Brewdog: BD Shoreditch 01 (Scotland: IPA: 7.5 % ABV)
Visual: Clear yellowed beer with moderate carbonation and a moderate tight bubbled head. The head leaves sud rings.
Nose: Soft Belgian yeastiness. Pepper. Dried apricot. Wheaty. Some peach.
Body: Apricot. Lightly floral. Yeastie. Pomegranate and passion fruit. Light bitterness. Peach. An almost dried leather feel in the very middle. Slight dried meats with it.
Finish: Dry. Wheaty and funky esters. Pepper. Pomegranate. Drying bitter feel. Candyfloss without sweetness? Does that work?
Conclusion: White IPA is a style that is growing on me. It always tastes like what I would imagine a Belgian style IPA would taste like, had I not actually tasted a Belgian style IPA.
It is basically a bitter wit beer, right down to the habit of using spice or fruit in the making.
Here you get a wheaty and yeastie ester filled beer with very delicate soft fruit flavours underneath. All light and some sweet, but far below the bitterness and peppercorn spice that makes up the main body of the beer.
What you have to love, to love this beer, is pepper and wheat. There is lots of the peppery spice and wheaty bitterness. If that doesn’t sound nice, this beer is not for you. The other elements are subtle side notes comparatively. There are other interesting quirks, right in the middle of the beer you get a different texture, almost dried meat or leather, not so much the flavour, just a slightly tougher and less rough element than the wheat feel. Oddly it works. It is like a solid core the rest of the beer hangs on.
Despite all the harsh edges the beer is actually quiet easy to drink, no element outstays its welcome. For complexity this beer is nowhere near , say, Anchorage’s barrel aged efforts, it is a solid and very drinkable IPA. It is a pity the abv isn’t lower, if they could rein it in a point or two this could be a brilliant beer to slowly sip two or three of over the night. Not ever a session beer, but manageable. I’m guessing that dropping the abv would probably ruin the flavor though.
A very well made beer, very easy to drink, but full of sharp edges. The best white IPA it isn’t, but those brewers at Shoreditch have done themselves proud here.
Background: Ok, looks like they have changed the naming convention, instead of the number incrementing by one each time is a beer is made regardless of location (So you would have Aberdeen 01, Then Camden 02, etc), now each location starts at 01. Confusing. Anyway, this is part of Brewdog’s continuing project to have each of their bars brew their own beer, that is named after where it is brewed. This one is a White IPA made with… I think … peppercorn and Amarillo. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.