Brewdog: Prototype: Elvis Juice (Scotland: IPA: 6.7% ABV)
Visual: Very pale lemon juice. Moderate white head. Hazy main body with small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Lemon juice. Cream. Crisp hops and pineapple.
Body: Grapefruit. Chalky touch. Bubblegum. Moderate bitterness and hop character. Bitty orange juice. Tropical fruit can’s syrup.
Finish: Bubblegum. Brown bread. Lemon. Grapefruit juice. Dusty bitterness that becomes quite solid over time. Pineapple. Slightly chalky.
Conclusion: Fruity. Very fruity. This is another one of those tropical fruit juice styled beers, though here with enough hop character to make it definitely recognisable as an actual beer.
It leads to a beer with a very split character, one half fruit juice and syrups, the other half bitter and slightly chalky. Not a bad mix, thought it may need a bit of a polish around the edges. The fruit feels just a tad over syrupy, and the hops just a tad dry and clinging. A cleaner, more attenuated body, and a fresher kicking feel to the hops could make this an absolute blast. As is it is kind of swinging from one of the scale to the other without quite setting in the sweet spot.
One last notable element stands in the midst of all this and I am not quite sure how I feel about it. There is a distinct bubblegum characteristic to it. Now, I can love a bubblegum character, Sorachi Ace gets that a lot and it is one of my favorite hops, but with the syrupy texture, again, it feels a little heavy. Not sure if it would work better with a cleaner body or not.
Anyway, I’m probably being over picky, but as always, this is a prototype – that is what they are for. This is the time to be picky. As an idea it has promise, a lot of promise in fact; As a beer it is ok – however it does a lot better at expressing itself than a lot of fruit infused IPAs I have encountered so I think it is worth seeing where they can take this.
Background: A prototype outside of the four that gets released end of each year. Interesting. This one an IPA with added orange and grapefruit zest. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers. This was drunk while listening to 8 Bit Zoo and Shadow’s Fall’s Fallout From The War. because the two albums are musically so similar.
