BrewDog Hardcore IPA

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

Gold/amber with a smooth white head. Citrus and pine hop aroma, floral and a bit earthy.More earthy then most Northwest IPAs, soft bready malts up front, lingering citrus in the end. Very nice IIPA, while it doesn’t seem to be as full bodied as most, but very enjoyable.

650, capped. Pours crystal clear medium golden amber with a loose and frothy white head. Intermittent lace. Puts up a fairly pungent nose of mango, tangerine, caramel, and a bit of butterscotch. Medium, creamy body. Soft carb. All the fruits and sweets return for the mid-palate. Maybe a bit of diacetyl happening here. Overall, it’s a sweet and very drinkable DIPA, maybe a bit buttery, but hides the booze well and is fairly refreshing for the level of sugars knocking around.

Bottle. Pale golden, clear with a smallish white head. Hoppy and fruity nose. Flavours are quite bitter with balanced citrus in the lead. Well-made, solid bitterness harmoniously wrapped.

Pours a yellow golden with no real head. Oxidized hops smell vaguely floral with hints of pale sweet malts. Soft citrus flavors of orange, tangerine followed by light sweet malts and a bit of bitterness. I guess one could say that it is fruity. The hops are kind of flat and this beer is very oxidized to me. Lingering hop presence is boring and bland. This doesn’t work for me really, it is probably a lot better fresh and not oxidized. Whatever.

Hazy and yellow-gold with a frothy, fairly lasting head. Smelled like cake and sugar cookies. Texture was smooth and creamy. Malts had a darkly toasted/burnt/grainy side and a dark-caramel sweet side. Hops were sharp (astringent grass and bitter grape skins). Alcohol was noticeable and nippy. Pinch of sourness in the finish. Bitterness lingered; somewhat starkly. I’m all about the bold, over-the-top beers, especially double IPAs, but this one seemed a little too rough around the edges. Not necessarily a drain pour, but I don’t think I’ll buy it again. Seemed more like a highly hopped malt liquor to me.

Bomber, shared with Parksy and company at The Local in San Diego. Cloudy straw yellow, absolutely NO HEAD (just like Rosser’s room and life). Aroma of cooked peaches, apricots and wet straw. Very malty, cereal and straw, chamomile, melon liqueur, with a peach pit bitterness in the finish.

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).

Clear, medium-gold, not much head. Hopped-up nose, lots of orange and lemon. Quaffable palate, smooth but strong. Hot and smooth at same time. Very good.