BrewDog is underrated.

I'm sure there's a few but a large part of their high productivity is simply tweaking base recipes, playing around with hops, different whiskies in the imperial stouts etc.

 

No, I was comparing like for like as far as I could.
When I drink an 8.5% stout which has less presence than many of the genre with little more than half that strength , the DIPA at 9.2% ABV which has less character than many much weaker beers , the 77 lager which could be mistaken for a 3.5% light mild ..........I've tried well over a dozen of their offerings and been underwhelmed.
Strong beer is fine as long as it tastes like one.
Cask beer is pretty easy to find in the UK , I like it because it allows the beer to develop and be sampled at its best.For export it isn't really an option but when a brewery has the chance to offer its beers at their best and choose not to, that speaks for itself.

 

Again, could be a generational thing here Marquis (sorry - I'm not being ageist here but I am used to drinking with different generations of drinkers, my father included!) ...

When I have a high ABV beer, say a 9% imperial stout, I'm actually looking for it to disguise the alcohol well and not come across as boozey. To me, that is the mark of a good high ABV beer, hidden well integrated alcohol and drinkability.

I've had this discussion with some of the 'senior' beer men at work and if they have a high ABV beer, say 6% plus old ale/strong ale - they want to taste booze!

I prefer subtle.

 

This is of course the story that is heavily pushed by Brewdog's London PR agency, but it's not true. Camden Town Brewery stopped doing cask a couple of years ago (because the majority of their output was in keg lager anyway) and the reaction from CAMRA was “oh, that’s a shame,” not hatred. I and many others continue to drink Camden’s excellent lagers.

Lots of breweries make keg beer without becoming “CAMRA hate figures” as you put it: Harviestoun, Kernel, Harbour, Williams Bros, Thornbridge, Meantime etc. etc. etc.

Brewdog are disliked because they completely cynically used lazy mainstream stereotypes about beer to attack CAMRA and other British brewers, just to build their own brand.

 

I say hate figure loosely !

More in the sense that they are dismissed by most old school CAMRA members as they don't produce cask beers.

The difference between BD and those brewers that you list above is that they also produce cask beers. (with the exception of Meantime I think)

 

Hiding the alcohol is one thing, missing out on flavour and mouthfeel is a different matter altogether.

 

I knew there was another reason why I liked Ruds - other than being a regular at The Cask.

 

Rare event - never made it down the Cask last week, elected to work at home on Friday.

Will be down next week prior to the Surrey T20 on Friday - Punters last game for us ! ! !

 

This sums many things nicely, gives a bit of history, and is worth a careful read.

http://badassdigest.com/2012/05/10/brewdog-love-em-or-hate-em-you-cant-ignore-them/

 

Because their beers are generally unimpressive. I tasted all and drank several of their beers at their Glasgow pub two weeks ago. Typical overhopped, double this and that, type beers that have been common in the US for more than a decade. The type of beers many longtime craft drinkers have gotten very tired of.

At least here most good beer bars offer a wide range of crafts that appeal to a variety of tastes. Brewdog pubs only have double hop bomb types. Very boring.

 

Curious, did you find a pub in Glasgow that offered a wide range of beers that would appeal to a variety of tastes? If so, could you mention them? Thanks.

Edit: My experience there was that variety was served only by changing pubs.... And even then only by the guest beers since one brewer's bitter is often quite like that of a dozen others.

 

I do the same thing. But I think Jackhammer and Anarchist/Alchemist are two of the best IPAs I've ever had, and I love their experimental stuff, so I think it's worth it.

As for Tactical Nuclear Penguin--try it with three years on it. Fresh was like shoe polish. But in 36 months my bottle has mellowed like a beautiful scotch.

 

You can't expect the full variety of styles of our keg beers in a cask ale pub in Britain anymore than you could expect 10 - 12 well kept cask ales on handpump in any of our bars. It's an apples to oranges comparison. I don't go to Britain seeking a replication of our beer scene, I enjoy the uniqueness of theirs.

That being said, Tennents, Bon Accord, and The Three Judges were all offering a nice range of cask ales, from many light summer types to bitters, ipa's, and porters and stouts - some at higher abv's.

 

I drank a couple cans of Dead Pony Club while in Paris and found it pretty enjoyable. They did a collab with Stone a few years back that was pretty damn good too. But Bitch Please was just ok.

All in all, I don't have much a problem with them.

 

Agreed! I was lucky enough to stop by this past June, and loved every one of their beers so much my wife and I went back the next day. Not a bad beer in the bunch, and I think they had 10 on tap. Great staff too, who really know their stuff.

 

Unfortunately that's something I often experience with 3.5% ABV cask twig beer.

 

By abandoning cask BrewDog have really cornered themselves. Love the new craft scene here in the UK and actually my recent fav beers have all come from new independents, broadly in the craft circle, who happen to use cask (and keg). But its their cask offerings which are the best. Thornbridge, Tempest, Tiny Rebel etc

 

Brewdog opened the way for keg to succeed in the UK when it came to real craft. Rebelled against CAMRA and its traditionally held notions that cask is supreme to drive a new era in British brewing. Those who are not intimately aligned with CAMRA should recognise and embrace this.

 

Not having read every other post before mine.. I believe it has been the price of beers, and also how they are so outdated in the States. When I was living abroad in the UK, it was readily available.. tap and bottles.. The stores here have Punk that went out of date in '11!!!! Multiple stores.. What is this!

 

I'm not at all aligned with CAMRA, but find Brewdog's beers over hopped and an obvious attempt to replicate the type of beers I tired of in the US years ago.

Cask remains supreme in Britain and I'm fine with it.