17 May 2014

Brains Boilermaker Beer (Tesco @brainsbrewery) [By @SpectreUK]


I couldn't quite decide how this Boilermaker, by Brains Craft Brewery, could possibly live up to it's name. There was an industrious scene of busy brewery machinery on the label that went some way to explain the name. I read the label on the back of the bottle. "Copper coloured" sounded pretty industrious. "Brewed with Ben and Tom from Thinking Drinkers" sounded okay, although I'm ashamed to confess that I haven't heard of them, or have and haven't had one of their beers for a good long while. This beer was brewed with Chinook (not the helicopter), Simcoe, Cascade, and Willamette hops, which sounded like a pretty complex jumble of flavours. To top it all off this beer was matured with Penderyn Whisky infused oak chips. It sounded like it really needed all the machinery on the front of the label to brew this 330ml bottled beer. And at 6.5% volume it sounded pretty strong too.

After all that reading I couldn't help but pop open the bottletop. I must have naively turned away from the bottle for less than ten seconds. When I turned back the beer was trying desperately to escape across the kitchen surface. Like an overheating boiler this beer was as lively as it was tasty. I could well imagine little brewers (maybe Ben and Tom?) crazily trying to keep this beer from escaping from inside the bottle. After I'd managed to save over half the beer by diving Indianna Jones style onto the bottle and pouring it into my eager beer mug, I could concur that this frothy beer was indeed copper in colour. It had a spicy hoppy smell to it with a wisp of whisky in the after odour. This complex hoppy smell transcended to the flavour with both citrus and spicy undertones to the bitter hoppy taste, followed at a very close hop skip and an over athletic jump by the whisky thwack. This beer left a glorious bitter bitey whisky aftertaste in my mouth, which simply left my palate begging for more. I could have merrily dived into my own frothy cask of this beer and couldn't help feeling envious of Ben and Tom. They certainly know what they're thinking those fellows, but be warned; this is a very lively beer indeed. Pour immediately on opening!

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