tasting notes OUR CURATED EQUITY PUNK BEER CLUB
THE BEERS INSIDE YOUR Hello once again from the internet! This is the online guidebook to your regular voyage of discovery through the world of craft beer or as it is also known BottleBox. If you re reading this you ll have a dozen beers at your immediate disposal so let s get to it! The case before you contains freshly-sourced craft beer from breweries we absolutely love, and we kick things off with one of our all-time favourites Pressure Drop s foraged wonder Wu Gang Chops the Tree. Next up we stay in London for the brand new 21 13 Pale Ale from Brew by Numbers, hopped with Mandarina and Loral. Following that, it s over to the US for one of the best porters in the world (no hyperbole at all) Deschutes Black Butte Porter. After that we combine the US and London for a collab from the minds of two brewmasters Firestone Walker and Beavertown s West Side Beavo India Lager. Our penultimate guest beer is from South Australia Pirate Life Mosaic IPA and we end with a bang in the form of the only pineapple and coffee imperial stout you ll ever need, the 10% To Øl Pineapple Express. All aboard! BottleBox exists to showcase our own beer as much as our friends however so what six beers have we included alongside these amazing examples? Well, we have all four of our 2017 Prototype Challenge beers in your BottleBox for starters giving you the chance to get better acquainted with each of the smallbatch wonders that did battle for the honour of being brewed again. The Prototype Tangerine Session IPA, Prototype Black Rye IPA and Prototype Double IPA are joined for the first time by the late-arriving member of the quartet our Prototype Blonde Ale. On top of these beers we have also included two brand new releases, our India Pale Weizen Nine to Five Wizard and our latest boundary-pushing Abstrakt release, the bourbon barrel-aged barley wine AB:23. We hope you enjoy sampling these beers as much as we enjoyed putting them together. Until next time, enjoy BottleBox!
PRESSURE DROP WU GANG CHOPS THE TREE TANGERINE SESSION IPA PRESSURE DROP WU GANG CHOPS THE TREE TANGERINE SESSION IPA It s a testament to the strength of the London beer scene when you realise that a brewery like Pressure Drop have been going for only four years. In the most hardcharging arena for British beer, such has been their consistency that it seems a lot longer since their first fledgling beers appeared at the start of 2013. Based in a railway arch amidst the teeming streets of Hackney, the brewery has a core range inspired by the history of their home city as well as the classic beers of the continent. Named after a figure from Chinese folklore destined to repeatedly fell a re-growing tree (on the moon, no less), Pressure Drop s long day foraging for botanicals resulted in this just reward. Pronounced herbal and lemongrass aromas lead into a multi-layered beer with flavours including more citrus, banana and warming spices such as ginger and clove. Country: England Style: Hefeweisse ABV: 3.8% Pair with: Roast chicken, spicy food Colour: Hazy Gold First Released: 2013 Extras: Wheat, Foraged Herbs First up from the BrewDog selection we have a perfect (late) summer cooler an IPA that combines new world hops and the bright flavour of tangerine. We have combined a fairly colossal amount of favourites from the hop store and used them in the boil, whirlpool and then the dry-hop stage to release as much of their aromatic resins as possible. The reason for this is we wanted this IPA to be as citrusy as we could get even before we added the tangerine. The aroma is full-on citrus with an unmistakable salvo of sweet, fresh tangerine on the nose. On the flavour this citrus addition comes over in a more subtle way, when combined with the zesty hops from the dry-hop stage in particular, and the crystal malt. Style: Session IPA ABV: 4.5% Pair with: Lemon and Herbed Sea Bass Hops: Chinook, Ahtanum, Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo, Cascade, Nelson Sauvin Malts: Pale, Cara, Crystal Extras: Tangerine - 4 - - 5 -
