Brewdog: Lizard Bride (Scotland: Sour Ale: 5.7% ABV)
Visual: Deep red to purple. Thin white dash that leaves more suds than it seemed to have as a head.
Nose: Musty hops. Brambles.
Body: Tart cherries. Twigs. Hop character. Brambles. Black cherries. Pineapple. Moderate muggy bitterness. Light sour tang. Apples. Vanilla. Green grapes. Lightly yeastie.
Finish: Grapefruit. Clinging moderate bitter hops. Oak. Charring. Apples. Pineapple.
Conclusion: An IPA sour, that really shouldn’t work. It does. This is the tale of two cities, or halves. I probably meant halves. two good halves. Well, two good halves with a weak preamble. A bit like this review so far. Anyway, in this the preamble is the aroma. Which, considering the weirdness that is this beer, doesn’t really give away that much or entice you in.
I guess then it really relies on the striking deep red to purple body to catch your attention. Thankfully it does that with ease. So in this analogy that would be – erm, pre match opening credits? Maybe?
Anyway, the beer! This opens very softly tart and with lots of berries, lots of fruit in general. There is a bitterness there, but it is slightly muggy. Normally I would see the mugginess of the hops as a flaw, but here it gives a kind of earthy, natural feel to the sour beer, backing the fruit.
The finish, the second half shall we say, lets the more traditional hop flavor – grapefruit and pineapple come out – backed with slightly harsher hops behind it. Lightly fresh but nowhere near the fruitiness of the main body.
So you go from a sour beer with IPA traces in the main body, to an IPA with sour traces in the finish. Both stages are wonderful and the two mix at different levels at each point you try it. Very much not one or the other but a fine blend that balances the two. Excellent at that and well worth trying.
Background: An interesting keg only experiment from Brewdog that I tried at Brewdog Bristol. A mix of IPA and sour ale. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.
