They Brew it, I sell it, You Drink it... and so do I..

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Doggy Style

Say what you like about Brewdog.

Yes they're a little immature, yes they can be irritating. Yes they may get your orders wrong from time to time.

I couldn't care less. I really couldn't! And the reason why: Brewdog make amazing beers, fact!

It's the reason I'm writing about them here and now. It's the reason all the rest of you do. And if you're not, you're just moaning about how they should stop farting around, and stick to making great beer like you know they can.

Say what you like about them, just don't talk down on their beer, otherwise I don't want to hear it.

I'd like to share a few of the bottles I've been drinking over the past few days. One of them I've had before, but it was under the name of Speed Ball back at that time, the rest are new to me.

All of them were gorgeous and all deserve a mention. Even if it's not in a hardcore way.

The first one I got on with was Speed Ba.. I mean Dogma: a 7.8% Heather Honey infused Ale. When I first gave this beer a whiff I did get a reminiscent aroma of Fraoch, just in a bigger way. The honey comb was fairly obvious and lead to a nice battle of bitter sweet in the beer. A beer made with guarana, poppy seeds, kola nut and Scottish heather honey! Now I know what honey tastes like, but the others I'm not too sure, so it was a very interesting beer. A very drinkable beer too for 7.8%! A very soft beer. Quite herbal, with a nice caramel malt sweetness mixing in with the heather honey. (still not sure how you come about honey from heather)

Next up was ABD. What hasn't been said about this beer really? Well I'll give it a go. It was made by three unfit, hungover people, one of whom was my boss, one of whom writes a fantastic beer blog, and is a very influential writer in the beer world.... and the other whom was Pete Brown.
I jest of course, I have the greatest respect for these three. After all I wouldn't be writing a blog at all if it wasn't for our beer captain! I think the thing I most liked about this beer was this: These guys write about new and awesome beers every week. They could have easily brewed a Quadruple Eisbock Oak-aged Imperial Black IPA Stout, but they didn't. The went old school. And I mean proper old school, and gave it a modern twist. The mettle of a good beer man (or woman) comes from learning about what has come before in the past and using it to his/her advantage in a modern world. These three know about the histroy and the deep seeded past of beer, and wanted to bring that to the forefront of their beer, and it's to be saluted! I shan't write any tasting notes, because I want you to buy it and try it for yourself.

Our next beer along comes in the form of a wedding ale. Gimmick or not a gimmick? I was firmly under the impression that it would be. I thought it would just be a blend of Punk IPA and Hardcore IPA, and there'd be nothing to write home about. Turns out I was wrong. Now while Royal Virility Performance (7.5%) may have been made with herbal viagra, chocolate, ginseng and Horny Goat Weed and a good dose of sarcasm, it was not a gimmick beer! It was clear that a lot of thought went into this brew, and for me, it shows. Sure it smells like Punk IPA but it has a great bitter body, which leads onto a chocolate sweetness, with a lot of herbal and honeycomb features. It's slightly woody, it has some piney spice alongside the clean, crisp finish. A very good beer, and for all of those of you wondering out there.... NO I didn't get one!

Name: Bitch Please
Brewers: Brewdog/Three Floyds
ABV: 11.5%
Style: Barrel aged Scottish Barley Wine
This beer is meant to be made with shortbread, toffee and eclectic hops. I didn't get any of that. From first taste it was burnt as Hells ashes! Super smokey, those peated malts really shining through. I know this was made with some Jura barrels, but I saw a beer; 75% Barley Wine, 25% Imperial Stout with a double shot of Ardbeg dropped in it. A phenolic beer, but you either hate or love that. I love it after the first few sips. Peaty, woody and very complex, does not drink like it's 11.5% that's for sure! One to get and age.

I'll finish on a beer that I've recently received: AB:06 - an 11.2% Imperial Black IPA. I'll start out by saying that this is the freshest beer I've smelt all year. It should be! It was bottled about 25 days ago! Black as the night, with a perfect amount of chalky/biscuit brown head. Bottle number 2317 of 8973 comes across in body with flavours of massive overpowering fresh, bitter hops. Quite a big amount of roasted bitterness in there too, which I assume would die down with a bit more bottle conditioning time. Some apricot and pine flavour, and a massive dry body and finish. An overall interesting and special beer, that does not necessarily live up to its price tag, but I'm happy to have tried it.

That's it for now then.

So next time I write about Brewdog, It won't be for someone they've upset or something outrageous they've said or done, no it will be about one of their new beers. End of.

Brewdog make superb beer, until they stop doing that, I'll continue to buy their beer.

15 comments:

  1. Superb review Ghosty, so descriptive I can almost taste the blighters. I have to admit some if the BrewDog media BS, does get on my tits at times, but on the other hand who can blame them for blatant self promotion, it's working.
    I'd also agree that I have not had a bad beer from BrewDog ever, every one has been fantastic. I tried Bitch Please down at Euston Tap a week or two ago and it was immense! Cheers Phil (aka Beersay)

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  2. I've got two bottlesd of AB06, a bitch please and an alice porter i need to get drunk. Particularly the ab06, i want to try one fresh and then age one.

