The BeerCast

The latest addition to the growing BrewDog empire arrived quietly last night, with the laid-back opening of BrewDog Edinburgh. Following the original in Aberdeen, the second branded bar for the Fraserburgh operation opened with a very unBrewDog-like ‘soft’ launch – primarily to check everything worked before the official launch in a few days. The BeerCast were there to check it out of course, it being on our home patch – and a quiet Tuesday night turned into a marathon eleven-beer session. It’s what BrewDog would have wanted.

Situated in the rough and tumble Cowgate the first impressions are that it’s smaller than I was expecting – and a good deal colder with the crazy aircon maxed out. It looks a treat with all the exposed pipes and reclaimed brickwork, very much the North American brewpub feel about it. BeerCaster MrB – who has also visited the Aberdeen bar – told me it’s very similar in layout and despite what I was saying, is actually larger than their flagship.

There were a few opening night niggles – the card machines weren’t working, and some of the beers on the menu hadn’t arrived – but everything considered the launch went really smoothly. Speaking of the beer – there’s a lot of choice on offer. Five BrewDog beers on keg font, including the new Punk IPA and the Belgianified Punk Monk – plus three guest imperial stouts (more on them later) and a whole host of bottles.

Laid out behind the bar – which is unadorned by any cask handpumps, of course – a selection of imported brews from the US, Europe and some select British brewers (such as the Kernel, which unfortunately hadn’t arrived as yet). Priced by the bottle – starting at £4 for a 330ml – some of them really weren’t cheap, the larger 22oz American beers will probably (depending on how scarce they are) set you back £8-£12. MrB picked up three beers and it cost him £30.

I don’t think this is a real problem, however – these are all pretty rare beers not available in any other Edinburgh bar. BrewDog pride themselves on being different, and they have achieved this in spades here – so much so that they totally changed the way we drink. Usually in a round, one of the four of us goes to the bar and buys four pints. Last night, we were buying one drink and getting four glasses. It’s like having a tasting session, in a bar.

The beers were awesome – in order, I managed to put away Mikkeller Vesterbo Kaffestout (on keg), Nogne Pale Ale, Nogne Red Horizon, Port Brewing Hop-15, Mikkeller Coffee IPA, Nogne Imperial Brown Ale, Mikkeller Spontankriek, Mikkeller 10, Three Floyds Jinxproof, Alesmith Yulesmith and Cantillon Vignerone. My goodness. I challenge anyone to have a better beer night than that yesterday in Edinburgh. It was like being at Craig Garvie’s house (except without the sci-fi artwork).

The picks of that particular bunch were the pummelling Nogne Red Horizon – a 17% sake-yeast infused monster, Alesmith’s Christmas Double IPA which was magnificently hopped, and pretty much all of the Mikkeller beers (which is why we tried so many). Spontankriek was just fantastic, tongue-curlingly sour, but still so drinkable – and the 10 was like drinking a blend of tuck shop Fruit Salads. And the Cantillon – just lovely.

So our verdict on the new BrewDog bar? They were after somewhere different, not wanting to copy the many great pubs Edinburgh already has. Well, they have certainly achieved it. It’ll get very busy because of size and location, so there won’t ever be a shortage of customers. The bar looks a treat, very much in keeping with the BrewDog ethos. Some will balk at the prices – but this, unfortunately, is the way these beers are going. You can get Punk IPA or 5AM Saint for £3.20 a pint, which is pretty standard these days. However, the bottled selection alone makes it worth the visit.

Back in November we brought you the summary of a tasting hosted by the UK’s leading Ratebeer.com exponent, Craig Garvie. Having powered through 6,200 beers and sakes, Craig decided to get a regular group together to taste unusual beers and have a social occasion at the same time. Like a book group, except with less Jane Austen. Anyway, mid-January seemed like a good time to do it again, so the BeerCast descended on Craig’s house with a few beers – the infamous Garlic Beer amongst them (which amazingly he liked).

To give you an idea of what was to come, the warmup beer was one of the ’100 Belgian beers to try before you die’ (from the book of the same name) – Fantôme Black Ghost (8%), an unusually spiced farmhouse ale. Sour and yeasty, it set the tone for the evening, as rare and expensive beers appeared left right and centre. Not to mention beers that score in the uppermost percentiles on the ticker websites. Bells Java Stout (7.5%) and Goose Island Fleur (7%) were up next, both fascinatingly interesting.

There was no time to rest, however, as we moved on to the big guns – possibly the biggest of all American craft beer guns – Three Floyds Darklord (15%). Such is the mystique that surrounds this particular beer, it deserves it’s own individual review – so check back for our thoughts later. In Ratebeer’s recently announced Top 50 global beers, Darklord placed fourth. Just as I was thinking how impressive that was – the next beer up was even higher on that list.

