My second homage to Hams beer reviews
Belhaven is a Scottish brewery most famous in the US for their beer "Wee Heavy" which can be found all over the country. They mainly stay with Scottish styles...40 shilling and 70 shilling Scottish ales.
When I first saw their twisted thistle IPA I was very intrigued.
The India Pale Ale style originated in the UK during the British colonization of India. Brit brewers discovered if they added more hops (which are a natural preservative) and more alcohol, the beer would actually survive the 6 month voyage to India around the horn of Africa.
Since then, brewers here in the US have co-opted the style and made it our own by taking the hops up another notch and using a cleaner fermenting ale yeast. So now, American and English IPA's are 2 distinct styles.
One of the things I noticed right away was this beer was brewed with American hops...definitely something outside the box for a Scottish brewery.
We've got a real Frankenstein beer here.
English style
American hops
American level of bitterness
English ale yeast
Scottish brewery
The nose is more like an English IPA with a good malt / hop balance. It's not piny or citrusy like an American IPA.
It's got a good malt backbone from the English ale yeast which doesn't attenuate as far as American yeast. That malt is needed however because the hop bitterness is right up there with any US example. It's bottle conditioned with that same English yeast (which doesn't flocculate well) so be prepared for some floaters or decant it first. Serve at cellar temperatures.
I would definitely get this one again. It's not the best IPA in the world, but it's a very unique take on the style and an interesting study on its evolution through the last 300 years.
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