Brewdog: Six Impossible Things (Scotland: IPA: 6% ABV)
Visual: Orange to gold. Off white head that leaves suds.
Nose: Very fresh lemon. Tannins. Light hop bitterness and resin.
Body: Apricot. Custard. Cake sponge. Tea touches and tannins. Smooth. Lemon sherbet. Touch of strawberry if held on the tongue. Digestive biscuits and toffee.
Finish: Digestives. Tannins. Lemongrass and hop bitterness. Drying. Tea.
Conclusion: Yorkshire Tea! Bias mode activated. We have tea, beer and Yorkshire. Objective opinion rendered impossible. Anyway…
This reminds me a bit of tongue tied, with a lass tart and more biscuity base. There is similar lemon and lemongrass in play thought which is what calls tongue tied to mind. I wondered if there is any similarities in the base recipe? This is however a far less fresh beer and more hoppy.
It is very biscuit influenced, with the tannins a light touch with tea flavours, as a result the beer can be very drying. Thankfully there is a touch of cake sponge and custard sweetness which works in the background to give a dessert like offset, toffee sponge maybe. It is a minor element but very necessary for the beer’s balance. This leads to a very unusual clash of drying as hell but dessert sweet, tasty and thick feeling, and that dryness just keeps you drinking. Due to the drying tea influence you can’t have many in one sitting but if it was on more often I would happily return to it many a time in different sessions as the oddness is balanced well by actual crafted flavor.
With all that said it also doesn’t lose its IPA main thrust, with good hops and resin along with bitterness to match. So yeah, a tea beer and one with a huge range to add. It takes the Lindemans Tea Beer idea and makes it more that just a bit of fun but an actual cool beer. I highly approve.
Background: An IPA made with Yorkshire Tea and Earl Grey. Of course. Why didn’t I think of that? As a Yorkshire man I am now instantly biased. Drunk at Brewdog Bristol while watching The ShowHawk Duo who did covers of many tunes on a pair of acoustic guitars, most notably doing a faithless cover somehow. All good fun. Had a lot of chats with regulars and newcomers at the pub which made for a great atmosphere. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.