Donkeyboy
Brewski

 

 

A 330ml bottle with a best before date of 19th June 2019, ‘B8 janssons’. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.

Appearance: A hazy golden orange colour with a two finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly but left some nice lacing.

Aroma: Mango, pineapple, melon, lime and lemon with some herbal notes.

Taste: Lightly bitter, lime rind, lemon, herbal with hints of mango and pineapple.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation and light alcohol here and there.

Overall: This was ok, but maybe a bit too much herbal notes and that light alcohol booziness was perhaps a distraction.

 

 

So yeah, the first Brewski I tried: Mango Hallon Feber was a total wash - something went wrong in that bottle/batch because it was crazy overcarbed and spicy-hot with hop bitterness, like a hop tea (made with hop pellets and water - pure hops, pure bitterness, and spicy). I’m pinning my hopes on Donkeyboy being drinkable as I could tell from the aroma of the last one that these Brewski guys make real craft brews, so let’s move on from the disaster that was Mango Hallon Feber - and all hail Donkeyboy! Plus this one has the most interesting label - not that labels have ever been a solid criteria of mine, it is nice to look upon a decent label every once and a while but if a beer with a crap label tastes awesome who cares about the label right?

Poured from a 330ml bottle into a Duvel tulip.

A: This one pours and looks fairly normal: Cloudy pale golden body replete with hop particles floating around, with a thin white ring instead of a head, looks much less gassy too (bonus!). 8/10.

S: Aroma is massive ripe pineapple and papaya hops with an almost herbal/green passionfruit quality as well, it’s basically just hops mate - if you’re looking for hops you found ‘em, right ‘ere. Surprisingly though I actually preferred the aroma of Mango Hallon Feber (just not the rest). 8/10.

T: Back to normality (in a good way!) with Donkeyboy - this is classic DIPA territory: Hints of pineapple and papaya, much more piney and herbal than expected, dry cracker malt base and a touch of spice in the finish with a medium bitterness. Very refreshing given the 8% ABV - doesn’t cloy in the slightest. Hint of alcohol in there, but not enough to detract. Again the question is how did a beer this hop fresh get from Sweden to Australia without hop fade? I can only imagine how many hop cones were crammed into this tasty beverage. 9/10.

M: Fairly decent here too (so far looks like Mango Hallon Feber was a one-off) medium bodied with a reasonably dense but yielding carbonation, pretty much on the money. 8/10.

D: Eminently drinkable (thank Buddha!) and up there with the best, especially how fresh it tastes after travelling the globe to get to my greasy mits. Well I’m back to looking forward to the rest of the Brewski’s now. In fact I’m tempted to get a couple more bottles of this - rarely do DIPAs this fresh come along. 10/10.

Food match: Vietnamese rice paper rolls with sweet soy dipping sauce.

 

Brewski might makes the juicest beer in Europe right now.

L - hazy pale yellow / straw colour with a nice white head, lacing all along

S - lemon, orange, orchard fruits, herbs, peach,

T - Follow the smell, very dank, perfect balance. Not boozy at all for the abv, very refreshing, peppery, onion

M - juicy

O - A wonderful dipa. They can't do no wrong

 

 

Pours an unclear orange, with thick foam.

Smell is packed with citrus, a bit sweet and tart, with some minerals floating around.

Taste is citrusy, with hints of pine. Fairly substantial bitterness, but well balanced and drinkable.

Mouthfeel is medium, a bit sticky. Well carbonated.

Overall, another very good hoppy beer from Brewski, well balanced as always with some interesting minerality (?) on the nose.

 

 

Sample at Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen 2017, green session. Hazy golden color with off-white head. Aroma has chives, dank hops and mushy fruits. Tastes like a dank, oniony hop juice. Smooth mouthfeel.