Brewdog: Abstrakt AB22 (Scotland: Imperial Stout: 12.5% ABV)
Visual: Black. Large creamy brown inch of froth.
Nose: Smooth chocolate fondue. Rich, complex coffee. Light salt. Lightly medicinal and spirity. Slight subtle green fruit. Slight bready character. Bitter cocoa.
Body: Slight medicinal and salt. Cocoa. Very smooth. Rich creamy coffee. Slightly light at the front. Light blended whisky background. Bready.
Finish: Bitter cocoa. Clean whisky character. Toffee. Chocolate bourbon biscuits. Chocolate fondue. Clean alcohol feel. Slight tequila. Bready. Bitter cocoa.
Conclusion: Hmm, it seems we are back in for very competent Imperial Stout time again. A very competent imperial stout that doesn’t really stand out from the glut of IS time again. A very competent barrel aged Imperial Stout that doesn’t stand out from the crowd time again. I need to think of new things to say on a well worn topic it seems.
Ok, the base beer is the very competently done coffee and chocolate stuffed imperial stout; So, as you can probably guess it is a mix of bitter cocoa and rich coffee. It is generally well done – though it does feel slightly light up front, probably due to the time aging in the oak which tends to sooth bigger beers. Still at 12.5% it really should not feel light at times- that is just a let down. Apart from that point the coffee is complex, the cocoa well delivered – it is just that that look is really overdone at the moment. Brewdog alone have done metric shit-ton of beers in this style – so this doesn’t seem unusual enough or stand out enough to be worth the high cost an Abstrakt beer demands.
The whisky aging on this is Speyside, but it I had to call it blind then the light medicinal notes in it would have called me to Island or Islay areas. It doesn’t have much of the fruitiness or extra sweetness I associate with Speyside, instead having mainly a generic kind of cheap blended whisky style. Not the good stuff either, just some vanilla and a generic whisky feel. I think more than anything this is what lets the beer down. It isn’t bad, but compared to the many better barrel aged beers, the aging here seems very simple in what it adds to the experience.
It is worth noting that as time goes on it also loses some of the subtlety – becoming more dominated by the bitter coffee flavor. By the end there is not much else being done there. The coffee is still great but it feels kind of one note.
So despite being a very competent beer, and it does add something from the aging – it ends up feeling a fairly standard Imperial Stout these days in the style -not something special that is worth dropping ten quid on, or worth treating as a one off release. A good enough beer, but nowhere near worth the cost.
Background: Been a long time waiting for Abstrakt 22 – originally it was to be a spiced brown ale I think, but that didn’t work out how they wanted so instead we get this – A speyside barrel aged coffee and chocolate stout. This was grabbed direct from the Brewdog store and was broken out to drink after coming back from an awesome Gogol Bordello gig. If you ever get the chance to see them live I recommand it, they have wonderful energy to their sets. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beer.
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