Brewdog: Kingpin (Scotland: Premium Lager: 4.7% ABV)
Visual: Yellow gold. Some carbonation. Clear. Very large yellow white mound of bubbles head.
Nose: Peppery. Spritzy. Soft lemon. Palma violets. Crisp. Lightly wheaty.
Body: Slick. Vanilla custard. Lime. Soft toffee. Fresh orange juice notes. Light palma violets.
Finish: Soft lemon sherbet. Palma violets. Soft hop character and light hop oil sheen. Light pepper and colander. Light bitterness.
Conclusion: Brewdog really are getting better at this lager lark. This one is an interesting one on the eye as it starts with a large head that seems to condense as it shrinks ending in a remarkably dense and robust cm of head in the end. While most places list this as a Premium Lager it seems very Bohemian Pilsner in the influences. The body is slick but refreshing and emphasises a soft vanilla custard and toffee base, but mixes what feels like traditional noble hop spiciness with new wave hop fruitiness. The subtle hop oil sheen into the peppery finish shows a dedication to its roots despite the innovation.
For the first time with a Brewdog lager there are no real stand out flaws at all – it has a good texture, a subtle aroma, good flavour, restrained spice and bitterness. It is the complete package.
It doesn’t take the crown as one of the best lagers in the world, most of those awards seem to end up the the Czech Republic, but that is no real criticism. It is probably one of the best lagers being turned out in Britain right now – it packs in a lot of character without giving up what makes lager stand out.
Ok Brewdog on your xth iteration you finally did it. A genuinely good lager.
Background: Brewdog keep trying to turn out a top rate lager. They slowly get better with each iteration but, so far they have not managed to meet that goal. Lager has always seen to be their weak spot, so when they turned out yet another version of their core range lager I of course did not have highest hopes, but grabbed a bottle anyway. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers This was grabbed direct from the Brewdog store.
