Beer of the Week – Six Degrees North Hop Classic

Friday is here again so there’s just a single item of business to take care of before the weekend can begin. Another recommendation from yours truly of a single beer that I believe is currently flying under the radar and deserves a little more recognition. With so many new beers appearing on the Scottish scene every month it can be hard (but enjoyable) to keep up. Hence this series of fifty-two unsung Scottish beers.

This week’s entrant is a beer from this country that very much looks to another – and of course that is one of the most fascinating things about brewing. It doesn’t matter where you try your hand, the styles of beers that result can be from anywhere around the world if you have the ingredients, water character and pitch the right yeast. And when it comes to yeast, the Continent is the place to go. Except not in the case of this particular beer; you just need to head to Aberdeenshire.

49. Hop Classic (6.6%)
six°north, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
Style: Belgian IPA
330ml bottle

Pick it up here:
At at EEBRIA online (as individual 330ml bottles)

This is a serious collection of different flavours; floral, fruity, spicy, bittersweet (even if that’s more of a sensation) and much of it driven by the yeast. But that is the powerhouse that drives much of Belgian life and it’s very much in evidence here. Belgian IPA is a style I don’t get much of, being drawn to beefier numbers when I reach for the shelf marked with flags of the Low Countries. But to find one brewed in Scotland is fantastic, and Hop Classic is a similarly fantastic beer from the always excellent six°north.

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
28. Fyne Ales Hurricane Jack
29. Deeside MacBeth
30. Drygate Ax Man Red Rye IPA
31. Swannay Orkney Session
32. Fallen Platform C
33. Black Isle Porter
34. Top Out Altbier
35. Black Metal Gates of Valhalla
36. Fierce Beer Cranachan Killer
37. Loch Lomond Southern Summit
38. Tempest Old Parochial
39. Williams Bros Profanity Stout
40. Windswept Tornado
41. Campervan Pacific Zest
42. Swannay Sneaky Wee Orkney Stout
43. Cromarty Ghost Town
44. Fyne Ales Vital Spark
45. Knops Musselburgh Broke
46. Orkney Red MacGregor
47. Cross Borders Porter
48. BrewDog Jack Hammer