Brewdog Dead Pony Club

Why cant I get this in a shop nearer to me?


Brewdog's 'Dead Pony Club' a 3.8% American Pale Ale, which absolutely kicks even though its deceased, expired, bereft of life, ceased to be.

Beautifully light pine and grapefruit hops aroma, a light breeze floating in, sucks you in.

Light in the mouth, but sings around it, well carbonated, there's a slight herbal edge but fruit and pine crash in, alongside mango and some spice. With the Simcoe and Citra hops you get the bitterness it needs, but really this is a great beer considering the abv.
Certainly one of their best 'regular' beers, just wished I could get it more easily.

SainsburysTap Room Brewing Co. beers

Two beers bought from Sainsbury's recently when in London, both in the 'Taste the Difference' range and made for them by the Tap Room Brewing Co. from Rochester, New York.

First up was the American Pale Ale, 5.3%  355mls, 'pale Ale US craft beer' described as having a ' complex hop aroma with deep flavours'.
Mmm, think I would have to question that.
There was little hop aroma, it was more malty toffee sweetness, very little bitterness. On plus side, good carbonation, nice head, but far too easy to drink, there was nothing in it to savour and hold in the mouth or contemplate.

When I logged into my Untappd feed I commented 'Rather dull, where's the hops?' so obviously that was my immediate impression. Tellingly someone commented back 'Exactly what I thought'.




 
Onto the second from the range, the IPA. Must admit at this point I was not hopeful.

Its 6.3%, 355mls, had an aroma that was cream, toffee and some spice to it.
 Again good carbonation and good head, this was a bit better although thin in the mouth. It had a better balance of the malt, some fruitness and spice, but rather light on the bitterness, at least there was some in this beer though.



When I bought these I also picked up a Brewdog Dead Pony Club which is 3.8% American Pale Ale which kicks this two beers all over the park, in every aspect.

Tesco (and Aldi) beers offers

The Tesco 4 for £5 seems to be back on, stocking up for Xmas for £1.25 a bottle seems like a good idea.

Most of the main shelf fillers, Fullers, Badger, Thwaites, Adnams, Brains, are on offer, plus many others. One new to the shelves and in the offer is Bath Ales 'Ginger Hare'. Some good winter warmers included are Adnams Broadside, Fullers ESB and 1845, and Morelands 'Old Crafty Hen' which normally retails at £2.79!

Brewdog's Punk IPA is also on the offer which means 4 bottles is currently cheaper than you can get their Punk four pack cans at Sainsbury's.
Also new was cans of Sapporo 'imported', which are huge, 600mls + and look very special, just like the price of £2.25, but seriously, check out the can!

As well as some of the above i predict a few Thwaites Wainwright and Fullers Bengal Lancer might be sitting in my shed before too long.

Also popping into my inbox was news that Aldi this week are stocking Banks's Ultimate Curry Beer!! I checked it out on ratebeer i see no reviews for the bottles for over 5 years, a line revived from the back of the brewery obviously. £1.49, 500mls, it used to be 5.3%, wonder what it will be now.

Brewdog Alice Porter

Another welcome addition to the Tesco shelves is Brewdog's Alice Porter. Its a 6.2% abv 330ml bottle of a 'Baltic Porter', looks stylish with an off red colouring, kinda looks the colour of some of my autumn  raspberries currently growing in my plot.

This looks almost black in the glass, held up its the darkest of browns at the edges topped with a great light creamy brown head.

Its aroma is a little muted at first, you notice more as you further in. I got some deep fruits and caramel, coffee, and later the vanilla beans come forward alongside some alcohol.






Medium body, and a herbal taste is one of the first things i notice, coming with caramel and coffee again, those rich fruits, and chocolate although only a little bit. There's a woody bitterness and it lingers.


This was very good, i really enjoyed it. And it surprises you initially as your expecting the usual Brewdog assault with flavours in your mouth but its calmer than that and therefore you prolong the pleasure. 

The perfect camping beer?

Last week i was away on holiday, down in Dorset with my folks, with some camping thrown in. We stayed outside Weymouth, had good weather and compostable toilets. Yup, they were real nice.

Anyway in planning the trip, supplies etc we were planning to stop at a Sainsburys near my Dads. This meant i could buy and have room for, in my insanely full car, very little beer (what with the kids needing food and all).
But i was sure i could get hold of the perfect camping beer. Small enough to pack in little spaces, fresh tasting to match with the great outdoors, strong enough for a couple to mellow your mind as you relaxed and gazed into the campfire.

the answer?

plastic beaker sir?

Kids in bed, sound asleep after running around a field in the fresh air all day, the darkness drawing in and the sight of campfires springing up beside almost every tent. The smell of sausages drifting on the air.
Relaxing with a beaker was heavenly, the peach and mango aroma, medium body that sings with fruit, bitterness, peaches, pineapple, soothing, my cares and stresses melting away into the flames licking around the logs.  

the cans fit perfectly under the car seat too.

