Brew Dog Hardcore IPA - it's a wee beastie
Not long ago Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver complained in an online discussion about an "appalling paucity of creativity in British brewing". I don't agree. Thankfully, all we need to do is point to the likes of Brew Dog to show just how far off the mark he is.
Hardcore IPA has been described as Britain's first "Double IPA". So far it's turned up in casks at a few pubs and beer festivals. The bottled version will soon be on sale. At 9% abv it's a force to be reckoned with, so it's best to find a comfortable seat before reaching for your bottle opener.
The beer is burnished orange and slightly hazy, with a small but lasting head. The mouthfeel is sweet, sticky and a touch oily, but there's plenty of bitter hop. Luxuriant flavours of citrus, toffee and caramel work surprisingly well together. The alcohol warms but doesn't burn. I'd expected a relentlessly extreme experience, but if someone had put a pint of this in front of me, I'd have happily drunk first and asked questions later.
Information:
Brew Dog is based in Aberdeenshire. The brewery's website has an online purchasing facility. Last month I reviewed Riptide, which has since received an award from Beers of the World magazine. I also referred to Hop Rocker lager recently.
15 comments:
I must say I agree with Garrett. BrewDog are an example of what British brewers could and should be doing, but they are a bit of a lone example of more extreme brewing.
The mere fact that you've described it as Britain's first IIPA (there have been a couple of others) is evidence of the paucity of creativity. Where are the Belgian Strong Ales; the Flemish Sours; the proper hoppy Pilseners; the dunkels? They are just non-existant.
I do enjoy BrewDog's beers and have written about them a couple of times. The Riptide is excellent. Yet to try the Hardcore though.
Is it surprising that few British brewers produce beers emulating those from abroad, though?
The USA is a melting pot of cultures, its brewers have no more connection to any one European brewing tradition that they do any others. It's no surprise therefore that they seek to emulate the types of beers you describe.
As for "extreme" brewing, lots of British brewers produce strong beers, and always have done. They just aren't at the forefront of our well established brewing culture because very few people want to drink them terribly often, lest their livers pack up and leave them.
Stonch have you tried the Fitgers 1750 Quadruple IPA? A most remarkable beer - but also one of the most enjoyable drinking experiences I have yet had.
I get the impression at times that many people (not necessarily on this website) often equate creativity with the strength of a beer. Also why should the brewers of this country be copying styles from other countries to show how creative they are?
You also have to take into account the nature of British drinking. People don't tend to drink really strong beers so much as you can't go out and knock back 6-8 pints of 8% beer in an evening without heavy consequences. I think that's just been said reading back!
"if someone had put a pint of this in front of me, I'd have happily drunk first and asked questions later."
Question along the lines of 'splu fem shrup?' and 'blurr fum elth?' no doubt, as your tongue and brain will no longer be on speaking terms... :-)
Isn't the question one of what is "normal"? I do not seem many Belgian or Germany brewers brewing English or US beers either. English and Scotch beers are quite nicely made by their local breweries in a traditional manner to a local taste just as are most Belgian and German ones. Hell, both the macro and craft brewers of Ontario seem largely stuck on a selection of styles that would have been familiar to any 1930s beer drinker.
That the US has very few comparable traditional local styles seems to be a point missed by Oliver in his original complaint - of course they are going to not be limited to style as much as elsewhere as styles had to be sought out. And that the US it is a place of great experiment is not limited to beer. I do not think he is wrong to make the observation but when it is applied almost anywhere else it is queally true.
AoAGBB
Over in Gloucester North Cotswold Brewery has been dabbling its toes in the stream of American creativity for a couple of years now. In the spring I was over there and tried their English Imperial IPA Monarch, which is mashed in on Christmas Day with high alpha Chinhook hops used for bittering and Tomahawk used for aroma and dry-hopping. It is left for several months to mature then allowed to have a kip in bottle for a mite longer. Put your nose in a hop sack and that is what you will get when you pour it in the glass. It is 10% and as dense and complex as a Chomsky text, but much more enjoyable and much more grounded in reality. The brewer there also has a 15% Arctic Ale quietly snoozing in his cellar, which will be an ideal tonic when the ice floes melt. I think there is a default mechanism in some new micros who hit the scene and think best bitter, cough medicine ‘speciality beer’ and my pet irritation ‘cask-conditioned lager’ (how can a lager have cascade, Maris otter, top-fermenting yeast and still be called one?). I know they are businesses, but there is always room for experimentation, otherwise we would all be drinking Double Diamond (and no I am not old enough to have drunk it). Stonch this is a great forum for debating these sorts of things, and while I am at it the other point is that alcohol strength is not always great, as, just like the darkness of porter in the 19th century could mask a lot of crap, the alcoholic weight of some beers can mask a brewer’s ineptitude and the drinker’s easy seduction by a pleasurable tide of alcohol.
