Brewdog: Unfiltered Fake Lager (Scotland: Bohemian Pilsner: 4.7% ABV)
Visual: Slightly hazy apricot gold. Off white bubbles for a head.
Nose: Crushed hop oils. Spicy hops. Apricot. Menthol fresh.
Body: Frothy texture. Nice bitterness and greenery grip. Slight gritty feel at times. Grapefruit tartness. Pineapple. Spicy hops. Apricot. Toffee malt backing.
Finish: Some gritty hops and hop oil bitterness. Grapes. Slightly sour – elderberry. Goes into a very dry feel. Dried apricot. Greenery. Prickled nettles hop.
Conclusion: I wasn’t going to review this originally as I had already reviewed fake lager, but several people had been commenting on it being significantly better that the filtered version so I thought I had best give it a go.
The mouthfeel is definitely better here, benefiting from the unfiltered character, it is thicker and delivers the hop oils and spicy hop character better. In Fake Lager the flavor was initially too light, here that isn’t a problem, the flavor delivers the slight sourness and fruit early and often and builds up to a decent level that never overpowers the lager style and freshness.
The only bit that doesn’t improve is the finish, here the bigger grip means that the prickling hops are a bit more granite like and dry. Not terrible, but not as refreshing as a lager should be.
So generally an improvement, but as an unfiltered lager it is now competing with beersel lager and De Molens Bohemian Pilsner and it really isn’t in that league. Not bad, but not up their with the best.
Background: So, fake lager again. The once seemingly April fools joke that was in fact an actual beer. I’ve covered most of the detail in the standard review, all there is to add is that this is the unfiltered version, and in my experience unfiltered lagers are usually better. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beer. Due to the beer being basically a small variant of Fake Lager I’ve kept this review short to mainly concentrate on the differences.
