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.
I enjoyed the Punk when I first had it, although I think it has been superseded by Chaos Theory.
ReplyDeleteIt'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?
ReplyDeleteIf 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.