BREW BY NUMBERS PALE ALE 21 13 BLACK RYE IPA BREW BY NUMBERS PALE ALE 21 13 BLACK RYE IPA Stop us if this sounds familiar, but BBNo began life with two guys brewing at home, honing their recipes before getting some kit together and pushing the boundaries of brewing. Sound familiar? Tom Hutchings and Dave Seymour are influenced by US IPAs and Belgian styles aplenty, and their brewhouse in Bermondsey is going from strength to strength. Expanding into a second arch which provides a perfect taproom, Brew By Numbers showcase every ingredient under the sun and remain firmly at the forefront of the London brewing scene. Hazy golden and extremely inviting, this beer has a fantastic earthy citrus aroma with a big floral, almost honeysuckle nose. The flavours are similar, with a great balance between grassy dryness and pithy, zesty fruit. Country: England Style: Pale Ale ABV: 5.2% Pair with: Goat s Cheese Tart Hops: Mandarina Bavaria, Loral Released: 31 August The second challenger in this year s Prototype series is one that has a left-right jab of two classic twists on the American IPA. Firstly we added into the malt bill enough Carafa and dark wheat to leave a beer as typifies the modern classic Black IPA style. But we also went ahead and introduced rye into the grist as well, hitting that sweet spot between Rye IPA too. The result is a meeting of two of the titans of the maltster, layered through with a huge addition of C-hops. This is a bitter beer, with the 70 IBU likely leaving a long-lasting assertive bitterness on your palate. Before you get to that point however there is a large flavour peak of dark, cold-brew coffee, dark chocolate and a huge amount of sticky resin and pine flavour. Style: Black IPA ABV: 6.5% Pair with: Burnt Ends IBU: 70 Hops: Amarillo, Simcoe, Citra Malts: Pale, Rye, Carafa, Dark Wheat - 6 - - 7 -
DESCHUTES BLACK BUTTE PORTER DOUBLE IPA DESCHUTES BLACK BUTTE PORTER DOUBLE IPA Bend, Oregon is so-called because of the S-shaped change of direction made by the Deschutes River and it was here back in 1988 that Gary Fish opened a small brewpub, named after that river. It became an institution and in the near-thirty years since has spawned a second brewpub and two breweries the most recent of which is currently being built in Virginia. Radical from the off, the first beer they ever made back in the 80 s was not an IPA but a hoppy porter. The very same beer you are holding at the moment. Deep, dense and resinous, more than any other Black Butte treads the fine line between porter and Black IPA. But don t sweat it. The beer is rich, chocolatey and bittersweet and ends with a creamy roastiness of mocha and piney hops. It is an American classic. Country: USA Style: Porter ABV: 5.2% IBU: 30 Pair with: Choc Chip and Walnut Cookies Hops: Cascade, Bravo, Tettnang Malts: Pale, Carapils, Chocolate, Crystal, Wheat Kettle hopped with Columbus and Simcoe, Whirlpool hopped with Mosaic, Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo and then enormous levels of dryhop with more Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe this is a hopheads dream. Our American ale yeast powered this double IPA through to 8.5% ABV and without the classic US addition of crystal malt it cuts back on the sweetness and body to leave all terrain open to attack from that hopload. This is a US DIPA proudly made in Scotland. We pared back the malt bill to leave a base allowing these hops to shine and they haven t let us down. The malts have left a bone-dry beer ready to be unleashed with flavours of mango, peach, pine, apricot and citrus; intense and vibrant from start to finish. Style: Imperial IPA ABV: 8.5% IBU: 60 Pair with: Carrot Cake Hops: Columbus, Simcoe, Mosaic, Citra, Amarillo Malts: Pale, Maris Otter - 8 - - 9 -
FIRESTONE WALKER WEST SIDE BEAVO BLONDE ALE FIRESTONE WALKER WEST SIDE BEAVO BLONDE ALE Just over twenty years ago, two brothers-inlaw got together to create a brewery in coastal California. Adam Firestone and David Walker proved that business and family do mix, as they escalated the scale of their brewery to enormous levels. One of their chief successes was the hiring of Brewmaster Matt Brynildson since joining he has been named brewer of the year at the GABF in no less than five different years. His recent collaboration with Logan Plant of Beavertown is an India Pale Lager that both of them had been wanting to brew for a long time. Clear, gold and floral this is a lager taken to the next level by judicious levels of American hops. Tropical fruit, citrus, cut grass, stone fruit and slight spice are there and the carbonation lifts everything and carries all these great flavours along for the ride. Country: USA Style: Lager ABV: 6.5% IBU: 17 Pair with: Monterey Jack Burger Colour: Pale Gold Brewed with: Beavertown Our final Prototype Challenger for 2017 was re-brewed following a failure at our taste panel and QA stage first time around. If we don t love something, we don t release it so the contest had three beers and we went back to the drawing board with our German hopped blonde ale. A new recipe and new yeast later and we hit exactly what we had been intending. Sadly too late to make the Prototype competition but too good a beer to not see the light of day. Hopefully you will agree! Hopped with Perle and Mittlefruh but fermented out with British Ale Yeast, this gives a floral and spicy element, tempered by the wheat used in the recipe. It is a meeting of two very different brewing worlds, resulting in something truly fascinating. Style: Blonde Ale ABV: 4.5% IBU: 15 Pair with: Herbed Weissewurst (hold the mustard) Hops: Mittlefruh, Perle Malts: Pale, Wheat - 10 - - 11 -
