Tastingt Notes: Brewdog: Prototype 27

Brewdog: Prototype 27 (Scotland: Fruit Imperial IPA: 9.3% ABV)

Visual: A dark cherryaid red with little surviving head and a medium run of bubbles.

Nose: Raspberry, malt and smoke, raspberry syrup, slight salt, hops. Sour lambic and charred oak.

Body: Sweet raspberry, cherryaid, malt and gnawing salt back. Hop bitterness, lots of sour berries. Bitter hops ease through again. Blackcurrant juice.

Finish: Slow build to a medicinal and salt hit that lasts, smoke and peat. Drying hops then some dim raspberry comes out again

Conclusion: This beer plays tricks on you, from the seemingly over sickly sweet taste at the front to the full force salt and medicinal back that punches through. Each element is utterly unsubtle yet totally contrasted by what comes after.

It’s a bit too unsubtle in the front, with an almost fizzy drink like sweetness to it (notable in a bottle tried a few weeks later this was less present, so a short few weeks ageing seems to help the beer). The contrast does make for an intriguing beer and the back that follows in honed to perfection, a slow building taste brimming with wonder and power.

A tasty experiment, the front needs to be rounded off a tad to match its slightly aged self before it can hit the prime time. Just a tad less sickly sweet at the front and this would be a rollercoaster ride of a beer and one full of thrills and spills.

Oddly, chilling the beer a touch also softens the front, making for a smoother ride into the harsh embrace at the end. So with just a touch of altering this is a fantastic experience.