Brewdog: Lovibonds: Happy Ending (England: What Ale: 5% ABV)
Visual: Light banana gold with a dash of white head.
Nose: Lemon. Lime. Crushed mint leaves. Very fresh. Lamb broth. Wheat. Belgian yeast character. Cucumber.
Body: Lemon. Smooth, saison like character. Peppermint and peppers. Gentle warmth. Gingerbread. Red peppers and sweet chilli. Banana notes. Marmalade.
Finish: Gingerbread and lemon. Mint. Dry Belgian yeast feel. Banana sweets. Peppers.
Conclusion: This is the most refreshing of the collab fest beers so far and perfectly timed for it to, it is like the halfway point of a hefeweizen and a saison. We are talking summery refreshing as hell. Like most of the beers so far today it also feels like that have tried to cram in everything and the kitchen sink when making it.
With flavours including lemon, mint, peppers, everything shouts out its flavor and everything wakes you up, even after heavy dark beers before. For some of the time it is almost overpowering as there is so much hitting your tongue at once. It is good for a quick wow of character, but hurts its ability to work as the refreshing beer it is as the flavours can quickly become intrusive.
Still, when drunk after a few stouts and Black IPAs this still punches through and that saison weizen mix initially is very impressive. It is however best taken in a limited amount, the amount of spices is just insane, at times even giving the feel of a broth overstocked with condiments.
So, a bit excessive, but has its place in a drinking session. It is all spice all the time, warming ginger, fresh lemon and consistent pepper over a saison character. Quirky, overpowering on a technical level, but it has its charm.
Background: Collab Fest 2013! Every Brewdog bar collaborated with a local brewery to make a beer for the fest, resulting in a grand total of twelve beers released over one weekend. So, what could I do? Normally I limit myself to two of three reviews in a session, but these would only be on for the weekend. So, for you, my readers, I sat in one eight hour stint, drinking thirds, with a glass of water and a chapter of Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone between each drink to help clear my palette. I suffer so for you. This was the seventh beer of the day as I continued to chat, this beer is a wheat beer with lemongrass, ginger, lime leaves and cardamom. Happy Ending is a somewhat innuendotastic name which made me chuckle not at all, honest, I do not have a filthy mind. With this being a lighter beer I took a longer gap before having this one, and even more water to clear out the tastebuds. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.
