BrewDog Storm

Formerly brewed at BrewDog
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

This ranks among the very worst beers I have ever seen. One of the most annoying things is that I paid good money for this vile concoction. At $9 for a 12 oz bottle this has to rank with one of the great rip-offs of all time. It poured a hazy cross between yellow and green with almost no head and no lacing. Uh oh was my first reaction. Then the first sniff was enough to set me back on my heels again,. Very difficult to describe, but try to imagine a combination of moldy leaves, rotting grass, and rotten fish soaked in turpentine . The mouthfeel seems like bad scotch with a burning sensation that made you want to reach for a water chaser. The flavor is even worse than the aroma if you can imagine that, with the taste of spoiled irish whisky filtered through old underwear with a plethora of ugly flavors that are mostly unidentifiable.. The finish is like, well, maybe battery acid. I cannot believe a brewery that can make good beer could produce something this awful.

Bottle says "Best Before 02/10". Oops / No head / Big, dramatic, nose of scotch and wood / Medium body, mellow with no carbonation, malty and fruity but astringent, with dry, bitter, finish / Flavors of scotch barrel, smoke, peat, and apple cider / A contrary view - very odd, but I enjoyed it. I would not expect an ipa to age well, but this one did. BrewDog is never dull. If you are the type that has a difficult time explaining to friends why "manure" is a desirable flavor in beer, this might be worth checking out.

Bottle (rated sometime in 2008). Head is initially small, frothy/fizzy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is medium yellow. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), trace hops (flowers), with strong notes of creosote, ash, smoke. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter, unclean. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic. Little more than liquid ashes.

Bottle split with mcberko. Pours a hazy orange with no head at all. Aroma of perfume, smoke, peat, whiskey and charred wood. Flavour of ashtray, dominated by an odd, lingering smoke flavour and light whiskey notes. No typical IPA characteristics present. Should be a smoked ale or something. Smokey flavours leave a dry mouthfeel. Similar to morning-after heavy night smoking. Not pleasant.

THOUGHTS: Ambitious, but I don’t think it worked. It was sort of like watery whiskey. Might have been a little skunked. It’s either that or this was a really bad beer. I didn’t really get much of the hops. They were there but not as much as necessary for a good IPA. This was really the wrong treatment for this beer style. I’m glad they retired this one. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a medium, pale, hazy, brownish amber that looked a little like dirty water. It might even be called peach. It had a very small, almost soapy looking head that was too small to determine what color it was. The head completely diminished but somehow left fair to good lacing. The aroma had light hops that showed hints of tropical fruit; moderate to heavy dusty and slightly musty yeast; cask wood, smoke and whiskey. The initial flavor was lightly sweet; while the finish was moderately sweet and slightly bitter with a fairly long duration. There was tropical fruitiness of hops, watery whiskey, a lot of wood, some smoke and then some hop bitterness from tropical fruit and berries along with a little metallic hops. The light to medium body was dry with soft carbonation and a lightly metallic and slightly alcoholic finish.

Bottle, half off from Sam’s. Pours weird orange, slightly pinkish gray, hazy and without any head. Nose of heather, peat, and British hops. Weird. Taste is also super scotchy. So weird it’s hard not to keep trying. Like scotch, though, it’s borderline offensive at first but gets progressively tastier.

UPDATED: OCT 18, 2011 12 oz. bottle, split with Matts_Property, pours a murky orange with pretty much no head. Aroma of whiskey, lots of smoke, / peat, and wood - nothing like an IPA. Flavour brings out tons of smoke and whiskey, with the smoke lingering. Why even bother to age an IPA when none of the original IPA qualities will remain? Brewdog haven’t exactly concocted a good one here. Barely drinkable.

Pours a cloudy golden orange color with no head. Undercarbonated. Strong whiskey aroma with pine and hops. Somewhat flat flavor with whiskey, caramel, grapefruit, and pine. Very unusual, but drinkable.

Poured light in color. NO head on an aggressive pour. Very little carbonation. Was very pleasant on the nose... but nearly undrinkable. Bitter, metallic, artificial fruit. I poured the last 20% down the sink. I was hoping it would tasted better when it warmed. It did slightly but still very UNpleasant.