A Black Pilsner (!)
A collaboration between BrewDog, Stone Brewing and Cambridge Brewing Co. 10% ABV - Systembolaget Article Number 11733. 66 SEK (330ml bottle). Hurry - almost sold out!
Is there really such a thing as a black pilsner? Well there is now, although this is more dark, dark brown than black, with a short-lived praline coloured head. It looks ominous in the glass, as though it's warning you about what's coming next...........
Smell it poured straight from the fridge and you'll get fairly tame tinned lychees and pineapple in syrup, with a medium roasted impression. Let it warm up a notch and suddenly things get REALLY interesting and intense, with wood, smoke and tar complementing the tropical fruit smells. It's boozy hot too.
There's more twists and turns in this beer than in a Dan Brown Novel. At first you get some sticky sweet malts and spicy liquorice and anise only to be brutally pushed aside by hot tarmac (like licking a road in the middle of summer) bitter chocolate and ash followed by a rasping salty bitterness that assaults your tongue and throat, giving your whole mouth a remorseless thumping. This is tough beer love.
Such an aggressive beer is probably best enjoyed alone as it will bully most foods into submission. Possibly game and wild meats would have the fortitude to mix it up with this beer - but I doubt it.
Nerd note
Juxtaposition - noun - an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast. This insane beer is all about contrasts. A pilsner that's black, a sweet aroma followed by a ferociously bitter finish and then there's the hops....Japanese Sorachi Ace hops and Motueka hops from New Zealand for their intensely hoppy and bitter notes and the European Saphir hop with its beautiful old world fruity flavours. There's so much going on in this experimental brew by this trilogy of bleeding edge brewers that I was left at the bottom of my glass with a rather dazed expression, wondering whether I'd just had a great beer experience or whether I'd just been had. I think it was the former.
Rating
4.0 of 5
