Beer review: BrewDog Punk IPA

After watching Oz and James, I dug out a review from earlier this year.  I was happy to find this beer, and its sister beer Trashy Blonde, at 1st Choice liquor in Forestville, NSW.

Guide to review scoring is on the post Beeradvocate Ratings Systems

Unless otherwise specified, these reviews are my own.

Punk IPA
American IPA 6.0 %
B+ / 3.9 look: 3.5 smell: 4 taste: 4 feel: 4 drink: 4

Batch 319, BB 14/12/2919, 330mL

Rocky white foam head, slight hazy golden yellow.
Aromas herbaceous at first, some strawberry/rosewater floral notes, big citrus hop, ripe honeydew melon, some toffee pushing through.
Flavours of toffee maltiness upfront, then tropical fruit mix..grapefruit/tangelo brings it home at the back. Firm bitterness.
Fairly light, with a hint of creaminess. Good length to support the bitterness.
A good IPA. Plenty of lingering aftertaste to remind one of that, and inviting the next one. Strong for a session ale, but still could put a few away quite easily.
Serving type: bottle

Oz and James Drink to Britain

The 1st edition of this new series ran on SBS last night. I missed it.... but caught up on YouTube (in three parts). A great watch; these two guys can manage the difficult feat of providing good, interesting information, allthewhile demystifying the subject and taking the piss out of each other.

(edit: as I sit and watch the 2nd episode, I realise that when I wrote this post, I was actually watching the 3rd episode, not the 1st.....Not my fault, honestly....)

This episode (edit: the 3rd episode) focused on Scotland, so beer and whisky were the foci. They landed in Islay to try some Bruichladdich at the distillery. James's eloquent epiphany over the X4 distilled cask whisky is a must-see.

They profiled two Scottish breweries, and thankfully both young & innovative operations: BrewDog and Williams Bros.

Sitting on a park bench, quaffing BrewDog's Punk IPA and Trashy Blonde, out of paper bags, was hilarious, although they probably missed on some key points such as appearance and aroma. I tasted and enjoyed the IPA earlier this year; my review will be posted shortly.

At Williams Bros, they sat in a heather field with brothers Bruce and Scott, and tried (I think) the Fraoch Heather Ale, and the Roisin Tayberry Ale, a cross of raspberry & blackberry, according to website.

A good watch, and a good laugh.  Wednesday evenings on SBS, else YouTube whenever you like.

Mother's day beers

Had the extended family over on Sunday for a lazy BBQ and a few tasters.

John Boston lager. A reasonable drop available through the Wine Society, and competes on price & style with other "premium" lagers such as Cascade & James Boag.

Brewdog Bashah. From Northmead cellars. A so-called Black Belgian-style Double Indian Pale Ale. What ?? Tasted like a hopped porter to me. I'm not so sure about all this "extreme" brewing & style cross-overs. The style boundaries are being challenged, which is OK I guess. But why then try to categorise the beer using the standard category definitions ? It comes across as a bit, um, contrived.

BrewDog case study: creating a high growth beer brand within a falling beer market

Duvel. I scored these for $2.30 a bottle from Dan Murphy. Someone mistakenly printed off the price tag as $47.95 per case, rather than per six-pack. I cleared them out of the stock and took the tag to the checkout, knowing full well there was a mistake. :-) If it had been a small privately owned bottle shop, I wouldn't have..... but, Woolies ? Come in spinner....

Trappist Westvleteren 8. Unavailable in Australia, but sent over via the "grey market" in the US. Me and a couple of other beeradvocates banded together and paid, from memory, $30 a bottle for the 8 and the 12. The beer is outstanding. An earlier review can be found here: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/313/857/?ba=vancurly

My own concoction, a kind of imperial schwartz beer (lol), was on tap. Coopers European lager tin, augmented with Special B, pale Cara, and chocolate malts, plus some Perle for additional bittering and my home-grown Tettnang for dry-hopping. Fermented around 18C, and kegged/conditioned for a couple of weeks.

Had some wine, too.....