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| Couple of these for breakfast! |
This is my travellogue to Aberdeen, Scotland at 17/2/2014. English is really bad, but the trip was great 🙂
Check out also my yeasterday’s travellogue.
clock woke
me up a little bit after seven,
and I walked to the hotel’s downstairs for a breakfast. I ate a large pile
of bacon, beans and sausages.
In addition to this, of course, a few
mugs of coffee and half a dozen glasses of orange juice. At nine o’clock we left the hotel. Zarah from BrewDog came to
pick us up. I met Zarah at one beerfestival in Finland last year. Ari,
Pierrick and Tommy came to same ride with me and we travelled about 27
kilometers to the BrewDog’s brewery. After arriving to the brewery we went to the office of James Watt’s wait for other
invited guests.
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| BrewDog’s brewery |
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| Ceiling light BrewDog style! |
James went to his office quickly and playfully pointed us to be ahead of schedule. When the entire nine-person group was together, we were served a cup of coffee. At the same time James told the plans for the day and went through the history of the brewery. Then arrived BrewDog’s other co-founder Martin Dickie, who was the guide for our brewery tour. James was also present most of the time.
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| Brewery tour guides Martin and James |
tour they were brewing Hardcore IPA. Martin presented how they make beer at
BrewDog. I also met BrewDog’s Headbrewer Stewart Bowman, who
told me that he was specially
dressed in t-shirt of one Finnish craftbeer brewery
called Ruosniemen Panimo (Panimo = Brewery in Finnish), cause he heard that I was
coming to visit the brewery. I met Bowman also last year in Finland.
Martin explained
that one of the most important investments in new brewery has been
a laboratory, where they can do analysis from every step of the brewing process. BrewDog is
known for using large amount of hops on their beers. James
told us that one-fifth of each batch of beer
will go to waste, because they use so
much hops. He points out that it’s expensive, but the flavor of the beer is the
main thing. Used hops will be sent to five different farms, where the
hops are used for example fertilizer.
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| Friendpicture Stewart and Jaska |
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| In the laboratory |
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| An overview of the brewery |
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| Presentation of the hopcannon |
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| There we climbed! |
New brewing facilities looked great. New brewing equipments and automatic factory functions. Nowadays this Craftbeer –message comes from uncompromising way of using raw materials. After the tour we went back to the James office, where was time for some beer tasting.
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| Top of the brewery! |
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| Line of Hardcore IPA’s |
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| Sink The Bismarck |
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| To Øl Sort Maelk |
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| Beertowers |
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| Punk cans |
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| Mikkeller’s |
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| Abstrakt AB:15 in boxes |
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| Today’s first beer |
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| Stewart talking about Punk IPA |
beer was familiar to me and it was Punk IPA, which was bottled about two days
ago. Very fresh and aromatic. James, Martin and also Stewart was telling stories
about brewery and their beers. Next James brought couple Growlers from maturing
vessel. Growlers were filled with Jack Hammer. This beer was new for me, but
Ari said that Jack Hammer is one of his favorites of the BrewDog.
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| BrewDog Jack Hammer |
BrewDog Jack Hammer
interested
in what
it tastes like totally ready.
Hammer front of us arrives bottle with red label including skull and
typewriter. This beer was called Dead Metaphor and it was brewed collaboration
with two beerbloggers Rob Derbyshire and Rich Taylor. Label says that it’s Scottish Chocolate Breakfast Stout
and brewed with the Brazilian
Sertão coffee and Venezuelan black chocolate.
From the taste came up little bit sweetness. The sweetness seemed familiar, and I
realized that it is lactose. So I said to Ari that reach
out to me my bag, which I threw in my mouth
a couple of lactosepills and thus
tasting continued.
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| BrewDog Dead Metaphor |
BrewDog Dead Metaphor
sweet. I tasted this a few
days earlier in Helsinki, and I didn’t like it very much. Again, this
tasting was no exception. It was not my kind of beer.
Dead Metaphor
then it was time to taste the beer that I already held in my hands
in storehouse and it is Abstrakt
AB: 15. The specs of the beer
quite special. Used
in the manufacture of the beer there was used salt and popcorn. After this, it
was ”forgotten” to mature in bourbon and rum barrels
for 19 months.
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| BrewDog Abstrakt AB:15 |
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:15
big beer, with vanilla, plenty of
sweetness and madeira. That popcorn, I did not pick
up on this. Quite a diverse beer and sort
of time awesome. Was this, however, too
much? Well, maybe not! BrewDog ”big” beers, however, worked better than the previous night’s Lumberjack.
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| Lunch |
”popcornbeer” it was lunch time and in front of us was brought couple trays
full of tasty sandwiches. We ate them with Punk IPA. After lunch, I gave my
souvenir beers to James that I carried from Finland. James took the bottles with enthusiasm and promised to tell his opinion about those
beers.
