2012 New Year’s Resolution
06.01.2012
We know Punk IPA have been a little inconsistent of late. Here is why and here is what we are going to do about it.
However before we get onto that, 2012 is going to see an evolution of BrewDog. We have definitely created loads of buzz over the last couple of years but the main aim this year is to get people speaking about what is in their glass as opposed to all the other stuff. No fighting with CAMRA, no falling out with Germans, no punishing animals with sticks and no legal battle with the Portman Group. Instead a huge focus on making spell binding beers and opening some awesome new bars for you to enjoy great craft beers in. With building the new brewery we are going to be too busy for taxidermy anyway.
Ensuring all our beers are consistently great is always very high on our hit-list. We have been pretty dialled in with Hardcore, 5am Saint, Tokyo* and the others recently (and the soon to be released Paradox Jura is off the charts). However we are also our own harshest critics and Punk IPA has not always been at it’s sparkling, hoppily enchanting best over the past couple of months.
A few factors have thrown Punk IPA ever so slightly off course. Firstly the new annual harvest of malt has had a massively different fermentation profile to the previous years. This means the beer has been consistently over-attenuating (fermenting too far) resulting in a little less mouth feel and malt flavour, not the intended balance between malt sweetness and hop bitterness, and a little perceived astringency from the slightly higher than intended alcohol. All just tiny things, but together they change the profile of the beer. And it takes a little bit of time to adjust the recipe for the changes in malt.
At the same time as we had issues dialling in the new malt, we ran out of some of our 2011 hop armoury. We have to order hops a year in advance and we ran out of some varieties in November and were missing the awesome Simcoe for a few weeks, a hop which is key to Punk IPA. (We forecasted the hell out of our hops for 2012 and definitely won’t run out again – even with our hopping rates!) The timing sucked and the lack of this key hop, during a period when the fermentation profile of the new malt was causing issues combined to throw a little off track.
Being our flagship beer it is really important to us that Punk IPA always dazzles and whilst it has still been good, good is never even close to good enough for us. It has not been epic and it has not been exactly where we want it to be in terms of flavour. We want to ensure everytime you grab a Punk IPA you are blown away on a happy, hoppy tidal wave of Chinook, Nelson Sauvin and Simcoe. And this year we will.
Being handcrafted and brewed on a small scale and with variances in the fresh, natural ingredients we source, we can never be consistently uniform but we can always strive be consistently epic if you will.
So, a much more intense focus on the contents of your glass, less of a focus on the periphery scandals and some awesome new bars. Let’s burn up 2012.
Comments
- Maybe one more to add. No more photoshoots with screaming 'punk' models. Please... for the sake of the world. Josh08.01.2012
- Caption Competition #22 winner still unannounced? Happy New Year to Brewdog! ?08.01.2012
- Nice beard Callum07.01.2012
- Are we going to brew another Equity for Punks beer this year?
Tom07.01.2012 - Last twice I had Punk was pretty solid - BrewDog Edinburgh on keg and canned from Sainsburys. Mr T07.01.2012
- Love the hop image above - any chance of a download.
Mike T07.01.2012 - To help with capacity until we get to the new brewery (which starts building in February) we have brewed one batch at Thwaites so far. It was packaged in November last year and the beer was great.
James, BrewDog07.01.2012 - I am very partial to Simcoe. Glad you have some back!
Simon07.01.2012 - Some clarification please, is Punk being brewed AT Thwaites or BY Thwaites? Some here seem to think the two are interchangeable or are pretending to. albatross06.01.2012
- Here we go. Brewdog IPA brewed under license by Thwaites... mico131406.01.2012
- @ HP - Martin and Bowman went down to Thwaites and brewed a batch of Punk IPA there for canning and it was brilliant.
James, BrewDog06.01.2012 - May sound silly, but the best Punk Ive drunk yet, was only last week in Aberdeen bar. Was amazingly good.
Brian06.01.2012 - And here all this time I thought Hardcore was the flagship beer.
I haven't had a bad Punk here on this side of the pond. But I know I've only had the Punk in a can twice and to my humble taste buds, Punk in a can is head and shoulders above Punk in a bottle.
Bracken's Bitches06.01.2012 - Thanks for posting this. Love Punk - at it's best nothing else even comes close.
Matt T06.01.2012 - Thanks for posting this. Love Punk - at it's best nothing else even comes close.
Matt T06.01.2012 - Just received half an order from november any idea about the rest? Are there stock issues with there is no santa and the russian imperial stout? Not had any info about the other half m06.01.2012
- I knew it...I've been saying for weeks now that the Punk tastes weird. My friends weren't convinced mind you! Acht well al just need to drink more Hardcore!!! theface77706.01.2012
- Ive been lucky not to have had a bad bottle of Punk while others seem to have been not so lucky, but it's good to see that you'll be giving it attention. Also, when is Paradox Jura out? BottleCapper06.01.2012
- I'm with tacticalb. 5am saint seems to be the beer that has suffered most. Very inconsistent and never the beer it used to be. I had a bottle last week which poured murky brown with hardly any hops and a sour finish, this batch shouldn't have been sold. Most other times I've tried it, it looks good, the malt is spot on but it tastes mostly of Nelson, tastes almost the same as punk. I fell in love with 5am when it tasted predominantly of simcoe, what happened to that big passion fruit flavour? BenH06.01.2012
- "A few factors have thrown Punk IPA ever so slightly off course."
As far as the cans are concerned at least, surely it's that it's being brewed by Thwaites under licence?H.P. LoveCraft06.01.2012 - i would personally say that i have never had a problem with punk ipa. i love 5am saint but havent drunk it for months as every bottle i drink just doesnt have that lovely sweet mouthfeel and pine hop character in the mouth, very dissapointing. :) tacticalb06.01.2012
- For me nothing has beaten batch 290. If you can get back to that then many more people will be drinking Punk IPA in 2012. T06.01.2012
- I have had a number of Punk IPA's, the first was absolutely stunning - the next 6 not so much!
The problem was not that it was a bad beer, but that it had faded (I got the beer from your web shop). I don't think an IPA like Punk has a shelf life of much more than 4 months.
Maybe something you should look at?Mark Richards06.01.2012 - Interesting insight guys and thanks for filling in some of the gaps. As an investor its both reassuring and cool to see these type of open information blogs being posted.Looking forward to tasting the delights of 2012's Punk IPA. Keep up the great work. Joseph06.01.2012
- I can understand how the harvest from this year can be so difficult was massive differences throughout some fields let alone anything else.
Always good to see the focus on quality and innovation.
Let's look forward to you rocking 2012.Rob M06.01.2012 - Thanks for the clarification. I did have one bottle that were not like normal Punk.
Good you are working on it and enjoyed the interesting insight into small batch brewing.Adrian06.01.2012