Jolly Pumpkin? Who knows what they brought to that particular brew session. Hors d'oeuvres?

Anyway, this time Nøgne Ø is working with Yo-Ho, one of about a dozen shit-hot craft brewers in Japan. Their Pale Ale is my standard go-to sixer while in Japan, for sure. But they're not afraid to reach out, even in the rather ill defined Japanese Craft Beer world. How about a canned Biere de Garde?

So, with one of the better Scandinavian brewers working one of the better Japanese brewers, who sort of Double IPA do we end up with? 500mL bottle, simple yet elegant packaging, for $9.95.

The aroma? A bit lacking. One shouldn't have to work at finding the hoppy aroma in an IPA or a DIPA; it should leap out of the glass, and smack you upside the face before you even get around to sipping the beer.

Not all that "bracing" in the hop department. Maybe I don't always want to have my teeth kicked in on the first sip of a hoppy-as-hell beer. But still, I want some sort of unruliness. Some some of ill-tempered `tude to lety me know that this is not some mild-mannered "Amber Ale" or what-have-you. But that's what I see here, really. A bigger-than-average Amber Ale, that has a whole kitchen sink of hops (per the write-up), but in the glass it is all rather too nice and too polite.

This doesn't fall into the trap of being a DIPA masquerading as a Barleywine. But, for the price, I'd rather have a Barleywine with a DIPA label than a overly polite and gentleman-like Amber Ale.

I had some high(er) hopes for this one than I do for most collaboration beers -- but maybe I had blinders up since I happen to really like both of the particular breweries.

Ah well.
//TB