I've a few bottles of BrewDog beers left from my secret stash. The two bottles of Paradox are waiting for a specific occasion, but I'm popping the rest as the muse takes me. So here's another; BrewDog Punk IPA. A crystal clear pale amber with a tight white head, the aroma is mouthwatering, suggesting great big wadges of grapefruit. This of course made me expect masses of grapefruit on the tongue, but I found the hops presented a more floral effect. It's pretty perfumey, admittedly with snatches of sorbet-like grapefruit, and it leaves a bite at the back of the throat. The finish is a lonnnng pithy bitterness but, again, with a lingering perfume-like character. Certainly not something I'd have as a session beer, even though at 6.1% the alcohol content wouldn't put me off having a load of such beers, but surprisingly, for me, I just don't think I'd like that perfumey character all night. So far this has been my least favourite BrewDog beer, but then it has pretty stiff competition.
Monday, 6 July 2009
BrewDog Punk IPA
I've a few bottles of BrewDog beers left from my secret stash. The two bottles of Paradox are waiting for a specific occasion, but I'm popping the rest as the muse takes me. So here's another; BrewDog Punk IPA. A crystal clear pale amber with a tight white head, the aroma is mouthwatering, suggesting great big wadges of grapefruit. This of course made me expect masses of grapefruit on the tongue, but I found the hops presented a more floral effect. It's pretty perfumey, admittedly with snatches of sorbet-like grapefruit, and it leaves a bite at the back of the throat. The finish is a lonnnng pithy bitterness but, again, with a lingering perfume-like character. Certainly not something I'd have as a session beer, even though at 6.1% the alcohol content wouldn't put me off having a load of such beers, but surprisingly, for me, I just don't think I'd like that perfumey character all night. So far this has been my least favourite BrewDog beer, but then it has pretty stiff competition.
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3 comments:
I enjoyed the Punk when I first had it, although I think it has been superseded by Chaos Theory.
It's been a while since I had Punk IPA, but my overall impression was one of harsh bitterness with no real malt backbone. I remember saying that it was an excellent example of how not to do an IPA. Was I a bit harsh? Has it improved maybe?
If that's how you felt, then you were not harsh. I have to say, I felt the same about the Hardcore IPA when I first had it. I thought it was just lots of bitterness and pretty one-dimensional. However, I had it again recently and it was actually rather nice. A lot better than I recalled. So, either the beer is changing a bit, or our tastes are. You know I like hops, but I don't like just harsh bitterness for the sake of it, and given I'm drinking mostly Germsan beers I should be more sensitive to extreme hoppiness, but in fact the BrewDogs I've had recently have been reasonably well balanced.
I think BrewDog push the boat out (literally in the case of Atlantic IPA) and play a bit, so I wonder if they tweak the recipe based on feedback. A lot of the labels hint that "you're not worthy" and it'll blow your tongue away with the extreme flavours and bitterness kinda thing, but I don't get that really, at least not recently.
Try it again and see if you think it's changed. I'm curious now.
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