12 days of IPA: The Ones From Brewdog

IPA Is Dead.

Whatever.

Single hopped beers are not new. But I applaud Brewdog for putting out four variants that fall firmly into the 'what-if?' category of hopping for many beer lovers.

Now, I drank the Citra last night and wasn't exactly blown away. How did the others fare?

Nelson Sauvin: waves of aggressive gooseberry. It turns, waves of bitterness. The flavours I began to fall in love with get pissed all over.

Bramling X: interesting. Starts with strawberries and cream? Segue to earthy fruit and then... tsunami bitterness. Just as the hedge was probing with berries and spices. Damn.

Sorachi Ace: Whooooo-hoooooo! Fantastic aroma; like my fridge when I bury satsumas under a heap of other crap at Christmas. It's creamy, bits of crystallised lemon stick in the palate, that turning orange was majestic. My wife thought it was rank; "I thought you loved me?" she spat. Literally. Meanwhile, I was losing myself in the lemon tea meets piss-ridden nettles sumptuousness of this beer. I ruddy loved it.

So, what to do next? Blend them.

One-third Nelson Sauvin to two-thirds Bramling X was transformational; killed the cattiness, maintained a gooseberry lineage all the way home, somehow took the lingering bitterness away. I'm not saying the sum of both beers was better than its parts but in comparison I'd put it in my top one.

Three parts Bramling X, two parts Nelson Sauvin, one part Sorachi Ace. Good, but not as good as the previous. It just tasted like a good, strong, hoppy IPA. Nothing special.

But I saved the best til last. One part Sorachi Ace to lots more parts of Sorachi Ace.

Moudly orange. It's the future. I've tasted it.

Today's Obviously Made Up Fact About IPA:

With pale malt attracting a premium price, some London brewers tried to brew IPA
with dark malts instead. The export market, however, was non-existent as no-one was
dumb enough to buy a beer called Black IPA.




One last point I have to mention - seven quid postage and it took eight days to arrive. Meantime, other merchant's orders arrived within 24 hours and cost less to ship. Brewdog need to raise their game in the delivery department.