The Exotic Beer Weekly - This Week Duff

Duff.

To my dearly beloved reading several, I wish to extend the most sincere and sugary apology for my egregious conduct here at EBW over the festive season. I know how much all of you have come to depend on a weekly dose of irreverence from the reviews. Plans were made for a Christmas special, but were thrown away with all the wrapping paper. The plans then evolved into a New Year’s Special, but alas, these too went the way of the dodo. But we’re back now, and to reward your patience, we have a fun review this week.

I’m sure you noticed the lack of semi-witty title this week, but the name of this beer more than speaks (or rather slurs) for itself. Yes, it is that Duff. The brew of choice of everybody’s favourite patriarch. The beer ignominiously peddled by the ever-partying Duffman with the slogan “Can't get enough of that Wonderful Duff!” Yes, it is the beer from the hit Fox TV series, The Simpsons. (*Disclaimer: Is not actually the beer from the hit Fox TV series The Simpsons. It is made by a German beer manufacturer and not licensed by Matt Groening) So now to answer the ultimate question (no, not who shot Mr Burns!) what does Duff actually taste like?

In the show, Duff comes in Duff Light, Duff Dry and regular Duff, but we only get it in a pilsner. I opened this beer unsure what to expect: by all respects it should taste something like Budweiser, but being German it should taste like a German beer. Upon drinking it, however, I found this “legendary” beer failed like a monorail through Springfield: it’s just a bland, rather uninspired beer. It tastes fine, with a lot of carbonation, but there’s nothing special about it, nothing to make you remember it. There are hints of fruits and spices, but it’s not enough to hold it above the rest of the crowd. Shame, really. It should have been a sure hit, much like “Man getting hit by football” by Hans Moleman.

This beer holds all the expectations of a new season of the Simpsons, but it disappoints like every episode since the start of Season 19. Even so, it is worth buying purely for the novelty if you can find it; it’s about as hard to get as a ‘Bart’ licence plate at Itchy & Scratchy Land. And expensive too: I found it at $18 a 6-pack. So as Homer would say, “here’s to alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all life’s problems.”

I award The Legendary Duff Beer 2.5 Barney’s out of 5.