Beer of the Week – Fyne Ales Hurricane Jack

Posted by on Jul 14, 2017 in Beer of the Week | 2 Comments

The weekend is just about here once again, and as we hit the middle of July it’s time for a beer recommendation perfect for this time of year. Every Friday throughout 2017 I’ll be detailing a single release from a Scottish producer that deserves greater recognition due to how incredible it is. Not all linked to the season but this beer is right on the money.

Fyne Ales make more standout pale ales than any other brewery in Scotland – they are on a par with Thornbridge, Oakham and the Kernel in regard to light coloured beers with big hoploads (maybe the middle of those trio is the most apt comparison). Jarl, of course, is the standout – there’s no way I can attempt to say it is under-rated even if I would want to – but others in their line-up are equally worth seeking out, such as the incredible Hurricane Jack.

28. Hurricane Jack (4.4%)
Fyne Ales, Achadunan, Argyll
Style: Pale Ale
500ml bottle

Pick it up here:
At from Fyne Ale’s online shop (as 12x500ml bottles or 5L minicasks)
At from Beer Hawk (as individual 500ml bottles)

Hurricane Jack is one of the standout pale ales in the country, in my opinion – and alongside stablemates Jarl and Avalanche (the latter of which could also well have featured here) constitutes a trifecta of golden beers few other breweries can match. Hurricane Jack works so well because, well – to paraphrase an ex-US President ‘it’s the hops, stupid’. Relying on a combination of two classic pale ale heavyweights – Cascade and Amarillo.

The first of those is the hop that made Sierra Nevada a household name (and which features as the standout in Avalanche) but the addition of Amarillo gives a different kick of citrus to the equation. To me, Jarl (Citra) is pure grapefruit, Avalanche (Cascade) lemons and with the orange hit from Amarillo, Hurricane Jack carries a bigger and more balanced citrus hit that either of the other two. It’s peachy, soft from the added wheat and hugely under-rated. Just an all-round belter.

Beer of the Week Series:
1. Fyne Ales Highlander
2. Swannay Old Norway
3. Broughton Old Jock
4. Traquair House Ale
5. Tempest Easy Livin Pils
6. Cromarty Brewed Awakening
7. Fallen Chew Chew
8. Black Isle Hibernator
9. Isle of Skye Red
10. Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Engineer’s Reserve
11. Orkney Skull Splitter
12. Windswept Wolf
13. Kelburn Dark Moor
14. Alechemy 5ive Sisters
15. Loch Ness Light Ness
16. St Andrews Eighty Bob
17. Harviestoun The Ridge
18. Orkney Dark Island
19. Williams Bros Seven Giraffes
20. Cairngorm Black Gold
21. Strathaven Craigmill Mild
22. Black Isle Red Kite
23. Spey Valley Spey Stout
24. Top Out Schmankerl
25. Cross Borders Braw
26. Williams Bros Midnight Sun
27. BrewDog Kingpin

2 Comments

  1. Allan McLean
    July 14, 2017

    Hurricane Jack was a character in the Para Handy stories.

  2. Geoff
    July 14, 2017

    Great recommendation Richard.

    This is the beer that really got me started several years ago and I’ll never forget that. I was in St Andrews and picked this up as one of a few hotel room drinks.

    Never looked back!

    I even used it a couple of Christmases ago to make a porter twist on mulled wine and it worked pretty well. I think I used some cloves and added either spiced rum or some whisky. I probably for carried away and used both now I think of it. All in the spirit of things I guess!

    Williams Bros played a big part in the origins of my beer love. I told a fellow beer lover at work about it and he’d always talk about Seven Giraffes. Little did we know they were both Williams Bros. An everlasting beer bromance commenced.

    As well as this beer, a visit to the brewery’s pub Inn Deep when it first opened a few years ago really opened my eyes to the variety of beers on offer and the excitement of it. Could drinking beer really be a hobby? Did I finally have something to take photos of? Was I actually critiquing and developing strong opinions about something I could sound passionate about rather than simply a cantankerous old man about all other things long before my time?

    I don’t drink as much as I did a few years ago. I still keep a monthly beer subscription going but am likely to be cancelling this soon. Instead I think I should follow your list more closely and any others, then pick one or two to indulge in each week. They can always be backed up by a whisky or two afterall.

    Cheers!
    Geoff

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