BrewDog Nanny State

Brewed by BrewDog
Style: Bitter
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

A very strong mild from the Bew Dog people. Extremely low abv retaliation beer to the media criticism received from Brew Dog Tokyo which was stupid anyway. I requested a half on tap. A very mild style arrived. A small fluffy head and dark ish red texture in the glass. A lovely drop of complex character. I felt hints of spices; cereal, and bitter fruit. Hebal hops maybe. An awesome session beer to say the least. If they could release this nationally and other brewers do too we could all enjoy a session whenever we want! Low abv beer is a great slap in the face of the establishment. Mild beer is exactly what needs to be encouraged as it is an old English style which has recently become forgotten about. Before the war mild used to be much stronger abv but since duties and tax mild fell to 3-4% and now a 1.1%! If you want to tell people you can enjoy beer on all forms of abv just not the strong Belgian or the ultra strong bock beers then MILD is the way forward. I would like Brew Dog to bottle this and to sell nationally. Just another style of beer people should not forget. Just like lambic and gueze we need to keep these styles available and away from media criticism. On tap from the Rake. Review from memory.

A fantastic experiment. Ever bothered by brewers claiming they’re required to seek balance between bitter and sweetness (almost always ending in colossal sugar bombs)? You know what unsweetened tea and coffee tastes like. This is beer without sugar. And it’s delicious. Real and strong resinous hop aromas and bitterness - real bitterness - with a strong roasty backbone and finish. Lightly effervescent. Even at 1%, it held up well to coming overseas. No flaws.

12oz bottle, courtesy of Mario (Brewed for Thought). Thanks! Pours a medium, clear brown color; golden edges; thin off-white head with patchy web-like lacing. Huge notes of earthy bitterness and tea in the aroma. Nicely complex bitterness; lots of tongue-numbing citrus and earthiness, heavy tea, tongue-scrapingly dry character; I could (by ABV) drink a ton of this, but I’m not sure I could really drink a ton of this; impressive hoppiness, but somewhat singular and the rough tea presence and high bitterness is a bit much; interesting experiment, and overall a reasonably ok beer with a nice hop character. Long, long finish of tea and roasted malts (nice!) and lasting bitterness; very dry.

Cask in The Rake. Alround rating: This really does blast the tits off you when you first smell it fresh from a just vented cask. The hops are massive, similar to the how to disappear, lots of lychee and orange peel and generally yee haa goodness, the taste is like holy shit massive bitterness loads of fruit, but its not too easy to drink as you can imagine. Still a great experiance.

Bottle from cgarvieuk, thanks Craig! Dark brown color. Tremendous aroma of oily hops, melon and red berries. Thin and watery, but also an oily hopbitter flavor, earthy with plastic and red berries and a hint of licorice. Long aftertaste. Perfect beer if you have to drive and want to drink a bit.

A Mes rate. Cask at The Rake.
My god, what an aroma. Massive MASSIVE hoppage. Only twice have I experienced something like this. One was the Mikkeller 2005 IBU madness and the other was Urbain’s hop juice that Ang has already mentioned. Both times I was floored by the aroma and disturbed by the flavour. This is no different. It’s like climing into a sack of hops and getting someone to top it up with water. It’s the full on, in at the deep end experience. The flavour is boarderline intollerable. I mean, it’s bloody amazing, it’s just too much even for a hop head. It feels like I can taste coffee but I know it’s just the hardcore bitterness making my brain freak out. The length is phenominal, obviously. But it’s kinda like taking LSD. Fucking brilliant at first, but there’s always a point where you think, ok, I need a bit of normality now. Exceptional fun. Not something I’d want to do often.

Cask handpull at The Rake. Huge, I mean massive hop. Huge flowery hop. Then in the mouth there is malty water and then a burning hop, like the hop tea that reakt aludes too. Couldn’t finish a pint of it. Just too harsh, too unbalanced and too much overall. Good condition though. Bit of a waste of all of those lovely hops.

Cask @ The Rake. Looks great, a lovely deep amber color, topped with a lasting off white head. Nose of leafy hops, sweet caramel & chocolate malts and a hint of tea. Taste has lots of bitter juicy/orangey/piney hops, caramel, a touch of chocolate and again tea. Quite thin on the swallow with a huge hop bitterness and a little sweet malt for balance, it fades a bit in the middle but returns with a long dry bitter finish. Reminded me of a hop tea experiment Urbain did @ The Twickenham Brewery once.