Hailing from Örebro in Sweden, Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter (9.5%) is currently joint top of Ratebeer’s rankings. Out of the many tens of thousands of beers listed, it sits atop the pile with an aggregate score of 4.48 out of 5. Only the peerless Westvleteren 12 stands shoulder to shoulder with this Scandinavian imperial porter, having currently achieved the same score. Whether you consider it to be the joint best beer in the world or not, that’s a pretty impressive achievement.

As expected, it pours a thick, gloopy black with no head. The aromas and flavours of Kaggen Stormaktsporter are almost hard to put into words – it’s extremely viscous, with an oaky, slightly smoked finish. Big alcohol backbone reminiscent of Madeira or sherry, with a sweetness that gives way to alcohol burn. What else is there to say? These beers are so complex everyone has a different opinion – I’m just glad that I got to sample them to add mine to the mix (my score being 4.1, by the way).

From there, the big beers kept on coming. Another astonishingly rare bottle came out next – Lost Abbey’s now-retired Veritas Ale 003 (8.0%) – a blend of three of their other beers, which apparently fetches up to $300 a bottle on eBay. Only sour fans would contemplate that kind of outlay – incredibly tart, sharp and puckering – pickled onions, gooseberries and balsamic vinegar was what I wrote down. Just too sour for me.

We then whizzed through a few more – Mikkeller Funk(e)* or fung’ke e’st r (9.4%), a Brettanomyces aged, yet quite honeylike Belgian-style beer with a bizarre name (apparently it reads as funky easter), then De Molen Stoombier Gedrooghopt Safir (5.6%), and from Australia the 5.8% Cascade Stout. We still had time for more rareness – Firestone Walker Eleven (11%) and Thirteen (12%), two more retired barrel-aged imperials full of sweet syrupyness.

I had time for a nip of one of the few BrewDog beers I’ve not tried – Sink the Bismarck (41%) – the massively hopped IPA slipped me by when it was released, and having tried all the other abv war ‘beers’, I gave it a go. It’s quite something on the nose – enormous alcohol aroma, combined with a massive hop presence. It tastes of burning heather honey, pine air freshner and Dettol. Extremely oily and astringent, more liqueur than beer – it’s incredibly fascinating.

Anyway, time was drawing to a close, and we powered on to yet another limited edition beer – Goose Island Bourbon Country Rare (13.5%), which comes in a single malt-style presentation box. Big pruney bourbon aromas dominate this one, with a massive whisky taste combined with a dark sweetness. It’s so astringent that there’s actually a kick to the back of the throat at the moment of swallowing – a challenging brew, no doubt.

Time to wrap up this post – as ever it could be almost three times in length. Finishing with the strangest beer on the agenda – Baladin’s Xyauyù (13.5%), and not just for the spellcheck-challenging name. I’ll replicate here my tasting notes, written at the time, to try and sum up this Italian monster… Thin viscous browny-red. Grain whiskyish sake aroma. Flavours of raisins? Whisky/cognac palate. Cloyingly sweet. Marzipan. Brown sugar – Demerara.

Massive thanks to Craig for the tasting, and to all those who brought these spectacular beers along.

Collaborations are without doubt a great idea when it comes to brewing – two different mindsets, two different approaches, many different flavours. The US Craft Brewing scene in particular embrace the sharing of ideas when it comes to one-off specials – Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head with their ‘Life & Limb’ series, New Belgium and Elysian’s ‘Trip’ beers, not to mention many from Stone done in conjunction with others. Back in BeerCast #42 we featured Bashah, a black double IPA from Stone and Fraserburgh’s BrewDog – so it’s good to see the British brewers getting in on the action. Speaking of which, BrewDog have also joined up with Denmark’s Mikkeller, a very similar producer (both have the word uncompromising in prime position on their mission statements).

The result of this particular co-operation is Devine Rebel, an oak aged barley wine which was first released in 2009 following a Mikkeller visit to Aberdeenshire. That vintage weighed in at 12.1%abv, the 2010 version tops out at 13.8% in the 330ml bottle. Speyside whisky barrels provide the punchy flavours, with a further period of maturation in stainless steel tanks to give extra weight. It’s clearly highly carbonated, a furiously fizzing head disperses within seconds to leave a continual rising carbonation in the glass. The colour is wonderful – deep hazy raspberry, almost an opaque burgundy red. The smell is very tart, bitter, with some tobacco smoke mingling with the dark woody aromas from the Speyside casks.

On the taste, peaty smokiness comes out, with a long, lingering finish that becomes almost rauchbier-like (although not as intense). It reminded me of their first foray into record-breaking, Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%) – but with everything dialled back a couple of notches. It’s more drinkable than other oak-aged beers as there’s no caramel sweetness that can make other notable examples extremely cloying. It’s still a challenging beer however, the alcohol burn would make it overpowering after a while. As it warms, this becomes more and more apparent – at room temperature the strength really comes out. Oak-aged beers are difficult to balance, but Devine Rebel really benefits from the double helping of know-how imparted by BrewDog and Mikkeller.

BrewDog
Mikkeller