Category Archives: Scotland

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), American Double IPA, Beer Reviews, BrewDog, Scotland

BrewDog Born To Die 27.11.15

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Brewery: BrewDog
Country: Scotland
ABV: 8.5%
Style: American Double IPA
Other Notes: 100 IBUs. Malts – Extra Pale, Marris Otter and Pale. Hops – Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Imagine knowing how long you have to live. What would you do? Spend some time alone gathering your thoughts, before bowing out quietly, into the night? Or would you spend every last minute rocking out, burning your way through your last days on earth, then go out with a bang?

This savage IPA was born to die. Its mayfly existence has a solitary purpose – to be a kick-ass celebration of the power of hops. Born To Die is bitter as hell, super dry, and at its best as soon as you pick it up. If our existence truly is but a brief crack of light between two immensities of darkness, you should spend it drinking beer as awesome as this.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.62
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 660ml bottle born to die on 27th November 2015 and hence poured into a Duvel tulip glass and drank on such day.
Appearance: It poured an extremely clear golden colour with a frothy one finger white head. Retention is not so good but there is some minimal stringy and dotty lacing.
Aroma: Strong tropical aromas of pineapple and mango with hints of citrus lemon, orange and pine at the finish.
Taste: Starts out with some lemon, grapefruit and pine bitterness but the finish was sweet honey with hints of bready and caramel malts. It was perhaps a bit too sweet for me at the end.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with medium carbonation.
Overall: Maybe my expectation was too high to begin with? But actually, it poured fantastically clear and the aromas were stunning. But tasting was where it started to go down. It just wasn’t as bitter as I hoped for a DIPA and the finish was just overly sweet for my liking.

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4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Black Isle Brewing Co., Scotland, Smoked Beer

Black Isle Smoked Porter 2014 (small batch)

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Brewery: Black Isle Brewing Co.
Country: Scotland
ABV: 5.5%
Style: Smoked Beer
Other Notes: aka Black Isle Organic Smoked Oktobeer.

Brewer Description: (from website) Initially brewed for Jocktoberfest, where it was by far the biggest selling cask beer, we thought we would make this more widely available for those that missed out (this does not mean that if you were present at the event that you can’t relive the experience in the comfort of your own armchair!)

This is a blend of German roasted malts and our local smoked barley which might even put a smile on a disgruntled German Chancellor’s face. Balance is what this little beauty is about, something that takes great skill from the brew team and boy they have achieved it here in bucket loads, or we should say conditioning tank loads, one to be specific.. and even then not a full one.

Grab it while you can, it won’t be around forever.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.9
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: A 330ml bottle from the 2014 small batch, bottle number 6488 of 8480 with a best before end date of October 2015. It was poured into a pint glass.
Appearance: It poured a dark brown with a thinnish cream tanned head that did not stick around too long.
Aroma: Aromas of roasted malts with a bit of chocolate, licorice and slight peat smoke.
Taste: Starts slightly sweet caramel and chocolate maybe even some toffee, but finish is definitely smoky, bitter and lingering ash.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with light carbonation
Overall: I’ve had quite a few smoked beers before and although this was not at the top, it was still pretty good. I would buy this again.

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