PIRATE LIFE MOSAIC IPA NINE TO FIVE WIZARD PIRATE LIFE MOSAIC IPA NINE TO FIVE WIZARD We can claim a small but significant part in the history of Adelaide s finest, Pirate Life. Cofounders Jack and Red met whilst working in Aberdeenshire for us at BrewDog, part of our multinational brewing team. On returning home, they worked separately in other craft breweries before partnering up around Christmas 2014 to create their own facility in South Australia. This Mosaic IPA was first brewed as a birthday celebration but became so popular it was switched from one-off draft release to cans, and the festivities have continued ever since. Their all-time favourite hop gets the red-carpet treatment, and responds with a stunning beer of juicy melon, tropical fruit passion fruit, pawpaw and pineapple. And peach. It is like a fruit cocktail in a 500ml can. Country: Australia Style: India Pale Ale ABV: 7.0% Pair with: Cajun Prawns and Rice Hops: Mosaic Firsted brewed: Summer 2017 We love it when we can square two of the world s greatest brewing lineages off against each other the results are almost always fascinating. So it has proved with our latest small-batch canned release Nine to Five Wizard. From the traditional heartlands of Europe; German hops, Bavarian Weizen yeast and armfuls of wheat. And turning west to the US craft beer scene; Cascade hops, crystal malt and 60 IBU of mouth-puckering bitterness. The result? Nine to Five Wizard, a 7.5% ABV German-styled wheat beer packing an American punch. The classic German Weissbier aromas of banana and clove are layered with New World hop notes of orange, mango, pine and grapefruit and these give a rising and refreshing citrus complement to the smooth mouthfeel from the wheat and the fruity esters of the Bavarian yeast. Style: India Pale Weizen ABV: 7.5% Pair with: Spicy Chicken Tacos Hops: Cascade, Magnum, Mandarina Bavaria Malts: Extra Pale, Wheat, Dark Crystal Can Artwork by: Yuko Kondo - 12 - - 13 -
TO ØL PINEAPPLE EXPRESS ABSTRAKT AB:23 TO ØL PINEAPPLE EXPRESS AB:22 There s room for more than one gypsy brewery in Copenhagen. Any similarity to Mikkeller is more than a coincidence, as before he left teaching Mikkel Borg Bjergsø worked after hours in his college s kitchen, brewing recipes with two of his most interested students. Tobias Emil Jensen and Tore Gynther brewed under Mikkel s tutelage on weekday nights, before leaving and forming their own brewery, with a name that translates as two beers. To Øl like their mentor produce an equally vibrant range of releases, in pretty much every style that exists (and a few that don t). Where do you begin with this one? It is a dark, warming and roasty 10% imperial stout with a massive aftertaste of pineapple. The coffee helps with the roastiness but it s the addition of fruit that really makes you sit up and take notice of its brilliance. Country: Denmark Style: Imperial Stout ABV: 10.0% Pair with: Pineapple Cake with Chocolate Sauce Hops: Galena Malts: Aroma Malt, Biscuit Malt, Cara Pils, Chocolate, Pale, Smoked Hops: Pineapple, Coffee Our latest Abstrakt release has spent almost two years hidden away inside bourbon whiskey casks in our Ellon barrel store. Over that time it has taken on an incredible turn of flavour from the first-fill oak, magnifying and rounding out the profile it began with. And that was quite the payload Pale, Munich, Cara, Crystal and Brown malt giving a rich, caramellike backbone for the elements from the wood to interact with. AB:23 is a monument to the effects of time and the interplay between an American malt bill and the pride of that country s distillers. The bourbon ageing lifts the barley wine to rich flavours of stewed orange, blackcurrant, cranberry, and Turkish delight, and malt notes of honey, fruitcake, raisin, sherry, and toffee. This is one complicated beer and best enjoyed in your most comfortable armchair. Style: Barley Wine ABV: 11.5% IBU: 85 Pair with: Vanilla Panna Cotta Hops: Magnum, Simcoe, Mosaic, Ahtanum Malts: Extra Pale, Munich, Cara, Crystal, Brown - 14 - - 15 -
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