BrewDog has been making a splash in the UK for the last couple years based on attitude and marketing and doing things differently. Most notably their ultra strong (gimmicky) "beers" called "Tactical Nuclear Penguin" and "Sink the Bismark".
I recently listened to an interview with the brewers and owners and they say they're trying to bring a bit of the inventiveness from the American craft beer scene over to the UK.
Some of their stuff has been showing up here in So Cal. recently so I thought I'd give it a try.
I paid $5.99 for a 22Oz bomber of Punk IPA
Stats from their site:
ABV:6%
OG:1052
IBU’s:65 (international Bitterness Units)
Malts:Marris Otter Extra Pale Malt
Hops:Chinook, Ahtanum, Nelson Sauvin <--from New Zeland
The appearance of the beer is straw yellow and it looks thin like a pilsner. The head doesn't really stand and there's light lacing on the glass.
The nose is almost all yeast with a bit of a resinous hoppy smell.
Maybe I've been on the west coast drinking 100+ IBU IPA's for too long but think thing tastes to me like a normal pale ale. There's almost no malt to back up the hops and the finish is again the resinous hop flavor and a slight warming of alcohol.
Its dryness and lack of fruity esters would exclude it from being classified as an English IPA, but the lack of malt backbone and hop aroma and flavor would seem to exclude it from being and American IPA.
It tastes like a poorly executed Sierra Nevada pale ale.
Normally I'd let this slide, but they have a rather long diatribe on the label describing how bold and innovative this beer is...they're dismissive in a way that almost mirrors the label of a Stone Arrogant Bastard. They even tell the reader to go back to their yellow and fizzy pilsners and lagers.
Well guess what BrewDog?...your IPA is yellow and fizzy and I won't be buying any more of it.
Focus on brewing instead of marketing and maybe you'll still have a brewery after 5 years.
Prost!
