Brewdog: This. Is. Lager. (Scotland: Premium Lager: 4.7% ABV)
Visual: Pale light grain. Medium bubbled white head that leaves suds. Small amount of carbonation.
Nose: Floral. Palma violets. Vanilla. light lemon.
Body: Brown bread and soft vanilla. Soft banana and apricot. Toffee malt. Soft cake sponge. Palma violets.
Finish: Bready. Light dried apricot. Light banana and custard. Cake sponge. Light hops and pepper. Pineapple.
Conclusion: Oddly, as lagers are generally served quiet chilled, this actually needs just a bit of time to warm up. Not a lot, but chilled way down this was actively dull. Can something be actively dull? I’m going with yes. Anyway…
Then, when you let it get just a tad warmer, you get a very soft cake sponge texture, then banana starts coming out. It is very smooth as a lager, a touch of that Palma violets that I associate with bohemian pilsners, but not otherwise heavily calling to that style. Instead it seems to be a soothing rather than a crisp beer. The finish doesn’t have quite as much finesse, a bit bready and peppery, still some of the same notes but rougher done.
If you let it get closer to room temperature, late on for the beer, it gets rougher edged again, which loses a lot of the more delicate characteristics that define the beer, though in exchange you do get a more citrus character. I think the main element against the beer is the pepperyness – the main flavours are so soft that the pepper seems out of place and a bit roughshod over it.
As I seem to say a lot with Brewdog lagers, it is ok, definitely better flavor and texture than previous examples, but the offset notes that I don’t enjoy are also more present. So, both better and worse than before in different elements. It could do with maybe making the main body flavours a bit bigger against the pepper, but it is progress.
Not up their with the top German or Czech pilsners, either for crispness or flavour, it is a different take – much softer and that soft main body is nice, just not the showstealer they are looking for.
Background: Brewdog have a varied history with lagers, none have been bad, but they keep seeking for the show stealer lager. This is their latest attempt. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers. Whether good or not, this seems to have been successful, I have barely seen it in stock on the Brewdog store for more than an hour so far. This was drunk in Brewdog Bristol, they were giving away free third pints as a promotion, which I bought up to 2/3rds size to make for a fair review size.