American beers lose subtlty and class in favour of extremness, why would you want to go there? there are already crass US beers, would crass UK beers make things better?
"Where are the Belgian Strong Ales; the Flemish Sours; the proper hoppy Pilseners; the dunkels? They are just non-existant. "
They are in Belgum, and Germany and quite right to.
"its brewers have no more connection to any one European brewing tradition that they do any others"
Absolutly, that lack of conection leaves many such breweries with a slightly souless range where every beer is totally different and equally out of context.
Kieran, I couldn't have put it better.
I like the fact that Britain, Germany and Belgium have their own individual beer cultures. How dull would it be if everything was brewed everywhere and regional differences disappeared?
I don't want to drink a Kölsch brewed in the UK or USA. That completely misses the point about the beer. You're right - it's all about context.
Stonch - I'm glad you were able to enjoy the 9% IPA. The glass choice and "finding a comfortable seat" is the proper way to do it. 9% or 15% beer is NOT extreme. Extreme drinking to my reckoning is the combination of alcohol % and quantity. It is quite right to think that sessioning 6-12 pints of 4% beer is extreme. A single glass of 10% is not extreme drinking.
It may be difficult for people who session regularly to embrace stronger beer. However, for people who have matured beyond tallying there pints every night. A well-crafted 10% IPA can be a real treat.
Anon, yes, but on the other hand I think a real appreciation of lower strength, session beers is a sign of "drinking maturity" (if there can be such a thing).
When you read the forums of the big beer websites there's so much chat about the latest super-strong stuff, but little interest or understanding of well-crafted beers you can appreciate every day.
On one US beer forum someone asked for recommendations under 4% ABV. Hardly any of the suggestions were even under 5%.
I happen to enjoy both strong and session-strength beers. Yet finding them in a single pub is remarkably difficult.
Stonch, when you write: The USA is a melting pot of cultures, its brewers have no more connection to any one European brewing tradition that they do any others, you miss the truth.
Regional styles adhere pretty strongly to the immigrants predominant in the region. Beers from New England are a lot like those from old England. In the Midwest, where Germans settled, German lagers predominate.
Your point may be sharper if you identify the West Coast, which is where the immigrants migrate--as with many trends, the West Coast is less hidebound and more funky. But it's also where US hops are grown, and so the beers have already begun to mutate into styles not quite like their ancestors.
Next time you're in Portland, Oregon, I'll buy you a pint.
Jeff - It would be a great service to those of us in Europe if an US-based beer writer would produce an article highlighting the regional differences in American beer. I'd freely admit I'm ignorant of them, but I'm certainly intrigued by your comment.
Stonch, I should probably not be that writer. While I did live in the Midwest in the last decade, my information is badly out of date. My wife hails from New England, and I'm much more familiar with the beers there--I could credibly describe the differences between those beers and ours out on the west coast. Colorado beers, which you have lately been reviewing, are a region unto themselves, taking some elements from the Midwest and some from the West Coast. Southern and Southwestern beers--I'm wholly ignorant.
(New England beers, incidentally, are wonderful English-style ales. They often use English or European hops, which instantly distinguish them from West Coast ales. They tend toward lower gravities and there's an appreication for real session ales--on the West Coast a "session" is 5.5% abv. It's interesting what Kieran wrote above about the soullessness of American beer, too. The one place that argument clearly cannot be made about is Boston and environs. The founding fathers were brewers, and the revolution was hatched in pubs. There still exists in Boston one of the pre-revolutionary pubs where young radicals met to conspire. True, these roots aren't as deep as some in Europe, but ....)
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