Brewdog - IPA is Dead 2013

IPA is Dead 2013

Well, it's been a while since my last post - all of my writing time recently has been devoted to my Masters dissertation which is now finished & handed in so I finally have some spare time on my hands once more!

To celebrate getting my dissertation finished, we invited my folks down for  a lovely home cooked meal which my better half prepared, and to accompany it my dad and I shared these IPA is Dead bottles which have been sitting in the cupboard for a while waiting to be drunk.

I understand this is something that Brewdog does periodically, and it's a nice idea - I've enjoyed single-hop IPAs from other brewers over the past while, and it can be interesting to get a handle on the characteristics of different hops.  The four hops in question this time round were Dana, Eldorado, Goldings and Waimea and each brought something different to the table.

For me, the Waimea was the most interesting of the lot - a really pungent, earthy flavour which had a really strong aftertaste.  I liked it a lot - and I'll definitely look out for it being used in other beers.  The Eldorado was less intense, but had a similar type of resinous pungency which was pretty tasty, and the Dana was milder and fruitier and altogether more refreshing.

The surprise, though, was the Goldings - staple of many an English ale, it's not often seen as a particularly exciting hop, but in our first homebrew it certainly contributed towards a pretty decent end product.  On its own, though, it was fantastic - a lovely rounded, balanced flavour which worked surprisingly well.  Good old Goldings!

I'll keep an eye out for future releases in this series - it was a nice combination for a celebration dinner!