Brewdog: Nuns with Guns (Scotland: Pilsner: 4.2% ABV)
Visual: Clear grain to gold with a moderate loose bubbled white head.
Nose: Muted spearmint. Dry malt and apricot.
Body: Fresh spearmint. Dried apricot and pineapple. Sugar dust and green apples.
Finish: Apples and light hop character. Light mint.
Conclusion: The only of this year’s (well last year’s now) prototypes not to be returning. A pity really. In itself it is not an excellent beer, but it isn’t a bad one. Compared to Brewdog’s 77 Lager it is a massive improvement and to my mind would make a very good replacement for it.
It’s fresh with subtle fruit flavor including touches of apple and pineapple. Quite sweet and low hop character. There is an odd love it or hate it mint touch to the character as well that make sit feel sparkly and fresh after a mouthful.
Compared to Beersel Lager or Mikkeller Summer Pilsner it doesn’t play in the same league. The flavours here are more understated and gently refreshing compared to the out and out excellence of those two. The malt feels a bit dry in the finish. Also there is a slight granite feel to the finish, an element it shares with 77. I think it is part of the small hop character and it doesn’t work well with the generally refreshing character of the rest of the beer.
However for all that it falls compared to the big guns it is far and away above the morass that makes up most of the British lager scene. The main center is a simple sweet apricot base that the other flavours hang off. The aforementioned apple is refreshing but not too tart for a drinker used to easier going beers. It’s got good juiciness and doesn’t hang heavy for the most part. With a bit of work it could be a good gateway beer.
So a gentle lager with usual fruit flavours, a quite weak finish and potentially crowd splitting mintyness. Frankly if this replaced 77 lager I wouldn’t complain. If they took it back, brushed up the finish and maybe gave it a richer aroma then they could even be onto a winner.
Background: Last of the Brewdog prototypes. This one came last in the voting. A comparatively low abv pilsner. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers Enjoyed with a mix of music that included Plan B Ill Manors, Orbital Dr Who? And Megadeth Duke Nukem.