Running dogs

Today it's one of my occasional glances at some of the many BrewDog beers coming and going on the local market at the moment. There's no particular pattern to the selection.

Pale Ale is first. Wot no adolescent garage band name? This is a recent addition to their core range, sorry, "Headliners", replacing the rightfully much-derided Indie from a couple of years back. This, too, is 4.2% ABV but it brings a proper hop game, with Chinook, Citra and Simcoe. It's a reasonably clear pale amber and has a decent level of thickness on the palate; not watery and with just enough fizz to propel the hop fun. The aroma is lightly spritzy; inviting without being loud, while the flavour neatly combines cloudy lemonade and grapefruit juice with a danker funky side, but also some juicy mango and peach. It's complex enough to keep this beer nerd interested, while also easy-going, unfussy and well suited to by-the-pint drinking. Not very rock 'n' roll, but solidly decent.

I didn't know what to expect from Jagged Edge "spiky India Pale Ale" but the name and description intrigued me. It's 5.1% ABV and in the glass it's almost clear, hazed up a little with floaty bits. The aroma is mild but pleasantly tropical, in a non-committal way. It commits on tasting but I'm not entirely sure what to. The tropical fruit is there to an extent, in contravention of the can's "to the bitter end" promise. Rather than bitter it's dry -- the intense tannins of over-stewed and undrinkable tea. Then there's kind of a sulphurous rubbery twang on the end: too much boing to be spiky. Whatever new vista of beer flavour they were trying to unlock with this one, it hasn't quite worked. It's all just a bit busy, with the soft fruity hops and the hard acidic ones pulling in opposite directions. You'd be better off with Punk.

Speaking of which, the latest brand extension of the brewery's flagship is Double Punk. Kind of amazing it's taken this long. 8.2% ABV is pretty standard for one of these, and I'm deliberately not going to go comparing it to Punk even though it has the same hops or whatever. Appearance-wise it looks identical to Jagged Edge, floaty bits and all. The aroma is pure American grapefruit: what I would regard as the epitome of classic west-coast hopping. It carries that through to the flavour, presenting dry and acidic on the tongue, with just a buzz of dank resins in the background to offer some complexity. I enjoyed how straightforward it was: big hops, no messing.  It's very clean for the strength too, and although it's quite weighty and built for sipping, it's not hot. The only thing that really slows you down is the bitterness. And if you can't handle that then you shouldn't have chosen a double IPA.

I do like a sour IPA so wasn't going to pass on Fake Empire, badged as a hazy version of same. It's not too cloudy; translucent rather than opaque. The aroma is juicy satsuma, with a hint of tartness, but no more than you'd expect from an actual citrus fruit. The flavour is clean and, yes, juicy again. Technically it's sour, I suppose, but very gently so. If the intention was simply to accentuate the hop-fruit effect, then that worked. There's a pinch of lemon zest with the orange, but it's still only a light bitterness. Overall, this is balanced, accessible and very drinkable, if unnecessarily strong at 6.2% ABV. While I enjoyed it, I prefer sour IPAs to have more of a bite than was on offer here. Juice fiends will lap it up, however.

A big stout to finish: Layer Cake. This is 7% ABV and sports a huge sticky pink marshmallow flavour, with a soft texture to match. Chocolate brownie, cocoa nibs and vanilla are also promised but there's really not much chocolate in here, and zero stout for that matter. I searched for nuance: some roast, a little coffee? No, just the vanilla beans, adding a different kind of sweetness. This is a pure gimmicky novelty and barely a beer. Thankfully it's not very thick, which goes some way to keep the cloying side in check, but it's still not easy going. A full can would be a big ask. I'm OK with silly dessert beers when they're fun, but this wasn't even that. Hard pass.

What have we learned? BrewDog is still out there even if they're not in the beer headlines every day. And they still brew some very decent beers, alongside a spirit of experimentation that doesn't always hit the mark.