Brewdog: Fyne Ales: Same Werking (Scotland: Amber Ale: 5.1 %ABV)
Visual: Reddened brown. Loose bubbly thin browned head.
Nose: Slightly musky. Dried and peppered meat. Cream cheese and chives. Sour dough. Dry brown bread. Faint toffee,
Body: Sour dough. Roasted nuts. Dry. Paprika. Peanuts.
Finish: Sour dough. Cream cheese. Peanuts.
Conclusion: This reminds me a lot of the Irish style red ales I have tried – they have that very dry, and slightly roasted and slightly soured main body. I wonder if it is an intentional call, or just an effect of rooibos?
It is another of the collabfest beers that seems to be working more on the feel of the beer over the flavour, drying yet quite easy to drink- a roasted rough feel but quite slick behind that.
Unfortunately the style needs a lot of skill to pull off, in my opinion anyway – and this, while it manages to deliver a competent expression of the style, doesn’t seem to put that extra touch on it that it needs to really work.
The body is so drying, and so full of dry flavours – without that spark or twist to make it excite, that I can’t really get behind it. It could just be that, like scotch ales, this is one where often the style is not for me. They often seem, like this, overly dominated by the roasted character – the aroma hints at toffee, but none is expressed in the body.
A robust take on a style that it seems doesn’t really appeal to me, so I end up none too impressed.
Background: A rooibos red ale. Apparently rooibos is used for herbal tea, I’ve never tried it, so couldn’t say much on that. Anyway, twelfth beer of collabfest 2014 on day 2. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.