Brewdog: Unleash The Yeast: Belgian Trappist (Scotland: Belgian Ale: 6.3% ABV)
Visual: Yellowed gold. White loose bubbled head. Moderate carbonation.
Nose: Funky yeast. Cheese puffs. Pepper and crackers.
Body: Funky yeast. Dry. Banana and dried apricot. Pepper. Solid bitterness. Tingles on the tongue.
Finish: Dry. Peppery. Popcorn feel. Banana sweets and lemon curd. Significant bitterness.
Conclusion: Oddly, here at the end of my ”Unleash The Yeast” trek, we find the beer that seems to have least flavor from the hops. For a beer that had such huge hop levels in other expression it feels weird to come to one where you have some hop flavor mid body, maybe, but it is very minor. Again this has really helped me realize why a countries’ beers have developed the way they have.
What you get here is a lot of the funky Belgian yeast character, all cheese puffs and pepper. Like the weizen yeast it is amazing how much flavor can be attributed to the yeast, rather than just texture.
You get some other notes such as banana sweets and lemon at the end, but for the most part the characteristics imposed by the yeast actually dominate the character, both in flavor and in crating a very dry beer.
As a beer in itself it is a bit dull, none of the elements in it have been crafted to take advantage of the strength of the yeast resulting in the beer being quite single note. As part of the set of four demonstrating what effect yeast has though…wow. Mind blown. I always knew the yeast had a large effect, but the sheer way it muted the hops flavours and added its own was still a shock. A great learning experience if a substandard beer.
Background: The last of the “Unleash The Yeast” series. Four beers with the same recipe, except for the yeast, which changes each time. This has been a fun series so far, with all the beers being interesting, and some of them really good. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers.