Siren: Ten Dollar Shake (England: IPA: 6.6% ABV)
Visual: Cloudy and hazy apricot to fruit juice with some bits visible. Large off white head.
Nose: Mango. Hop oils and resin. Slightly musty. Quite bitter. Smoother late on. Mashed banana. Cream. Apricot and peach.
Body: Creamy. Banana milkshake. Light hop oils and bitterness. Mango, kumquat and kiwi.
Finish: Shortbread. Cream. Hop oils and bitterness. Banana. Slight flour. Kiwi. Lemongrass. Pineapple.
Conclusion: I’m so glad that this didn’t cost me an actual ten dollars, or it’s current UK equivalent. Mainly because the pound exchange rate is in the toilet right now. Fucking Brexit. Anyway, that is not to say this is not good. In fact give me a 75CL bottle of this and I will not just happily drop best part of ten quid on it, but I would happily drink the entire lot myself as well. Bloody lovely it is. So that is any suspense gone from this set of notes now isn’t it?
This sells the “shake” aspect of its imagery very well – creamy, a good, almost thick milky texture, but doesn’t go so far as to compromise the elements it has chosen to accentuate from the IPA style. It is thick, fruity as well, with all those banana and mango notes that go very well with milkshakes. Also kiwi, which I don’t think is a big milkshake choice – it may be – buggered if I know. Anyway, there are the hop oils, moderate bitterness and resin character that tells the IPA style – not too heavy in that bitterness but it keeps a lot of the familiar hop character despite the creamy nature of the base beer. In fact with the creamy sweetness it feels like a creamier, fruitier take on a USA East Coast IPA style.
This is just wonderfully juicy – I am sure that some of the flavours came from the hops – especially ones such as banana and kiwi where that fruit was not used in making this, but in general it feels like far more comes from the fruit infusion. It just feels juicier and clearer than you normally get from hops alone. So this is creamy, hoppy, fruity, smooth and big. Good set. This is good both as a beer and for delivering on the promise the beer’s name makes. Definitely try this one, it is top bombing.
Background: After a quick google I confirmed my suspicions that this was originally brewed in collaboration with a Brewdog pub (in this case Shepherd’s Bush) for collabfest 2016. Then I looked at the back of the bottle and found that it was mentioned there, so I could have saved a few mins. I have not done a collabfest run the past few years – they were fun but I’m trying to spread out my notes a bit- was very Brewdog heavy during that time. Any which way, this is the bottled version grabbed from Independent Spirit. This is an IPA made with lactose, mango, papaya and passion-fruit. Another quick google told me this was not, in fact,a Pulp Fiction reference as I thought – theirs was a 5 dollar shake. Maybe it is just inflation. Drunk while listening to the Diamanda Hagan anthems – if you have a high tolerance for B move excesses in every fashion her reviews are great – check them out. If any of gore, nudity or swearing put you off – best avoid.
