Robinson: Beardo (England: IPA: 6% ABV)
Visual: Clean gold. Good amount of small bubbled carbonation. Thin mound of an off white head that leaves suds.
Nose: Pine fresh spray. Lime. Cardboard. Cake sponge. Wood polish.
Body: Sulphur. Some hop character. Popcorn. Cardboard. Kiwi. Cut apples. Malt drink. Solid bitterness. Slight chalk.
Finish: Kiwi. Vanilla toffee. Cardboard. Nettle tea. Some tannins. Gritty bitterness. Charring. Sulphur. Brown bap rolls.
Conclusion: What is it about otherwise good breweries turning out really dull and uninspiring IPAs recently? Though at least this one is recognisable as an IPA, even if it is not a good one. It has bitterness but just in a cardboard and charred way – it has hop character but kind of gritty and rough in that.
This follows through into the malt – kind of dull, some vanilla and some dull malt drinks. The fruit hop flavours that you would expect of a craft IPA are there in a green fruit way, but very underwhelming. The entire beer has a sulphurous touch in an old British IPA way, but without the rest of the British IPA notes that make that work.
It feels like a British IPA style, trying to do the USA style hops without changing anything else and therefore not getting the point of either. It is dull, flawed and rough edged. Admittedly still a better IPA than Indie Pale Ale, but like that has a lager feeling edge that weakens it, again without gaining any of the benefits of that style.
This is a genuinely bad beer – it takes the weak points of everything it is inspired by and puts in in one beer. It isn’t isn’t utterly ruined from the brewing standpoint – but from the combined elements it has that don’t work it becomes a very bad beer. Genuinely avoid this one.
Background: This was a birthday gift from my mate Tony. Many thanks. Even though it is shit 🙂 He did also give me other, not shit, beers. Robinson’s are generally a good brewery, but never really struck me as craft, so I was in mixed mind about this, obviously craft inspired, beer. Not much else to say put some No Doubt on while drinking. That is about it.
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