Brewdog: Alechemy : Smoked In History (Scotland: Smoked Porter: 5.2% ABV)
Visual: Black. Inch of tight bubbled froth as a browned head.
Nose: Sour dough. Cigarette ash. Shortbread. Light salt.
Body: Sour dough. Smoke. Dried meat. Maybe dried beef and ham. Chalk. Roasted character. Slight salt. Some bitter coffee.
Finish: Dried ham. Charring. Slight salt and roasted character. Ash.
Conclusion: Drinking a bit of history. So, the question is, do I like history? That seems like quite a big question to contemplate over just a third of beer. So let’s go with something simpler and just see if I like the beer.
Well, while it is not a particularly heavy beer, it is very smoke dominated, or to be more accurate almost ash dominated. There isn’t a huge weight to it, but it isn’t lacking in an item to draw your interest.
It is also slightly soured, in a sour dough kind of fashion (which seems to be a common note in collabfest this year), so it has callings to the more grounded dark beers, as well as the ash. There is some coffee in the background, not as heavily as you would expect in a porter, and as mentioned that sour dough, but really, the smoke is the thing.
It isn’t to an insane level, never, say, Rauchbier style, and for all its smoke it is surprisingly drinkable. It is also, unfortunately, not exactly complex. You are getting a bit of a one trick pony. Still, that is better than not having a pony.
Ponies are their own reward.
Next up on lines I never thought I would write in a tasting note.
So, yes, it has a pony. Metaphorically speaking. It has a good quality and it uses it well. There is kind of other elements, a bit of dried meat – smoked of course – hardly a huge deviation from the other elements, so all part of the same…pony… meat.. thing….I should work on a new metaphor. Still, satisfactory overall.
I am starting to think my reviews get odd if I do too many in one weekend.
A decent brew that works its one trick well.
Background: Well, this has to come under oddest special ingredient of all time. This has been smoked with timber from The Discovery. Well, holy shit, that is quite epic. So, anyway, yeah, wow, that aside, this is the thirteenth beer on day two of the collabfest 2014! Thankfully I am not superstitious. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beer.
