Turfed out

I'm sure I remember drinking a beer made from 100% peat malt before. I think it was at a beer festival in Copenhagen but searching through my notes on this blog -- which is what it's for -- I can't find it. Anyway, here's another, or possibly my first: Rex Attitude from Yeastie Boys. It's one of their New Zealand-brewed beers and I picked it up at Rascals HQ so I'm guessing it was shipped or muled over as part of the Krush Groove collaboration earlier this year.

Officially a golden ale, it's more of an orange amber colour, while 7% ABV suggests they did not skimp on the smoky malt. The aroma is not the explosion in a kipper factory that I feared, being pleasingly, wholesomely peaty, like walking into a picturesque highland village on a frosty winter's morn. The flavour has more of a poke. There's an almost lager-like base, clean and crisp, and presumably designed to give the special effects maximum impact. And impact they do: phenols on steroids, TCP on PCP, sod's law. Though it's light-bodied and doesn't feel anything like its strength, there's a concentrated liquid smoke essence thing going on, coating the palate and leaving no room for anything else. The label warns you, and then fully delivers on that threat.

I quite liked it. It's very silly, though I contend it's still drinkable and quite cleverly designed. One small bottle was plenty though, and there was no way I was going to drink anything else on the same evening. I commend this to anyone who has a high tolerance threshold for smoke flavours in beer, and issue a stern warning to those who do not.