Brewdog: Hello My Name Is Paivi (Scotland:IIPA: 8.2% ABV)
Visual: Clear bronzed gold body. large cream topped tight bubbled head.
Nose: Crisp hops. Tangerine. Sea breeze. Custard cream biscuits. light bitterness. Pineapple.
Body: Tart berries. Thick texture. Astringent touch. Passion fruit. Gooseberry. Raspberry. Sweet honeyed barley. Syrup sponge cake. Sharp lemon curd. Toffee malt.
Finish: Light bitterness that grows. Brine touch. Gooseberry. Vanilla. Light honey and golden syrup. Malt chocolate.
Conclusion: Psychosomatic warning. I was half way through this beer when I remembered that it had been made with fruit called sea buckthorn. I then looked back at how I had interpreted some of the odder astringent touches, and noticed mention of brine and sea breeze. Possible subconscious influence? Anyway, it definitely has those harsher edges, but just the words to describe them may have been influenced.
It could also be an expression of where the tartness of the berries runs up against the seemingly just slightly over attenuated body. Make of that what you will. Anyway the mix of tart to drying character, especially in the end, seems to be the defining point of the beer, however you describe it.
Anyway, this seems to be halfway between a lot of different “Hello My Name Is” beers. The berries are definitely contributing a lot of sharp and tart flavours, almost cuttingly so, which seems to be the trend with the more recent expressions of the beers. The hops are more present than in most of those beers though, giving some pineapple, and the sweetness of the earlier versions comes through in the malt, which gives a sweet honey or golden syrup style. Then there is the already mentioned drying character, parchedness inducing and what caused the digression at the start of the review. Quite a storm of elements.
Despite the sharp and astringent notes it is still quite easy to drink. The bitterness comes in at the end with good hop character and really entices you to drink it again. The strength of this beer then is dangerous, as, for whatever reason, the beer really does dry you out so you find yourself taking another sip without thinking about it.
Overall the mix of flavours is a bit of a challenge – the usually useful toffee malt backbone mid body doesn’t really integrate well here against the sour notes. Drying yet tart, bitter yet sweet. I find it enjoyable, but it isn’t for casual drinking, the strong flavours tend to intrude into your thoughts. As well as the not really integrating elements the other main flaw is it is all up front. There are a lot of elements, but all shoved at you early on, so leaves little to be learned later. A more slow progression would have solved a lot of my issues with this beer.
So a brash wee bottle, fun, if all over the place, and a bit up front, but for all that it gives enough that you can forgive a lot.
Background: Brewdog seem to really be turning out the beers in the “Hello My Name Is” Series recently, a set of Imperial IPA’s made with varied fruit in them. In this case sea buckthorn is used from Finland. This was being reviewed while I was awaiting my system restore to finish after bloody Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs managed to crash in such a way it stopped Windows booting. I’m not even kidding. Anyway, as always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.
