Brewdog: Raspberry Revolver (Scotland: Fruit Beer: 4.1% ABV)
Visual: Bronzed red. Small white shimmer of bubbles
Nose: Slightly muggy and cloying but with distinct raspberry. Wet wood.
Body: Juniper berries and raspberry. Milky digestive biscuits. Tart. Raspberry sorbet freshness at times, occasionally into raspberry ripple ice cream. Toffee.
Finish: Dry hops. Raspberry and brown bread. Twigs. Sour cream.
Conclusion: Brewdog’s ongoing quest, to make a good raspberry based beer that is able to be produced in decent quantities. Here is the new attempt. Unfortunately, and spoilers here, this doesn’t quite make it. A pity as the last prototype I tried was quite an improvement on the previous set.
It’s not too bad, has a few calls to the not too great beer that is Juniper Wheat, mainly in the muggy aroma. However the main body has a nice berry flavour and tart taste mix. The finish then seems a little too dry to round it off well.
So, main body is the showcase and has it pretty good. The tart to sweet balance is interesting and is occasionally touched with raspberry ripple like elements. I can go with that. Occasional twigs and wood, which can be nice balancing elements. Here they do the job mid body but become too forthright in the finish. It results a slightly confused end to the beer which lets the whole thing down a bit.
So not Juniper Wheat bad, not as good as 17.5, it’s a reasonable but slightly meh beer. I know that Brewdog love raspberries so I doubt this will be their last attempt. They are making progress, with a few missteps, so maybe one day we will get the true raspberry beer they wish to make.
Background: Common opinion holds that this is the same beer as Prototype 17.6, the latest in a long line of trying to put together a working raspberry beer, which seems to be one of Brewdog’s holy grails to achieve. Previous versions of this beer have varied from ok to quite nice, but none so far have been spectacular. However they were interesting enough that I thought I would give this a try. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers. (Note – Juniper berries may have been on my mind after last weeks Juniper Wheat so take that note with a pinch of salt)
