BrewDog Hardcore IPA

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

DLD, a table offering and not sure whom brought this: Yellow hue with a fizzy fading head and some lace. The aroma has notes of flowery and resiny hops, pale and biscuity malts, some pepper and clove, and some citric vapours. The taste pretty much follows suit, mostly bitterness and acidic fruit with some pale malt in the background before a peppery and slightly boozy finish. The mouth feel is metallic and chalky, aggressive carbonation, and the alcohol is noticeable. An okay DIPA but wished for a bit more depth.

Cask at the Blue Blazer Edinburgh ... Very nice golden orange ... Lemon tart hoppynesss ... high hop sweet juicy and lots of hop resins. little tart orange... well made.

March 2008 A hoppy barleywine that the brewers term an Imperial India Pale Ale. The base malt is well attenuated and certainly quite European in style; the hops are firm and assertive but again feel European - English in fact. I can see the American influence both in the name and the label design, but this is a British take on an American beer style which was influenced by British beer and it ends up as a minor and insignificant variation on the barleywine. The beer is drinkable but lacks character and interest - no doubt the filtering doesn’t help with the character. The malt is clean and has subtle toffee and caramel notes, but is mostly just a clean, lifeless bog standard strong malt base. Very boring in fact. The yeast is clearly a simple bought off the shelf well behaved and dull yeast with no character whatsoever. The hops lack fragrance and interest - there is an intensity which burns on the lips, but that’s about it. It’s each to their own as regards beer, and there’s little here for me, though I can see hop addicts liking it more than me. [2.6]
September 2009 The "new" batch - 330ml bottle from Sainsbury’s - one of the 15 finalists. This tastes much more American in style than the version I previously rated. The malt, though, still retains some British quality - a little more toffee than is noticeable in equivalent American beers. The malt seems reasonably sweet and attractive - there is a feeling that the malt would have been a decent quality, and it has been cleanly brewed, and then cleanly filtered. The malt, however, cannot be examined closely, nor fully enjoyed, as the hops intrude too much. An excessive dose of hops has been used, which results in the mouth being burned. There is fragrance, but it is reduced by the punishing hops. I don’t recall the hops being quite this aggressive when last trying this beer, but I found this an unpleasant experience. Too much alcohol, and too much hops. Too much nonsense. It’s each to their own, but I don’t like this sort of stuff at all. Worse beer of the competition so far - and I can’t imagine anything else in the competition being quite as unpleasant to drink as this. [0.9]

Bottle. Verly lov and harly existing white head. Clear and beautiful gollden amber body. Citrussy and hoppy aroma (promising). Flavor dominated by the alcohold (not good). Low carbonation and a long bitter aftertastee. Too bad that the alcohold flavor is so dominant.

RBSG @ O’Briens from Dr. Bill. Poured a fairly clear yellow color with an almost white head. Bready malt aroma with floral and light citrus hops. The flavor had a malt sweetness to it with light toffee and light citrus notes. Medium bodied and well hidden alcohol.

Bottled, Batch 002, BB 7/7/09. Poured hazy straw golden with a short, loose-bubbled white head. The aroma picked up plenty of pineapple and passion fruit over a pale and bready base.. tart and tangy with more apparent acidity than bitterness. The flavor found more pineapple in the form of meat and bitterness.. pale malts at the core didn’t factor in much.. peppery yeast joined tart pineapple and what seemed like oak on the edges.. dry, toasty, sour finish. Medium-bodied with low carbonation on the palate.. the juicy pineapple was enjoyable, but the rest didn’t flow that well.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a very medium sized head of medium sized clear colored bubbles that were quickly diminishing and left behind a very hazy orange colored body. The mild aroma was hoppy and musty. The crisp mouth feel was tingly at the start and at the finish with a mellow hoppy aftertaste. The flavor contained notes of mild hops. An OK brew just nothing special.

Bottle. Small fizzy white head that mostly diminished. Clear flat looking pale hay like color. Very sweet hoppy nose. Notes of pineapple, elderflower, citrus and hint of grapefruit. Fruit, caramel and other floral mix of notes. Medium bodied with a dry texture and an average carbonation. Moderated bitter and sweet flavor. Lingering bitter floral finish.