IPA night at BrewDog
BrewDog made something of the splash yesterday, as they released the second slice of equity for prospective investors. Seeking to raise £2.2m to finance a new, carbon-neutral, brewery – there was certainly plenty of interest, if the Twitter flood was anything to go by. Kenny over at the Beer Monkey posted his thoughts on the implications of the deal – which, to be honest, doesn’t really float my boat (if you’ll pardon the pun) – but fair play to BrewDog for trying something different, and their legion of investors for supporting the company.
Personally, I’m just keen on the beer, rather than dabbling in financial markets. With that in mind, last night Edinburgh’s bloggerati (i.e. us and Craig from Make Mine a Half) gathered at the BrewDog Bar for a night devoted to the most successful style in modern brewing – the India Pale Ale. More often than not you’ll find the flagship of a US brewery to be an IPA, and the new wave of Atlantic-thinking European breweries are following suit. There are a few reasons for this – the increased variety of hops available, brewer’s desire to experiment, and the bitter, fruity bite makes them just so damn tasty.
There were plenty of examples on offer last night – in the past BrewDog Bar special events have been hit-and-miss affairs, with beer taking an age to appear or not being available. Not so with this one – straight in the door and the choice was between two of BrewDog’s (Punk and Hardcore IPA’s) and eight others *deep breath* Port Brewing Wipeout (7%) and Hop15 (10%), Flying Dog Snake Dog (7.1%), Evil Twin Before, During and After Xmas (10%), 8 Wired Hop Wired (7.3%), Mikkeller Koppi IPA (6.9%), 10 (6.9%) and 1000IBU Light (4.9%).
Clearly, if you’re a fan of imported hop-led beer, that’s a list that’s going to take a while to make a selection from. I started off with something I’d had before – the fantastic Mikkeller 10. From the bottle it’s akin to drinking liquid fruit salad – served cold on keg, the fruitiness takes a bit of a back seat – but it’s still outstanding. The blend of ten different hops is impossible to differentiate, but it’s a corker regardless. The 1000IBU Light is not, however. Pushing the hop envelope to the limit, and yet at session strength, it’s a total bitter bomb (although the clue was there in the name).
Next up, New Zealand’s 8 Wired brewery, and their all-kiwi ingredient Hopwired, which was fantastic. Crisper and with a different fruit edge to the American IPA’s – by design – the southern hemisphere hops give the beer quite a distinctive edge. Evil Twin’s BDA Xmas was even better, a riot of pineapple and grapefruit from the off. By this point, my palate had taken a battering (and I could still taste the 1000IBU). A couple of fruit lambics seemed like the obvious thing to do – hence Mikkeller Spontanredcurrant and Spontancassis. Harsh, acetic sourness from the first, harsh blackcurrant sourness from the second.
Job done, it was back to the draught IPA theme – and as luck would have it, the beer list had changed. The choice at this point was between the following – Southern Tier Oak-aged Unearthly IPA (11%), Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale (8.7%) and Cali-Belgique (6.9%) – and four 6.8% single-hop IPA’s from Mikkeller – Cluster, Warrior, Challenger and Galena. Well, having had both the Stone’s before it was the single-hop beers that caught my eye, and the Warrior was the pick of these. Mikkeller have nineteen in this series, so it was great to try some at last.
With that, it was time to head away – but not before a final beer. Or three. Produced at BrewDog’s facility in Fraserburgh for Denmark’s Evil Twin Brewery, Yin and Yang are 10% beers – one light, one dark – that can be drunk independently, or mixed together. It’s part clever marketing, part tremendous idea – a self-made black and tan. The light (Yang) is a double IPA, cloying sweet caramel – the dark (Yin) a roasty imperial stout. Combined, the sweetness mingles beautifully with the toasty flavours of the Yin – it’s really rather clever.
By this point, it really was time to leave, as I was entirely adamant that mixing two 10% beers together would create a 20% beer. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure that it doesn’t…
You can check out what Kenny and Craig thought of the IPA Night here and here, respectively…
