Day 65: 03.06.10 BrewDog Storm IPA

BrewDog Ltd.

Fraserburgh, Scotland


Storm (Islay Whiskey Cask Aged) IPA 


Style: Double/Imperial India Pale Ale
Availablity: Year Round
Format: 330ml
ABV: 8.0%


Bottle text & Info:
"At BrewDog we are selfish; we only make beers that we want to drink. This is not an unerring, despondent half hearted compromise. This bottle contains are IPA which has been aged in Scottish Islay whiskey casks. The combination of Islay whisky casks and New Zealand hops is one of polar opposites on many levels. Drinking this beer is like being caught in the eye of a force 12 North Atlantic storm. Heavily peated demonic smoked Islay whiskey and the fruity hop flavors of our IPA should not go well together. Nor should mild pretentiousness and exponential cool. However at BrewDog we are pretty sure we can rock it out and make both admirable combinations work reasonably well. Zeitgeist in a bottle."


Tasting Notes:
Pours a dirty golden orange with little to no head, that immediately creates a white ring around the glass. Whoas. Smells overwhelmingly of smokey peat ridden scotch. This will make your eyes water. I'm a little frightened. Can i get this on the rocks? Here goes. Yeah, ok. No. Watery mouthfeel with slight, slight hints of Kent Goldings that is immediately overwhelmed by smoke and peat. This has all the peat notes-  band-aid/plastic weird smoke flavors that I love in the whiskeys from the west of Scotland. This just isn't what I want in an IPA. This might work if they ratcheted up the hops so it wasn't just dominated by the whiskey, or perhaps they should just stick to only whiskey cask aging their stouts. There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance and this beer errs on the side of the later. The boys at BrewDog had it right when they said "heavily peated demonic smoked Islay whiskey and the fruity hop flavors of our IPA should not go well together." They don't. I get that BrewDog essentially sees themselves as the Dogfish Brewing of Europe. You push the envelope, you do extreme beers. We get it. Sometimes when you try/experiment with brewing things don't go well. When they don't - when the beer fails to come together. You scrap it and go back to the drawing board. This offering from BrewDog seems forced, sort of like they don't even believe in it. Like they brewed it just because they could.  And this is proof that just because something can technically be done, doesn't mean it should. Occasionally, BrewDog will hit a home run, then sometimes they whiff.  If you pay attention, you can feel the breeze from this miss.