Brewdog Abstrakt AB04

I've had this in the shed for a good six months after i bought it on ebay - and for the same price as it was originally sold for so no profiteering by the seller then.
One of the Abstrakt range, limited edition beers from Brewdog, this one was brewed as an 'Imperial Stout with coffee, cocoa, Naga chilies (the hottest in the world), and champagne yeast.' and 15% abv!

Yes its a big picture. Its a bloody big beer!!

After needing my penknife pliers to finish opening the bottle as the wire cage snapped halfway through unwinding i got the cork out. Loads of smoke from the bottle, it poured a large dark creamy brown head although that soon disappeared to leave the smallest of rings on the top.

There is certainly heat from the aroma, the chilli spice is upfront and reminds me of the strong chillies i've  planted, grown and prepared. There is also vanilla and oak, and the coffee is big too (as a non coffee drinker its so noticeable).
Colour is so black, as black as the soul of a japanese manga artist. And it has such an oily viscosity too.
Taste is also heat, coffee, chocolate, oak (again, as a person who cannot stand oak aged wines, it stood out alot) and cigars. A short but noticeable capsicum tingle.

Sipped slowly it was a little hard work getting through to the end, not to say it was not enjoyable, sometimes you see the word 'complex' over-used a lot about beers but i think in this case its very apt.

Was it worth the tenner they sell it for? Probably not but i do not feel robbed, I've payed alot less for bottles and felt hard done with what i got. It was an experience and an interesting one at that. Would i buy another one in the range if i had the opportunity? Quite possibly yes.

Beer round up no.2

A bit of a round up post, featuring a few beers I've had over the last few weeks but not featured in any posts, so i can now get onto the new bottles sitting waiting, so here goes......

Picked up a couple from Morrison's, including Everards 'Beacon Bitter', and one from my neck of the woods, Ringwoods 'Boondoggle'
After a 12 1/2hr shift i welcomed the Beacon bitter, pounced on it, and drained it down quickly. Classic copper in colour, faint fruit aroma with malty background, 3.8% abv. Mellow bitterness, alongside its toffee hints on a medium body. Good standard bitter, not much wrong with it.

Ringwood's 'Boondoggle' is one i remember having on cask many many years ago, you dont forget that name really. 5% abv which is apparently strong than on cask, light golden in colour, its a 'blonde beer' that has the aroma of a honey beer, sweet and floral. Taste wise its sweet but with a dry bitterness, lemon, digestive biscuit malt. Overall though it wasn't one that impressed me, it was like a bad Badger beer, overly sweet and floral, wouldn't buy it again i'm afraid, Ringwood do produce much better beers than this normally.

Black Sheep do good beers. Fact. 'Square ale', 'Golden sheep' and 'Riggwelter' - good bottled beers. Riggwelter is a 5.7% strong Yorkshire ale, a marvelously chewy toffee ale, cracking beer. Rich roasted malts, strong dark fruits, a sweetness bordering on treacle flavored. A nice coffee bitterness in there too, medium to heavy bodied, really enjoyable.


Brewdog's 8% Rip Tide stout was a nice drop but a little bit of a let down if truth be told. Black, black, black in the glass with tan coloured head. A little thin in the mouth which was a surprise, coffee, chocolate malts, licorice. I think i was expecting something a little more 'bombastic' from it than it actually gave, hence feeling underwhelmed.

 Young's Double Chocolate Stout, relatively famous beer in most respects, and another that features in the "best beers in the world" books with some regularity. So was quite looking forward to this one, open it and got a well carbonated black pint, little frothy off white head. Smooth, chocolate and some spice aroma, surprisingly noticeable hop presence. Again i was a little underwhelmed with it, if anything the milk chocolate was a little too sickly sweet for me.

Coniston Brewing Co.'s Bluebird Bitter, award winning and very drinkable. As you can see from the photo i just about left some in the glass before i remembered to shoot it! Golden straw colour, malty aroma with sweet fruit sweetness. Taste was very good, bready, malt, but also a floral and hoppy element. There also seems to be a little apple and maybe banana in there too? I would certainly like to try this on cask if given the opportunity.

 
Finally the other night i tried the Weihenstephan Kristall Weissbier. Very refreshing, crisp, dry, very carbonated as you can see. As you'd expect it has banana, clove, yeasty, and bubble gum sweetness. Lovely, not much wrong with it, again best on a hot day i would imagine.

A Paulaner Oktoberfest, De Koninck, and a Brewdog Zeitgeist

A couple more from the bottle box i picked up the other day, this time my first Oktoberfest beer, and a well known name - De Koninck. And then one i found on the shelf for the first time in a Tesco's near me, namely Brewdog Zeitgeist. Which is a little weird as i had only just read the night before The Baron's review of this beer. And he made it sound like i would be stupid to leave it on the shelf.

So Saturday whilst watching last Sunday's Zen, which was rather good, i opened the zeitgeist (330mls, 4.9% abv). Great label, very cool looking, nice artwork. In the glass its a deep deep brown almost black body, very little head. It has a slightly sweet berry flavour and a light chocolate bitterness, a light creamy body. This was very enjoyable, I'll pick up some more definitely.