    Heather honey is simply honey from bees that predominantly feed on heather plants, giving it a unique floral taste. Simples!

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  3. p.s. am interested to try this version of bitch please. The keg version I review here: http://eatingisntcheating.blogspot.com/2011/03/bitch-please-by-3-floyds-and-brewdog.html
    was aged in rum casks and came out very sweet with huge toffee and shortbread flavours and very little rum character. Sounds like the whisky aging has changed the beer completely! Interesting stuff, but dont think im gona like this bottled version as I prefer high quality rums (current favourite is the Mauritian Green Island Spiced Gold) to whisky.

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  4. http://www.wikihow.com/Use-There,-Their-and-They%27re

    http://www.wikihow.com/Use-You%27re-and-Your

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  5. Oi, I consider myself pretty fit! Anyway... glad you like ABD. I've still got loads around my flat and I'm loving every bottle I drink.

    "NO I didn't get one" is one of the funniest lines I've read in a blog in ages. If it did 'work' though then I'd be more freaked out reading that, I think!

    I love the smokiness in Bitch Please. It's intense!

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  6. Buy what you like, but I got fed up defending them a long time ago, and I'm fed up financing their bullshit.

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  7. Frankly if you didn't end up with a little tentpole in your shroud, I think you should ask for your money back. Yet another example of BrewDog not delivering as promised!

    Joking aside, great entry, and you've made me want to try the Dogma and bottled Bitch Please in particular.

    Nick

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  8. A lot of the hate levelled at BrewDog is jealousy, not because of the beers they make, but because of the way they market themselves.

    They can be sloppy, disorganised, dickish for lack of a better word, but they turn out quality beers, with only a few rare misses. That's all I care about.

    The important thing is give them the same level of criticism that they dish out to everyone else. Their heads have got mighty big over the past year or so.

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  9. Damn, just typed a long comment then lost it as I navigated away before the CAPTCHA! argggh.

    Great reviuws Ghostie, have tried all bar the RVP which I avoided cos I don't want pharamceuticals in my beer! My bottled bitch please was more like the rum aged one Neil had, so I'm thinking maybe different batches were aged differently? I ordered three more to make sure. Also three more ABD. Loved AB06, got one for aging and one for my dad for father's day. Just got some AB02 too as they found a hidden cache at the brewery so looking forward to trying that!

    PS. Did you mean mettle of the beer?

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  10. Steve: It would seem there's a few batches of BP, I've certainly seen different abvs for a few, and yes I did mean mettle, my grammer is appauling - something I'm trying to work on :)

    It seems that Brewdog are forming a bit of a love em or don't side of things these days. It's a shame really, even if you don't like them, don't let it effect your decisions when it comes to buying good beer. People bad mouthing them is not going to stop them doing what they're doing, so just focus on good beer.

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  11. A lot of the hate levelled at BrewDog is jealousy, not because of the beers they make, but because of the way they market themselves.

    I love some BD beers, dislike others and really hate the way the market themselves, & on the rare occasions I write about them that's what I write about. I'm not 'jealous' of them, I just think they've got a weird split personality - one part excellent brewer, one part mad scientist, one part irritating git.

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  12. I think it's in their nature that their dickish activity wavers as does the quality of their beers. AB05 was an abomination that never should have left the brewery, ABD was pretty much a clone of A and D's favourite beers at the time but ended being nothing particularly special but that was to be expected really. AB06 should have been fantastic as it's what they do best but ended up as a bit of a mess in my mind- likewise for the IPA is dead lot which was poor in comparison to other similar offerings.

    Having said that, 5AM is still one of the best session strength beers going, Punk is okay (but out of the can it's foul), I Hardcore You is one of the best beers made in this country and Hardcore's as good as ever.

    I think the main problem is that there are other breweries who are making beer just as good as Brewdog now but without all the histrionics - Revival is far far superior to Punk, Bracia is lightyears better than any of the bigger beers they've done, and Kernel are knocking out IPAs which are eclipsing a lot of their hoppy beers. So they've turned into a brewery making a lot of noise and some fairly average beers....

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  13. I love the way they market themselves, though sometimes they seem to have become a satire of themselves!
    Grammar is something that can catch the best of us...I draft my blogs in MS word and run spell check plus have spellcheck enabled on Firefox to doublecheck.

    Think I'll have a Punk IPA later

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  14. Ghostie, your spelling and grammar skills are, quite frankly, frightful. But well spoken on the Brewdog front. I love them too, because their beer is lovely.

    Dominic, Thornbridge Brewery

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  15. Barm - yes but it takes a prick to show us who the really decent people are out there!

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