Upcoming brews - the latest from BrewDog HQ

Batten down the hatches, a veritable storm of brews are heading your way. Four (yes, four) collaborations, five breweries, and our latest experimental series too – here’s what we’re working on right now.

Fermentation Vessel:

FV 103, 108, 110, BBT 401: Russian Doll

We’ve got previous form when it comes to digging into what each ingredient or process in a brew brings to the table – whether it’s showcasing a range of hoppy awesomeness with IPA is Dead (18 different hop varieties so far!), putting our tiny yeasty friends centre stage with Unleash the Yeast, or barrel ageing our Paradox Stout in whatever gnarly old whisky casks we can lay our hands on.

This time, we’re tweaking the formula to go deep into what defines a beer – the malt backbone that everything else is built on. By changing the ratios of Extra Pale, Cara and Dark Crystal malts we can brew a pale ale, an IPA, a double IPA, and a barley wine – a little family of beers - ranging through 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% ABV. Brewed with the same malts, the same hops (Simcoe, Citra, Cascade and Centennial) and the same yeast, Russian Doll is a simple concept, but one that will bring the differences in the malt bill to centre stage. From the hop forward session pale, through the bold biting IPA, via the punchy bitter double IPA, to the chewy, fruity barley wine, we’ve brewed all of these styles before, but this time we’re binding them together in an awesome malt frenzy. Expect Russian Doll in early September.

FV 202: CAP DOG

Sweden’s CAP are one of our favourite up and coming craft breweries, so much so that they are joint-first in line for the BrewDog Development Fund. CAP stands for Curious Audacious Products, so needless to say we’re super-excited about this cascara-infused collab brew. CAP came over and spent the day developing and brewing this twisted black IPA. Dark malt adds colour, and cascara (coffee berry) adds a subtle cranberry tartness and a hint of dark berry fruitiness. Currently fermenting away in tank, we expect this imperial strength brew to reach an impressive 100 IBU. Curious and audacious indeed!

Bright beer tank:

BBT 404: Magic Stone Dog

We have an awesome history of collaborating with our all-time favourite craft brewers (Stone, in case you’re just joining us), including Juxtaposition Black Pilsner, and Bashah – arguably our most sought-after brew ever. We seem to have developed a bit of a black beer theme along the way, with small batch brews like Black Dog, and Black Eyed Joe. However, there’s a beer in BBT now that’s finally about to buck that trend.

A hoppy menage a trois of epic proportions, Magic Stone Dog is a rustic farmhouse pale ale mash up. Brewed in collaboration with Greg Koch (Stone) and Rich and Stu (Magic Rock) just before our AGM, Magic Stone Dog has the best qualities of a saison and a pale ale, combined. This bright, zesty, subtly tart, Belgian-inspired brew is almost ready to bottle, just in time to enjoy during the Indian summer we all know is definitely coming. Definitely. For sure.

Just off the Bottling line:

I Hardcore You

When the unstoppable force of Hardcore IPA meets the immovable object that is I Beat You, the inevitable fall-out is I Hardcore You; a double whammy of super-intense imperial IPAs, blended to anarchic perfection. I Hardcore You is BrewDog and Mikkeller’s insanely bitter, hoppy bastard lovechild.

Electric India

A rebrew of last summer’s smash hit hoppy saison, Electric India. We haven’t changed a thing since we brewed this with 200 Equity Punks -  it’s a fresh, bitter, fruity saison, with bags of orange and spicy notes, a lightly tart flavour, and a refreshing effervescent mouthfeel. We’ve been hankering after this since last summer’s batch ran out – so it’s a good thing it’s available online right now and from 6pm on Friday in our bars!

U-Boat

Last on the list but first to be brewed, U-Boat is a Victory Brewing / BrewDog collaborative smoked porter. Loosely based on Victory’s Baltic Thunder, this smoky subversive leviathian was brewed with a tonne of speciality malts using lager yeast, and took two months to mature. It’s huge, sweet, chewy, smoky and bold, and will be a perfect barbecue accompaniment. U-Boat launches in our bars, including Stockholm, Gothenburg and Florence, on Friday at 6pm BST, and is available on the online shop here.