Last night i opened the other two mentioned above, firstly the Paulaner Oktoberfest which was a refreshing start to the evening, its golden body shimmering through the glass, with good carbonation. Aroma was sweet, honey and some malt. Taste was again slightly malty with a light syrupy quality. It was not bad and i could see if i was given a few more they would go down quickly, although i suspect and i'm not sure why but this is the sort of beer that stinking hangover's are made from.



I moved onto the De Koninck next, a small 25cl bottle at 5% abv, which apparently when they filtered and pasteurized it, they had the taste filtered out too. Its strange, its not a bad beer, very drinkable but i was struggling to find any aroma or flavours at all. Very carbonated, little head, as it warmed a little there was a crisp apple aroma but that was it. Taste wise it had the faintest hint of sweet malt and caramel, very little alcohol for a 5% beer. Strangely also it had a medium body, i would have thought it would be thinner. Perhaps i missing something in this. Still as a refreshing evening beer its easy, an uncomplicated drink that went down well.


Edited 10/1/11 for spelling. I will be definitely be picking up more zeitgeist, not defiantly picking it up. Although Brewdog probably like the defiance element. 

Statitics damn statitics

I suppose all beer tickers are statisticians to some degree, even if its keeping a running list in their head of which beers by which brewery they have and have not tried. Whilst i dont keep a log or such, online i obviously keep this blog and probably more comprehensively my Flickr account, notably my beer sets.

I have linked to my blog the free eXTReMe tracker which shows traffic to this site and where it originated, and of course Blogger have their own 'stats' section on your dashboard. And i'll happily admit to some sort of blogger vanity in occassionaly checking these out to see if anyone is reading this crap!

Conclusion - if you want traffic post about Brewdog. That word alone should be increasing my page views as you read it.

Not including this one i have written 38 posts, and only two specifically about their beers here and here, but also have mentioned them in a couple of other posts, notably beer festival ones.
When i looked at the stats from eXTReMe, specifically keywords searched that led traffic here the top six were :  ipa, double, tesco, american, brewdog and finest. Can you make a beer out of that??!!  Those six account for 61.9% of all the keywords used.

On my Blogger stats the Tesco/Brewdog post, as the most popular, has just over 3 times the number of views than the 2nd most viewed (the Preseli Brewery one which surprises me). The Brewdog website 'Equity for Punks' for their share holders led to most of the traffic here (again three times the next listed) where someone posted a link to me following the Tesco release.

So there you go, increase your blog traffic by mentioning Brewdog. Or post sexy ladies, thats works too. Or both, which if we all did would i believe implode the internet.

What i do find odd i that since i posted the Samual Smith Oatmeal Stout review its picture on Flickr has become my highest viewed photo, twice as many views as ay other photo, and thats all photos not just beer ones.

Tesco Finest Brewdog American Double IPA

Yes thats right, a Tesco Finest Brewdog beer collaboration!!!

On my weekly shop this morning and amongst the almost never ever changing line up on the shelves was a new bottle. I noticed first the labeling and almost mistook it for the newish Brains   IPA  bottles until i saw the Tesco Finest label at the bottom.

Tesco Finest Brewdog American Double IPA

Produced for Tesco by Brewdog its a 330ml 9.2% American Double IPA and yours for £2. None of the usual Brewdog ethos or angsty spiel on the bottle, just lets you know that its an american craft style with west coast hops, lots of them. Must of been an interesting meeting between their buyer and the brewdogs guys i reckon!

I have never had any US craft beers or any double IPA's before but from the beer blogs i'm expecting massive hops and bitterness from this, and i really enjoyed their Punk IPA.

Its has the aroma of unsurprisingly grapefruit, melon and a wiff of alcohol, its colour is light amber (doesn't come across in this photo) with a small creamy white head. It also has the massive hops bitterness, fairly low alcohol warmth hit, and there is some caramel and floral aspects too.  So one sided though, its all hops and nothing else, not sure i would have more than one just because its not that its not interesting, its just unbalanced to my mind. It in no way seems like a 9.2% beer though, and i just wish Brewdog put more of their other beers on Tesco's shelves.

Brewdog Punk IPA

Punk IPA and a Scelidosaurus.

If your someone who just likes to drink beer, buys from supermarkets or local convenience shops and doesn't read beer media then you may not be aware of Brewdog apart from what you see on the shelves.
I suppose that depends on how successful they have been getting into mainstream media and judging by their last efforts 'The End of History' thats pretty good.
On the shelves i see Punk IPA, in a 330ml bottle at the same price as most of the 500ml bottles. Now before i knew who they were and that they made pretty well regarded beer i would be in two minds about buying any of the bottles. Actually though not two minds for very long, i would discount it quickly. If i can get a Fullers/Badger/Adnams beer, good beer and 170mls more for the same money that seemed a no brainer to me.
However i have been meaning to try one of their beers now for a while and last week Tesco's reduced the Punk IPA 4 bottle pack to £3.43, or 85p a bottle so no excuses any more.

Is there any point doing a review? you've all drunk it too haven't you?
Just to say i loved the big flavour, the way the massive bitterness brings it on, tropical fruits and glorious colour.

Been tweaking the blog design also, better i think.