Brewdog: Everyday Anarchy (Scotland: Belgian Strong Ale: 10.3% ABV)
Visual: Burnished red. Short lived off white dust of a head that quickly drops to islands over the liquid. Still with no evident carbonation.
Nose: Stewed apples and dates. Raisins. Burnt marshmallow. Brandy cream. Madeira cake. Brandy snaps. Wine.
Body: Raspberry pavlova. Apple slices. Spotted dick. Fudge. Very smooth and light. Stewed apricot. Syrup. Vanilla. Wine grapes. Red berries. Croissants.
Finish: Apples. Cinnamon. Meringue. White wine. Fudge. Brown bread. Stewed apricot. Malt chocolate. Shortbread Cranberry.
Conclusion: A beer that is, somehow, simultaneously thick feeling and yet too thin to hold. Huh. To the eye you can see a viscous haze in the midst of the body, and the aroma is full in promised stewed fruit and brandy cream. Here as you let the different elements waft it is intense, with dark fruit and spirit mixing.
The first sip then is a bit of a surprise and disappointment as it felt almost empty. There was no alcohol burn, which is good, but also no weight, it felt viscous as you ran your tongue through it, but it came with no real discernable elements.
So, nervous, I took another sip. This time giving it a good roll around the mouth. Slowly apple and pavlova flavours came out, along with a syrup sweetness. The flavours somehow feeling thick on the tongue despite the lightness of the beer delivering it.
While the flavours do built up over time, they don’t come to you. You really have to dive into it and investigate, if you don’t give the beer a good roll around then virtually nothing seems to show itself. Because of this, at no point did the beer feel over 10% ABV.
Similarly the beer never felt particularly saison like, with flavours that mix spotted dick, apple and syrup, it feels more like a very smooth barley wine. Probably it is coming through too smooth, while there are complexities to the beer you really have to work very hard to get them. When you do it does taste nice, wine touched in a very light influence, very graceful, but it never feels overly special. This is odd as it has an impressive range of flavours to find , it just delivers them too lightly. When it is at its best you do get intricate elements that are worth examination, as long as you are willing to put the effort in to find them.
I think the problem is that it feels like an over aged beer, there is the benefit of the smoothness and subtlety of character, but the flavor seems to be atrophying away so they are not as notable as they once hypothetically may have been.
The evil twin of Black Jacques, and inversed in its issues. Where that overly heavy and unbalanced this is over smooth. So, very complex, very smooth, but a bit to light to be great.
Background: Brewdog call this an Imperial Saison that has been aged in a white wine barrel. The art on the bottle reminds me slightly of Flex Mentallo or the Invisibles, both of which are Grant Morrison comics that I hold in high regard. I was in quite good mood as a discussion with Hit Box had resulted in me finally getting the Double S achievement for Dustforce after the game had originally not recognised I had completed Giga Difficult. This was drunk while listening to Unknown Music From Dream Quest of Kadath, for some haunting and unreal sounding background music. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.
