Hop Rocker, 77, Fake: BrewDog has had a number of goes at the pale lager category and none of them has impressed me much. The latest attempt is called This. Is. Lager. and was launched last summer. Understandably wary, I decided to give it a head start by drinking it on a sunny afternoon after mowing the lawn, when little is demanded of a lager other than refreshment.And I think it exceeded the minimum requirements of the task. Yes it was wet, and cold and crisply fizzy but there's also enough malt body to avoid being hollow or watery. The hops, meanwhile, are in that East Kent Goldilocks zone of imparting a refreshing bitter bite -- grassy, slightly metallic -- lasting long on the palate but without being overpowering. While the body is dense enough to pass for higher than 4.7% ABV, it's not any way sweet or bready. Most of all, the classic lager cleanness infuses the whole making it an absolutely perfect patio quaffer. Put it in a grown-up serving size and you'd have a rival for Pilsner Urquell.
From there to a more recent release from the Scottish brewery: Born To Die, an 8.5% ABV double IPA. Colourwise, it's not that different from the lager, the clear bright yellow a refreshing change in a world where double IPAs tend to be heavy, soupy, orange beasts. The aroma is very, er, BrewDog: a punky blitz of ripe mango, pine resin and dank, with maybe just a whisper of heat, hinting at the high ABV. That strength gets hidden in the fruit-forward flavour. It sings an innocent carefree rhyme of apricots and mandarins with only a slight bitter pinch on the end followed by a dry savoury finish. No heat, no chewiness, just a pure clean surface for the hop fun. I sipped slowly to savour it, not because it was hard going.I think I can see why the brewery is making a big fuss of this beer's fragility: when the hops die off there isn't going to be any character to replace them; it will not, like some double IPAs, grow up into a decent barley wine. Though that said I'm not about to spend another €11 to test that theory.
Top stuff all round from BrewDog. These plucky kids will do well.
You honestly think that stuff is a rival for Pilsner Urquell? This is Lager isn't terrible, but it's not a tenth of the beer that PU is.
ReplyDeleteIt's an assessment based on one 33cl bottle consumed in the sunshine, but yes, it did a lot of the same things Urquell does for me.
DeleteHave to agree with TBN here, T.I.L. has that buttery, mineral quality and snappy, grassy bite that makes me instantly think of Urquell. Definitely my favourite of their attempts at a lager so far.
DeleteI liked Hop Rocker back when they first did it back in 2008 but suspect that was just the novelty.
DeleteThis is Lager certainly does have the buttery-ness but the rest of the PU experience is missing so it ends up tasting not quite right. I've only had it once, mind. Two pints in Chancery Lane Spoons soon after they introduced it. Never been tempted to try it again.
As good as PU? I will have to hunt this down. When you say PU which version do you mean? The bottled pasteurised stuff?
ReplyDeleteThinking more of the kegged one.
DeleteIt might not do much for you knowing PU as well as you do, and (almost) at source -- Evan Rail wasn't much impressed.
DeleteFor our part, we don't get any similarities to PU, but we do think it's very nicely done, at least by UK standards, and in similar territory to St Austell Korev and Camden Hells.
At no point does he say "as good as".
DeleteWoah woah woah: let's not lose the run of ourselves. It's good, but it's no Korev.
ReplyDelete