Brewdog: Moshi Moshi 15 (Scotland: American Pale Ale: 5.2% ABV)
Visual: Clear gold to apricot. Yellowed white creamy froth head of decent size. Some carbonation in the body.
Nose: Lemon sherbet. Pineapple. Moderate bitterness and hops. Caramel on shortbread. Apricot. Pungent passion fruit.
Body: Good bitterness and hops. Purple peppers. Quite dry. Vanilla and shortbread. Touch of greenery.
Finish: Bitterness and hops. Purple peppers. Shortbread. Slight tannins style. Touch of greenery.
Conclusion: Not bad at all. This seems to be a beer that plays straight from Brewdog’s safety zone of expertise. Pale, bitter, well hopped and fruity.
This particular interpretation is dry and pungent, full of dry passion fruit and some of that strange dry purple pepper style (purple peppers are weird). It is both drying and yet strangely thirst quenching. The experience is akin to a dried fruit filled punch bowl, that mix of liquid and yet dry texture. Yes I’m saying variants on dry a lot. It is appropriate here, live with it.
This isn’t my favorite of the style, it is enjoyable but not overly wide ranged, and chilling completely kills most of the fruit flavor. It is still a very competent take, not exceptionally bitter, nor bursting in any one direction. Balanced, but feels slightly safe, which would be more of a problem if it didn’t deliver what it does do very well.
So a beer that doesn’t push boundaries, but still does have a style of its own. Good chunk of passion fruit and a pleasant musky aroma. It builds up slowly over time to an eventual lingering hop presence. As it does so the other side notes become less and less, finally replaced at the end by a now omnipresent passion fruit. Finally finding a defining characteristic in its final moments.
By the end the dryness overtakes the refreshing, but by then it has done its job already. A pleasant if not ground breaking pale ale.
Background: Moshi Moshi is a way of saying hello in Japanese – best I know mainly used as greetings on the phone. It is also the name of a British Record Label. No I have no idea why. Maybe they spend most of their time on the phone. Anyway, I haven’t heard many bands from the label but apparently it is their 15th year. So Brewdog made an anniversary beer. Which I now drink, and review. Pretty simple really. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers. Sorry reviews have been infrequent recently, real life intruding and all that.
