From BrewDog:
As a few months have passed since we last turned the spotlight on our brewhouse, we figured it was high-time that we punched the ultimate backstage pass once again. So here is a run-down of some of the beers working their way through our brewery to you. Some are just about ready, others ensconced in oak for the foreseeable future. But all will be worth waiting for.
And we begin with a trio that have already left the building.
Fanzine #3
Freshly dispatched from our Ellon packaging line we have the latest release of our 21st Century beer club – Fanzine. Three exclusive beers canned and posted every fortnight for £11 in the UK or £15 in Europe. It’s a fortnightly homage to amazing craft beer, and you can sign up right here. If you already have and don’t want spoilers – avoid the next paragraph!
The latest release includes a towering new double milkshake New England IPA called Pulp Patriot, a 9.5% ABV mango and peach juice bomb. We also have a redefinition of Zephyr Pale Ale – Lime Gose Edition – and the trio rounds out with Ten Ton Truck Espresso Edition. A 10% ABV espresso, honey and brown sugar stout that comes ready to roll with a huge payload of bitter coffee, red berry and dark chocolate.
Lost Lager
Next up, a lager. There are two schools of thought here, you can either keep it classic and nail the colours of Germany or the Czech Republic to the mast, or you can freestyle. Lost Lager is the best of both worlds. BrewDog Head of Production Jason Pond has spent months dialling in a brand new dry-hopped pilsner that has, at its heart, two secret weapons.
The first is the contemporary German hop variety Saphir – renowned for a vibrancy of citrus and stone fruit. The second is the deployment of lager yeast from the world-beating Weihenstephan. Conditioned for 28 days, Lost Lager is destined to be a crisp, clean pilsner with hints of spice and a zesty lime marmalade character. Prepare to lose yourself at the end of the month.
Double A
Following closely behind our eight-way, eight-hopped 8% Eight-Bit we have another collaboration in the wings, brewed with Matt and Travis from the pride of Atlanta; Scofflaw Brewing. Despite launching less than two years ago they have already made huge waves for the quality of their pale ales and we had a blast brewing with them when the guys ventured over to Ellon and mashed in before our #PunkAGM.
Riffing on the nickname for Atlanta (‘The A’) – we added a second A courtesy of our home city and then doubled up a pale ale into a kick-ass 9.5% ABV Double IPA. There is no messing around with this one; Double A is a down-the-pipes DIPA – big hits of resin, pine and grapefruit courtesy of Simcoe, Chinook, Centennial, Citra, Comet and Cascade hops. And it arrives this month.
Jet Trash
Back at the start of the year we ran the rule over our beers for 2018 and detailed the four wildcard canned releases that will be hitting the shelves. Fast forward and the second in the series is conditioning away in tank ready for release. Jet Trash (previously named Deck Ape) is a perfect beer for summer – a 7.5% ABV West Coast India Pale Ale rolling in at 65 IBU.
Seven different hops take the fore with Pale, Munich and Cara malts doing the heavy lifting. We also added dextrin to deliver a bitingly dry and bitter IPA, and complement the citrus and zested peel flavours from the hops. V1.0 Jet Trash was one of the debut beers of Fanzine, so subscribers will soon be able to see how it has developed into a standalone release!
Alice Porter
We instigated #ReBrewDog last year as part of our official Decade of Dog celebrations for turning ten. But why stop looking back? As we fire into another year on Planet BrewDog we are continuing to revisit the archives and produce one-off brews of beloved beers. So far in this update we’ve majored on the pale and hoppy, so dark beer fans will be looking forward to the welcome return of Alice.
Alice Porter is – or rather was – a real person; the beer was created by the Beer King of Leeds Matt Gorecki to honour his impending bride, brewed on a blisteringly cold day in Fraserburgh back in 2010. Alice Porter is enigmatic dark alchemy at its finest, a 6.2% roasty porter with Sorachi Ace and vanilla – the most opulent beer you could wish for under 7%. Alice returns this month.
Sonic Boom v2.0
Replacing our single-hop series IPA is Dead for 2018, we are introducing a constantly-updated series of IPAs that allow our rock and roll brew team to fully investigate the glory of hops. To do this the base beer is unchanged from release to release; the difference lies elsewhere. IPA is Dead only varied the hops, Sonic Boom extends and improves on this – our brew team can switch up any aspect of the hopping they like.
New hops, new techniques and processes, different timed additions – it’s all good for Sonic Boom. V1 launched at our #PunkAGM and featured new German hops and the second version will arrive in mid-June featuring brand new experimental hops from the USA. We have added these in the dry-hop stage following kettle hopping with Simcoe and Cascade and introducing Centennial into the whirlpool. What difference will this unique and new dry-hop blend make? Find out next month.
OverWorks
Speaking of our AGM, BrewDog Equity Punks were the first – as they always are – to taste the debut beers from our temple to the arts of alternative fermentation; the first OverWorks beers poured at our #PunkAGM last month. Things have progressed since and the first kegs of BrewDog sour and wild beers should be in our bars before June, with bottles arriving towards the middle of that month.
The first two releases that will hit our bars are very much markers in the sand; these are milestones for BrewDog and beers that will set the scene for everything to follow from our OverWorks facility. So you can look out for Hædor (Brettanomyces-fermented saison with rhubarb and strawberry) and Rhus (blended tart saison with raspberry, sumac and white pepper) plus a range of small-batch mixed fermentation wonders to follow.
Other Releases
Our brewhouse is running white-hot at the moment so these are only some of the highlights you will be enjoying over the next few months. Electric India is set to arrive as our summer seasonal and we have a hugely exciting iteration of Paradox in the wings (or rather, in wood) – Paradox Uncle Dukes. Yes, our supersonic virgin-oak aged whisk(e)y is giving back. Get ready for the next Paradox.
Plus we have two crowd-sourced beers hitting the shelves in a while – Beatnik 2018 which is a raspberry cheesecake imperial stout and also #MashTag 2018 which is destined to be a US hopped pale ale infused with hibiscus flower and yuzu. Don’t forget to send in your label submissions!
That’s about it for this particular snapshot into our brewhouse. Let us know in the comments below which of these beers you will be making a play for when they appear, and as ever if there are any other styles you would love our brewhouse team to create then let us know too. You never know what may happen!
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