BrewDog Hardcore IPA

Brewed by BrewDog
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

BBD 7/7/09 ::: smells like pineapple or pear, and maybe a little apple. has a very golden yellow color, and is noticeably fizzy and is somewhat cloudy.fairly hoppy in the mouth and surprisingly sweet. tastes fruity and clean, but has a pulpy mouthfeel (as though it was orange juice). Barely has any fizz to it, which was also surprising. Pretty good.

New version. Bottled. Blonde. Pineapple, grapefruit and oily and flowery hops in both aroma and flavor. Good mix of tropical fruit and hopbitterness. Just a bit alcoholic, but tasty and well balanced.

BBD 2/2/10, old version. Semi cloudy straw colored pour with a medium sized white head. Decent retention and lace. Nothing extraordinary on the eyes. Spicy Euro hops on the nose, minimal malty sweetness. Pear, spice, decent bitterness, very unique flavor probably because I mostly favor the American IPA & IIPA. Nice to branch out. I would say this is a good beer but I’ll go for a Moylan’s Hopsickle before this one any day.

65 cl bottle, Fargo, ND, USA. Deep golden colour, Hoppy aroma, thick syrupy mouthfeel. Peppery, relatively smooth aftertaste. Very unnasuming for how strong it is.

Bottle from Arden Wines, batch 037. Brilliant lagery gold with a fluffy white head going nowhere. Honey slick and miraculously lacy. Looks, smells, tastes and behaves like a beer several percent weaker; alcohol utterly masked by the narcotic sweaty citrus pungency of THE HOP. Ridiculous dribble-making hum of dishcloth, tropical Starburst, blackcurrant and grapefruit; succulent grapefruit resins beyond balanced by the same biscuit, husky malt and caramel hints as Trashy Blonde and Punk IPA. There’s got to be a Starburst floating around in here somewhere? Nope, it’s all hop devilry. The danger of this little cheeky is it tastes like fresh pulped breakfast juice, tropical flavoured confectionary and tonic water but is as strong as Special Brew. Outrageous. (DELETED RATING, AS V2009, CASK, LEICESTER 09)
Earlier Rating: 3/17/2009 Total Score: 4.1 Well, within the first sniff the waiting’s over. This is 2000. Thank god the CAMRA lady was too deaf to serve me a nip and presented me with a full measure. Although I was slurring a bit by this stage, to be fair. Innocuous dull gold, hazy with a rim of froth giving no forewarning of the hop treasures beyond. Asphyxiating, multi-coloured aroma of mango, passion fruit, Starburst, freshly pulped grapefruit and hairy chlorophyll. Smells like breakfast juice. Jesus. Hops don’t let up in mouth, it’s all tropical Starburst loveliness; not overpowering or aggressive, just ripe, narcotic and pungent. Background splash of alcohol but no heat. 9%?? Surely a typo. Punching fleshy grapefruit nothing like as dry as juice- there is a slight countering honeyed sweetness there, a nibble of nuttiness from the malts, and that’s it. Outstanding humming contemporary UK beer singing its heart out with hops, and as 9% DIPAs go, devilishly sessionable. Billling the lads for my taxi if I don’t make the train (I didn’t).

Batch 001 / Best Before 03/03/09

3/18/2009: I’ve really liked the last two Brew Dog brews that I have had, so I have high hopes for this one... Hardcore IPA explicit imperial ale is definitely loaded up with tasty hops. It has a huge level of perfume in both the aroma and flavor with just a touch of buttery malt. I really like the hoppy bitterness and slight alcohol bite. It really puts and aggressive front to this beer that works well. I am a bit surprised by how hazy/cloudy this golden beer is, but who really cares about the appearance anyways? That’s just a technicality that adds bonus points!

1 Pint, 6.4% Fluid Ounce bottle (Alc. 9% by Vol.) shared by Tmoney99. Thanks Tom! Rating #231 for this beer.

clear golden with nice head. Nice malty and floral aroma of caramel and hops. Flavour is sweet and mildly bitter. Weak bitter fjnish. Would appreciae more bitterness.

Old batch - 6 weeks after the BBD expired. Pours a cloudy yellow with a good eggshell head and massive lacing. Nose is of caramel, toffee and bread. Taste recapitulates the aroma. Mouthfeel is above average and the finish is quite strong, very bitter and long-lasting. I probably won’t get this batch again, but I do look forward to the new batch.