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Tasting Notes: Brewdog: Sunk Punk
Brewdog: Sunk Punk (Scotland: IPA: 7.1% ABV)
Visual: Clear browned amber. Good inch of beige head. Very loose bubbles in the head, but a thin head remains throughout the beers drinking.
Nose: Slight rocks and hops. Sea breeze. Prickly like gherkin jars. Passion fruit. Pickled chillies. Mandarin orange. Gingerbread. Warms to strawberry touch.
Body: Hops and rock salt, Malt loaf. Spirit like touches. Cherry elements. Custard and malt back. Grapefruit. Spirit soaked raisins. Greenery – seaweed? Nettles.
Finish: Pickled gherkin. Charring. Salt. Clean vodka touch. Smoke. Very dry bitter hops to the end.
Conclusion: The? Fuck? No seriously. The fuck? What is this, I don’t even…Ok start again. This beer is all salt and gherkin and hops and spirit and at least two of them I thought I would never use to describe a beer. Underneath you have the hop fruitiness playing well in a much more comprehensible fashion. Still, the heck? This is not something I was expecting in a beer.
This is a beer that takes its nautical styling seriously. Distinct saltiness that leaves you more thirsty than before after each sip. Some seaweed like elements. If a beer can tell a story then this one is a novel. Oddly I couldn’t sense the declared rum used in making it, Then again with rum being so sugary possibly it was mostly attenuated during fermentation. Maybe.
Interjection: God damn that saltiness is odd, I’m half way through the bottle and while it isn’t overwhelming I do feel the need to rack up a water chaser for the end. The beer is really tingly as well, then dry and bitter at the end. You get nettles and chilli style tingle for most of the beer.
So with all that I can’t say it is a classic beer, its just too damn far removed from what I would call a beer drinking experience. I mean I dig the rocky salty style of Islay whisky, but they don’t leave me parched like this. Its interesting for all it’s oddities it is so dull on the eye. Despite that they have a solid fruity hop beer at the base and then just shoved the most unusual stuff they could in there.
I can’t recommend picking it up for the taste, as you can get a lot better for the cash. Heck of a unique experience though, rough and kinda mental. Great texture, good background flavours, but not my favourite beer. Glad to have tried it, but not one I will try again.
Background: Well I say IPA, this thing is a real oddity in every sense. Despite everyone calling it an IPA it was made with lager yeast. Dunno if that makes it an IPL. Anyway the reason lager yeast was used was to allow it to ferment at lower temperatures. By lower I mean under the water. Yes, this, Brewdog’s latest headline grabbing stunt was brewed at the bottom of the sea. To keep the theme they used buckweed, sea salt and rum in the making of it. No I’m not making this shit up. They really did this. For reference here is their, somewhat mental, promo video
To think I was jealous when I heard about Rogues Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Porter, as I knew that madness would not hit the UK. Little did I know Scotland was going to do its own insanity. So With less than a thousand bottles made I thought I would have to give this madness a try.
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