Jug Shop BrewDog Tasting

The Jug Shop always has some amazing lineups- and this one was one of the best that I have been to.
Kudos to Eric Cripe again!
$25 to taste 8 BrewDog beers.

We tried in order:
1- 5am Saint- Red Ale, 5% abv
2- Punk IPA- 6% abv
3-Atlantic IPA Ale-8.5%
4- Devine Rebel- Collaboration with Mikkeller, barleywine and 12.5% abv.
5-Juxtaposition- Collaboration with Stone and Cambridge. Imperial black pilsner, 10% abv.
6- Isle of Arran Paradox- Collaboration with Isle of Arran Imperial Stout, 10% abv.
7-Paradox SmokeHead- Collaboration with SmokeHead Whiskey, aged for 6 months in scotch malt whiskey casks, 10%
8- Tokyo- Imperial Stout, 18.2% abv.

5am Saint- This is made with Simcoe, Chinook, Nelson Sauvin and Centennial hops. This poured a bright copper red with a good, thick head. On the nose you get tons of passionfruit, pineapple and grapefruit pineyness. It tasted incredibly smooth with some light bitterness, a ton of pine and citrus. It was very forestry tasting- in a good way. It was a good beer to start off the tasting with.

Punk IPA- This is made with Chinook, Ahtanum and Nelson Sauvin hops. This poured a cloudy wheat yellow with very thick foam. It smelled of: funk, yeast, a hint of wet blanket and a ton of citrus. It tasted of a light honey, pine, grapefruit and it had a fantastic sweet to bitter ratio. Fantastic drinkability.

Atlantic IPA Ale- For those of you that don't know the story behind this beer ($28/bottle mind you):
James was given an 1856 "Brewer's Handbook" as a gift last Christmas which contained an even older original IPA hoppy recipe - which provided inspiration for him to embark on BrewDog's latest voyage of creating waves in an otherwise flat beer market.  The following month (January 2009), he set off on a journey on his fishing trawler in the North Atlantic with eight barrels on-board, each containing beer brewed from the original recipe. Atlantic IPA (and James!) survived two months on the North Atlantic, involving a tense barrel-rescue-mission, beatings from force ten storms, 60 foot waves and encounters with killer whales. Upon safe return to dry land, the IPA was bottle conditioned and is now available at www.brewdog.com and Uto Beer, Real Ale (both London), Cornelius (Edinburgh) Beer Ritz (Leeds).
 This poured an ornage copper with an off white with a touch of orange creamy head. This smelled like honey, spice, oak, malt and a touch of soy sauce. It tasted spicy, oaky, with roasted malt that turned to pine to bitter roasted coffee. It had a fantastic transition in taste. Glad I tried it, not sure if it's worth $28 a bottle.


Devine Rebel- This poured a murky sienna brown with no head. It smelled of raisins, dates, burnt sugar, and some sweet malts. It tasted absolutely delicious. It tasted like rasisins, prunes, dates, subtle smokiness with a hoppy bitter aftertaste. I Loved it! The bitter hoppy aftertaste was just perfectly balanced. I have to say this is one of my favorite barelywines!


Juxtaposition- This is made with Japanese and New Zealand hops. It poured a pitch black. It smelled like raisins, dates, prunes, maple syrup then spicy hops. It tasted like raisins, stewed plums, sweet malt than some spicy hoppy bitterness mixed with some juicy luscious fresh mango. Really good. High drinkability and not much burn for the alcohol- it was pretty well hidden.


Isle of Arran Paradox- This is aged in Isle of Arran malt whiskey barrels. This poured a semi clear cola brown. It smelled malty, with a touch of smokiness, light espresso and light hops. It tasted malty with some milk chocolate notes, light licorice, whiskey and light coffee bitterness on the ending.Quite well balanced and tons of delicate interesting flavors going on here. 


Paradox Smokehead- This poured black with a tint of red. This smelled like TONS of tobacco, tons of smoke, scotch and a lot of alcohol.  It tasted like malt but with a good balance of smoked tobacco. It tasted like I was drinking tobacco mixed with scotch. Like a glass full of scotch leftover from a party that someone ashed their cigarettes in. That may be your thing, don't get me wrong. I am not saying this is a bad beer; however, scotch isn't my thing, so it's just not for me. BUT if you do like scotch, this one may be interesting for you to try.


Tokyo- Last but not least, this puppy is made with jasmine and cranberries and then aged on french toasted oak chips. It poured a dark chocolate with a thin milk chocolate head. It smelled of sweet honey, raisins, stewed prunes, candied malts and a touch of spice. It tasted like sweet malt, sweet dried raisins, prunes, dates, touch of black currant and a light hoppy bitterness on the ending. It had a fabulous hop bitterness ending. I enjoyed this beer a lot!


Overall, BrewDog is doing some great beers with a ton of innovation. Their beers are beautiful; subtle pretty notes mixed with in your face barrel aging. They are mixing of everything great that's going on in craft beer from all over the world and creating some great new beers. I highly recommend that you try their beers.