BrewDog Punk IPA

Brewed by BrewDog
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

A fruity aroma with hops & lychee predominant. This beer looks like it might be a bit lightweight...however, as it goes down, this beer starts to punch it’s weight. and become’s a champion that is not easily forgotten or gotten over in a hurry. The bitterness stays on the palate for ages and the hoppiness gets better and better.

Well, IPA is my favorite style, and this is one of the best ones. The thing I like best about it is that they pour on the hops until any sane person would say it’s way too much... then they double them! Bright golden color with a persistent white head and lots of lacing. Nose is of bread and yeast with strong notes of floral and fruit. Taste is wonderfully complex with notes of bread, grape, banana, citrus, berries, wood, hop, and spice. Finish is in-your-face deliciously bitter over-the-top hop. This is an assertive punk!

2009-09-25, draught at Ølbaren, Copenhagen, 9-5-8-5-18=45
Hazy golden color, with medium rocky head. It has a strong grassy and earthy hop aroma, some manure, light fruity hops, light aroma of breadcrumbs too. Good mouthfeel, good malt flavor, light residual sweetness; earthy hops, giving a strong bitterness and some resins too. Quite different from the bottle, smoother, rounder, maltier, less green. On tap it’s a great beer!

2008-04-12, bottle, 8-3-8-5-16=40
Blond color, with a grey-greenish hue like a white wine. It has a very nice aroma: delicate hop, fruity (white grapes), Saaz perfume, and light crispy malt. It has a very good crispy malt flavor, dry, with a hint of cookies, and a very strong bitterness, quality hopping. Excellent.

An actual beer this time. They other ones they do are amazing. LIke a 10% stout with wine and whisky. This one is a pale beer very hoppy. I had 4 pints.

Bottle from The Store, Edinburgh. (Also tasted the cask version at Edinburgh Beer Festival.) Pours gorgeously with a small clean head which has remarkable staying power. Wonderful Aroma of Grapefruit, Passionfruit and american fruitty hops. amazingly smooth for a 6% beer - drinks more like a 4% one! Nice initial malty sweetness before the enduring biterness bites in - amazinf tropical fruit hoppy finish. Could drink this all night long! very reminiscent of classic American IPAs.

Cask at the Rake, London. I’ve had this before in a bottle, and I’m sure it was better from the cask. The powerful tropical fruit flavours give way to to a very nice long bitter finish. It may not be as good as the much mourned Stone California Double IPA, but it’s the next best thing from a British brewery.

33cl bottle at Chris Shindig. I had this a couple of times as I couldn’t make my mind up. Pale gold, bit of stale hay, bit of lychee, has got a lot of hops. Lots of hot hop on the end. The second bottle I had was colder and better. Nice hop. 3.4/5 Rerate cask at Coastguard, Bottle from Utobeer. Up against Jaipur as Britain’s best IPA? Creamy hop aroma, quite a light intense hop if that makes sense, good top hop notes. Great in moouth, really wide and great condition. Finish is stunning. Hot pepper green hop is floral and hot at the same time.

This beer was subject of a debate between me and my drinking buddy Paul - which is better, a "Premium" IPA (eg Greene King, Deuchars) or a strong IPA like this or Meantime? No question - this has all of the flavours you’d expect, hoppy, light, not too malty, and at the same time all of the flavour. Those guys up at Brewdog are freakin’ genius.