BrewDog Paradox Islay (Batch 009)

Brewed by BrewDog
Style: Imperial Stout
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

(Bottle, Batch 009, BB 22/03/09) Pours a dark brown body with a spare beige head. Aroma of peat, oak, tar, campfire, earthiness, caramel and unsweetened chocolate. Flavor of peaty scotch, roasted malt, some chocolate, and dry wood in the finish.

OSLO and Guerde’s Memorial Weekend Tasting, 5/23/08. Rating #2900: Last beer of the night and #2900! Black color with a thin head. Strong peat, salt and iodine aroma. A massive blast of peat flavor. Salt water and slightly astringent malt. I think Guerde correctly stated ’catfish’. Good, but definitely not what I had expected. Even though I ended up buying this bottle at Zipp’s in Minneapolis, I’d like to thank Magic_Dave6 for shipping me the other two bottles I have before this stuff was distributed here. Thanks man!

Bottle. Black colour with a medium creamy head, Aroma and taste of roasted malt, coffee and licorice with strong whiskey notes. Lasting finish.

Bottled @ Aarhus beerfestival 2008. Not sure about which batch, but I assume the newest. Dark color. Aroma of malt, loads of peat, smoke, tar, whisky. Peaty medicine taste, slight alcohol, bit dry.

Sampled at OSLO/Guerde’s Memorial Day tasting. Shared by Badgerben. Pours an opaque dark brown brew with a thin off-white head that quickly dissolves to a fine film and no ring. Aroma of peated toasted black malt, some coffee, dark chocolate, and smoked wood. Taste is full bodied, toasted dark malt, strong coffee, and some alcohol, black licorice, and a touch of black pepper. Finish remains the dark coffee and peat aftertaste that lingers after the finish.

Bottle. Head is initially small, frothy, brown, mostly diminishing. Body is dark brown to black. Aroma is moderately malty (burnt grain, chocolate), with notes of ashes, campfire smoke / burnt wood, seaweed/brine. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Medium to full body, velvety/syrupy texture, lively/soft carbonation, moderately alcoholic. While not an exact copy of Batch 8, it’s very similar, as one might expect. The burnt/acrid aroma is less harsh here, but the overall enjoyment level isn’t significantly better. The sad thing is I like smoked beers just peachy, but this is really rough. And I even had a dram of Laphroaig 15 last night to re-acquaint myself with extreme Islay character, and I liked that ok...these Islay beers from BrewDog are another matter.

Bottle, thanks to Bu11zeye. Poured brown with tan head, ok retention. Aroma of whisky & oak. Flavor is somewhat musky, almost seems old, probably because of fresher chared barrels then batch 008 I recently rated right before this bottle, perhaps because of the charring on barrel still being fresher. Has light-medium body with medium carbonation......It’s pretty good, but batch 008 was much better...

Sample at Aarhus beerfestival. Nice head with good duration. Color is black. Aroma and taste are roast malt, chocolate, licorice, whisky and smoke.