Brewdog: IPA Is Dead: Comet (Scotland: IPA : 7.2% ABV)
Visual: Gold. Some carbonation and a slightly browned/off white medium bubbled head.
Nose: Apricot. Pepper. Resinous. Palma violets.
Body: Bubble gum. Pepper. Apricot. Bitter but low prickly hop feel. Vanilla. Light toffee. Light strawberry notes. Pineapple.
Finish: Peppery. Some greenery. Bitter. Hop oils. Palma violets. Vanilla. Light strawberry. Pineapple.
Conclusion: This feels like one of the “noble” hops, I don’t know if it actually is but it feels that way. Anyway, that makes it feel like a good entry point to examine the new IID run for 2014 after the weak showing last year.
The malt backing is more discrete this time showing itself in light vanilla and toffee notes, mostly though it seems to get out of the way and lets the hops do the walking. Some of this can be attributed to the mouthfeel, somewhat crisper and less thick than in years before.
The hop itself comes in quite resinous and hop oil filled, the bitterness comes in quite cleanly with only a low level, slightly prickly, hop character. In fact, clean is a good way to describe the feel of the hop overall. The elements are all very smooth edged and delivered in such a way that they are all clearly distinct.
There are a few fruit notes involved but they are generally understated, instead predominately you get a kind of palma violets ambient aura to the whole thing. Again, this element is very cleanly and clearly delivered.
The style of the hop does mean that this isn’t the most fascinating beer I have tried, but it does lend slightly lager like drinkability to a heavy bitterness and hop oiled beer. So, very drinkable and it seems a good hop example, but not the greatest of IPAs. Does bode well for future entries in the series though.
Background: Last year’s IPA Is Dead series was somewhat lacklustre to say the least. From a bit of research I thought this was USA hop and apparently originally it was, but looking at Brewdogs site informs me this is from a resurgence of the hop in Germany. IPA Is Dead is a range of single hop beers, each year 4 beer same made with the same recipe, with only the hop used changing. As a hop fan and a fan of seeing what goes into beer I always find this a fun experiment. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers. This is Day 3(ish) of (kindof) IPA WEEK!
