Brewdog: Ace Of Citra (Scotland: Session IPA: 4.5% ABV)
Visual: Pale yellow. Small white head. Small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Pineapple and apples. Peach. Mild hop character. Generally quite fresh character. Slightly bready. Shortbread. Low bitterness. Vanilla toffee and vanilla custard.
Body: Crisp apples. Light tart gooseberry. Peach syrup. Mild vanilla toffee backbone.
Finish: Tart white grapes. Spritzers. Apples. Fresh. Some hop character and bitterness. Digestives. Slight smoke. Slight cloying hop feel.
Conclusion: After a weak first beer on the Ace of range this …cough.. session IPA range is actually starting to grow on me. The second beer was pretty good, and this one is pretty damn enjoyable.
The body is still slightly thin, however here the hop choice really seems to work with that rather than against it. It is fresh, apply and slightly spritzer styled. The flavor doesn’t seem hurt by the thinner body – instead, due to the fresh character, it becomes a lightly refreshing, mildly bitter drink, using the freshness to fill what the texture lacks. Because of this it manages to avoid being a thin empty drink or a harsh over dry one, so good job so far.
As is expected by this point, the malt doesn’t bring much to the game. A slight vanilla toffee backing is there to work from but very lightly done. Similarly hop bitterness and character is a light dusting over the beer, not a main component. In fact the harshest note is a slight sulfur smoke in the finish. Not the best look, doesn’t match with the other flavours, but it is light enough that it does not ruin what came before.
So, a few nips and tucks needed, but considering my off stated general dislike of session IPA as a style then, yeah, this is a fair solid one.
Background: Third in the Ace of range,a set of single hop session IPAs. I kind of preferred back when they did IPA is Dead as a full IPA single hop range, but this has seemed to improve over time. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers. This was bought straight from the Brewdog website. I had just got back from watching “The Boy With Tape On His Face” comedy gig, so was in a good mood.
