BrewDog is underrated.

In such examples it isn't because it's cask but because the beer itself is lacking.
My remark was about beers with substantially higher strength, implying the use of more ingredients,which don't deliver the goods.I once tried Heineken after a pint of Brewster's Hophead and a pint of Marquis (the latter is a good old fashioned brown 3.8% beer) and despite the Heineken being 5% ABV I was literally and embarassingly unable to detect any flavour whatsoever.

 

Cask is not a sort of beer , simply how it's dispensed.
It allows the beer to develop and blossom in a way that keg/bottled beer simply cannot.
The vast majority of cask beer is craft as our American friends would term it.
CAMRA is an organisation founded on and dedicated to unprocessed beer.Like Wimbledon is to tennis, Lord's is to cricket and Cruft's is to dogs.Don't expect them to support horse racing, that's not what they are for.

 

"real craft" ? LOL

 

i can understand the lack of interest in the US, with so many options that are available locally that will be fresher and cheaper; there really is not a whole lot of reason to pay a premium. I think they do europe and other countries with few options a pretty good service with some solid hoppy beers/american styles at a relatively affordable price...

 

Brewdog=Image of me dropping a deuce with a look of sheer disappointment.

 

I think I would rather spend the same amount and get actual Scotch. You don't even have to wait three years to drink it. The distilleries are nice enough to age it for you so that it doesn't taste like shoe polish.

 

Your example is not compelling. Given the order in which you drank the three very different beers it tells us more about the ability of your taste buds, etc. to recover their neutrality than it tells us about flavors of the beers. And even though you don't believe in "beer styles" each of those beers is brewed to different sets of standards. More compelling would be three different bitters, three different browns or three different Euro Pale Lagers.

 

True as far as it goes. It was more an example of how good brewing skills with judicious choice of ingredients can brew cracking good tasty beer of low ABV.A 5% beer brewed as in my examples would be even more flavoursome. Point is that I couldn't taste ANYTHING at all with the Heineken , it could have been cold bath water , I'm not exaggerating and I expected something to get through given the extra 40% of ingredients , nothing did. It's a bit like the BD beers I've tried, they simply don't have the flavour levels that one would expect from the gravities and styles.

 

Your critical assumption here is that with all other things being equal more ingredients should produce a more flavorful beer. But my point is that not all other things are equal.

The brewers of the bitter and the brown have a very different goal in mind than the Heineken brewers and wish to pack as much flavor into the beer as they can extract from the ingredients they use and given their low ABV target. The Heineken brewers are looking to satisfy the tastes of people who don't want rich, strong, complex flavors in their beer. They want something light, crisp, clean, inoffensive and with a bit higher ABV. Your taste test demonstrates that they were successful in hitting their target and that they produced a beer that’s not suited for what you prefer.

As for the BD beers their target audience is one that wants something different from their beers than you want from the ones you drink. That they don't meet your criteria is fine, but for other people they are doing somethings spot on, at least judging from their bottom line.

 

" They want something light, crisp, clean, inoffensive and with a bit higher ABV."

You have aptly described the reason for heineken's popularity and longevity worldwide. I actually like it (go ahead tease=) It is a go to beer when personal tastes or menus contain unknowns. I find the taste of it "optimistic." It was the first beer I ever really drank rather than tasted and I would not refuse it if it was offered.

In my neck of the woods brewdog is expensive and an "old" beer on the shelf. Last one I saw had a best by date of 1/13. it is overrated imho.

 

Really, you can't use Heineken (at 5% ABV) to represent craft beer as a comparison to lower gravity cask beer. Obviously the cask beer wins every time. And modern higher gravity craft beer is so much better than that. The point is that all too commonly there's still a shedful of under flavored under powered cask beer out there where craft keg fills the hole. But when done well, such as the couple of pints of cask Tempest Pale Ale I had with tut earlier in the month, there is probably nothing better.

 

1, no they didn't
2, no they didn't
3, see response to 1 & 2

 

The cask Temple Pale Ale was excellent and I had two in a row, which is very rare due to my love of variety. It was everything a cask ale should be.

 

I just cracked a sherry wood 1965 Macallan, bottled in 1983. Macallan was nice enough to age it for 17 years. The collector I got it from was nice enough to cellar it for another 30.

Tasting back to back against a 25yr Macallan sherry wood bottled in 2012, the '65 is better on nearly every note you can describe.

I've spent many years collecting vintage bottles of whiskey, which many claim cease to age once they're bottled. And I've spent many years tasting old bottles against new bottles. I've found that scotch (and bourbon) improves with age, even in the bottle. So I don't mind letting them sit for a few years or decades. Which is why I've got cellared verticals of BCBS, Dark Lord, Behemoth, and many other beers. They improve with time.

The Tactical Nuclear Penguin got better with age. A lot better. I found this to be fascinating enough to share with BAs here, many who cellar beer like I do, many who might avoid TNP because it wasn't pleasant when it first came out and got bad reviews.

I dunno if it was the actual aging that mellowed it out, or the exposure to air (TNP is uncarbonated and comes with a stopper, so I've had a few ounces left in the bottle for three years), or some combination. But it is now very drinkable, and it's a beer tasting experience unlike any other (the closest is '94 SA Triple Bock). You just can't find anything else like it.

IMO, spending on scotch what TNP costs would get you a decent--not spectacular--bottle of scotch. But I've spent a lot of money on old bottles of Utopias, Thomas Hardy, and Bass King's Ale, and I think the TNP holds up or surpasses many of these. Plus, a hundred dollar bottle of scotch is hardly unique. A 32% abv beer is much rarer.

My point is that sometimes it's okay to wait for the alcohol to age a bit before drinking. And while BrewDog might have avoided a lot of bad reviews if they'd aged it before releasing it, my bottle is very drinkable now and I'm very pleased to have purchased it, even though I had to wait a while.

 

If you think anything by Brewdog is better than Thomas Hardy’s Ale you are on fucking crack.

 

That's fine. You clearly have thousands upon thousands more in disposable income than me. I'll just keep buying really good beer that's in my price range, ie., pretty much nothing that BrewDog makes. For what it's worth, two 375s of TNP would cost about the same as a 750 ml bottle of Glenlivet Nadurra, my favorite scotch (of the very few I've had). I can't afford it either, so again, I'll just stick with good beer in my price range.

 

Thomas Hardy...it is so overrated! Overly sweet mess.

 

So, who then?

Just some articles to back me up (and of course their brews):

http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/camra-cancels-brewdogs-gbbf-bar

http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/craft-beer-v-real-ale

http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/a-great-british-trademark-dispute

http://sabotagetimes.com/life/camra-brewdog-and-the-craft-beer-conspiracy/

Then what's your problem?

Being a part of the GBBF I can see that you wouldn't agree with my assessment of brewdog's achievements.

 

Our local big liquor/beer chain for Texas, Spec's, actually publishes all the prices from its' main location in Houston online.

Here's every Brewdog beer (more or less) distributed here w/ prices:
http://www.specsonline.com/cgi-bin/showpage?keyword=brewdog&pageid=search

Highlights:
-4pk Hardcore IPA - $12.62
-4pk Punk IPA - $10.52
-4pk 5am Saint - $10.52
-Paradox Isle of Arran (12oz) - $10.52
-Sink the Bismarck - $101.67
-Tactical Nuclear Penguin - $84.20
... and yes, those last 2 are actually still sitting around at most locations, lol. (they keep them in the back)

 

Inner City Green was a very decent beer. I miss it.