Brixton, Megawatt

Drank this last December. Spicy local DIPA in a fancy bottle. The magpie in me snapped this up before the rational me (seldom seen) knew what the fuck was going on.

Tesco Finest, American Double IPA (Brewdog Hardcore IPA)

9.2% of (Brewdog) IPA from Tesco for £1.99?? Yes please.

To Øl, Final Frontier

DIPA from Danish geeks To Øl. Dark in colour with an insane head. Gloopy and thick.

Aamger Bryghus, Sinners Series: Gluttony

After our anniversary trip to Copenhagen (didn't visit the Amager brewery, but then it was an anniverary trip wasn't it), I had a bit of a greed to the Danish beers in. Luckily for me, I managed to snaffle a few of the remaining stock that Beers Of Europe had. This DIPA from Amager was orange/lemon/lime on the nose, grapefruit and bitter orange in the gob along with (my notes say) "clean mediterranean forest and yeast". (Make of that what you will #craftwanker.) Very light, couldn't be described as thick (as you might expect from a DIPA). No trace of booze whatsoever. At 9.7%, you could get blind drunk off this very easily indeed.

Weird Beard Co, Holy Hoppin' Hell Part 3

Stale hops with minimal citrus sniffed off the bottle neck. Taste is overwhelmingly solvet - nail varnish remover. (Excessive ethyl acetate as a by product of aggressive (too warm?) fermentation of the yeast? Have I got that right?) A chewy, grassy hop bitterness, which was great, but the chemically edge still lingered for most of this. The gentle caramelly malt profile came through as my glass warmed. The after-bitterness lingered but it wasn't that strong. Overall, a slightly disappointing instalment in the Holy Hoppin' DIPA series from Weird Beard.

Stone Brewing Company, Ruination IPA

Vicky and I shared this bottle after a long drive back from visiting my extended family for Wigilia. Previously, we'd both sampled this (double?) IPA from Stone on keg at the Westow where it was quite impressive: hazy, thick, obviously obscenely hoppy and brilliant (and possibly a lower abv?). I'm afraid to say that this bottle didn't quite measure up. Hoppy yes, piney bitterness yes, but not thick, not hazy and unfortunately not my cuppa to be honest. I was expecting something akin to Racer 5 - bottle conditioned with a good amount of the relevant body to it, but more so for a DIPA at 8%+¹. This was, dare I say it, actually a bit thin? For me, the Danes and O'Riordan do DIPAs better. This bottle set me back £4.60(ish) from Utobeer.

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1 Of course I've been griping about the yeast in BC beers in recent posts, but it certainly seems that BC'd IPAs produce my favourite type, i.e: Hoppiness, nearly all Kernels and Rechurch Great Eastern.

Weird Beard Co, Holy Hoppin' Hell #1

My first experience of this line from Weird Beard was when I had the #2 version out of a plastic cup, courtesy of a tap takeover at the Look Mum No Hands pop up (part of last summer's Neighbourhood Festival at the South Bank). That one was a hefty 9.5% (iirc) which might possibly have been a bit to much, the alcohol being pretty obvious. The bottle photographed above was a take away from Beer Rebellion. It might not have been strictly speaking super-fresh, but was great nonetheless - Rio Riva, Lilt and pineapple flavours, a decent viscosity tempered with an appropriate level of carbonation.

It's not the drink, but who you're with: on another occasion, I shared a bottle of this with 2 friends (also at Beer Rebellion - basically a quadruple shot measure each?) one of whom is familiar with US style beer, the other a Belgian beer freak. The beer tasted better than I had experienced it before and my 2 esteemed colleagues loved it.

Kernel Brewery, Double Citra

My first DIPA experience I think? Set the bar really quite high this one from Kernel. Very hazy pour, much deeper in colour than the pale ale version (being drunk next to me by my wife). Obviously a fat and healthy body to it. Intense tropical flavours. Pursing the lips after swallowing seemed to trap the alcohol around the gums - you could certainly get a feeling for the 9.7% alcohol this way. I liked this drink quite a bit - I felt it deserved the Tarkovsky background.

Odell Brewery, Myrcenary

My second experience of the DIPA style (after a recent double citra from Kernel) - the Myrcenary from Odell Brewing Company. I remember this one pouring more or less the same colour as a commercial lager. The nose was relatively subdued and despite a commendably disguised abv, the taste was actually quite lacking - nothing really jumped out at me. Bit of a disappointment really - 90s pretty much across the board on the beer rating sites, so I was expecting something rich, citrusy and full bodied. Hmmm. Again, as with the standard IPA, this bottle was from the start of the year and I was drinking it some months later. Maybe this had something to do with it, maybe not. Purchased from Mr Lawrence.