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 Souvenirs from Finland |
- Plevnan Siperia Imperial Stout
- Hiisi Raivoava Rakki (IPA)
- Hiisi Pläkki (Black IPA)
- Hiisi Basso Steam Beer
- Hiisi Ukonmalja Hansakauppiaan Baltic Porter
Next there was something extra to our original program. We went to visit the old brewery in Fraserburg. Distance was about 40 kilometers. Today, this old brewery is used mainly as the test brewery and they brew smaller special batches. The doors were open and there was quite cool breeze. Exciting to think that there they built-BrewDog brand. Charlotte Cook is the headbrewer of the old brewery and she told us how they make beer there.
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| The old brewery |
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| Tokyo* |
were able to
taste two different beers. The
first beer
was from the blitz sourbeer –series
and it was…
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| BrewDog Blitz Passion Fruit |
BrewDog Blitz Passion Fruit
of passion
fruit and strong sourness.
In the past, I had tasted Blitz Apricot from this
series and I liked it very much. I liked this Passion
Fruit also. As a summer drink this would
go perfectly.
The second beer that we tasted was still a little unfinished beer…
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| BrewDog Jasmine IPA |
BrewDog Jasmine IPA
I tasted this beer with Ari and we talked about it. The taste came out really strong and there was plenty of jasmine flowers in it. Aftertaste was very tangy. I did not like it.
After that it was time to go back to the new brewery and the weather began to be more like in Scotland should be. It started raining. When we arrived to new brewery, we went to watch bottling of Jack Hammer and James picked us fresh bottles straight from the bottling line. Jack Hammer tasted very good and I think I can agree with Ari’s view that this is one of the brewery’s best beers. James also gave us BrewDog t-shirts and then we head back to the hotel. That was our brewery tour and it was time to get ready for the dinner.
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| Fresh Jack Hammer on the bottling line |
At six o’clock we walked to the BrewDog Bar
to have couple beers before the beerdinner. First beer that I tried was…
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| BrewDog Libertine Black Ale |
BrewDog Libertine Black Ale
was very balanced. I’m big fan of Black IPA’s so this was my kind of beer. I
liked it a lot.
After Libertine, I took a half pint of
Fake Lager and at the same time James brought
a tray full of…
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| AleSmith Grand Cru |
AleSmith Grand Cru
fruits, raisins and not too sweet. A great
beer. Alcohol was very well in the background.
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| MUSA |
restaurant was opened specially
for us, as usual, it was closed on Mondays. The dinner was accompanied by James
and Martin, but also other employees
of BrewDog for example Sarah and Zarah. We
were welcomed and had an aperitif…
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| BrewDog Blitz Rasberry |
BrewDog Blitz Rasberry
fresh, sour, and lots
of berries. These beers from the Blitz -series have been very
good. I have tasted three
different, and the Apricot
has been my favorite.
aperitif, started the four-course dinner. Before each course there was
somebody from the brewery, presenting the food and a beverage. First
beer & food combo was…
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| 1. serve |
1. serve
BrewDog Libertine Black Ale
Smoked Beef Fillet Carpaccio, Horseradish Toast and Pickled Walnuts
The
fillet was very tasty and horseradish gave a
nice boost to fillet. Roasty and hopped beer with some
grapefruit, pine flavor offered a
suitable partner.
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| 2.serve |
2. serve
BrewDog Punk IPA
Haggis Spring Roll, Apricots, Coriander, Tomato and Chili Jam
This was my second time eating haggis and this Spring Roll filled with haggis was kind of funny idea, but it worked really well. Lots of pepper. Sweetness of the apricot balanced that strong pepper of the haggis. Funny and at the same time tasty portion.
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| Pääruoan esittely |
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| 3.serve |
3. serve
BrewDog Hello My Name Is Vladimir
Halibut, Crayfish Rice, Prosecco Avruga Butter Sauce
A mild-flavored fish and soft-flavored rice. Beer fairly strong with lots of berries and fruits. I tasted this Hello My Name Is Vladimir few days ago in Finland and did not reach to my favorite Double IPA’s. But tasty combination.
After the third serve was dessert time and in front of us were brought glasses with the beer and ice cream. Beer was specially made for MUSA. It was BrewDog Riptide which was aged in Jura barrels for 529 days. In the glass there was Riptide Jura vanilla ice cream and a glass of 16 year old Jura whiskey.
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| 4.serve |
4. serve
Musa Jura Riptide Affogato
Chocolate, soft vanilla and sweet taste experience. In the past, I haven’t tasted beer and ice cream together, but certainly will in the future. Dessert for beergeek!!!
the dessert James and Martin brought few bottles of BrewDog Dog B to the table,
and we were able to taste that beer after the dinner.
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| BrewDog Dog B |
BrewDog Dog B
15.1 % Imperial Stout, spiced up with naga chillies. Pretty impressive beer, even though I have been tasting “few” beers that day. Hefty Imperial Stout, with liquorice, coffee, a hint of chili and vanilla. Could it be the brewery’s best beer?
Dinner was over, and then we moved to a nearby beer place called CASC (cigars Ales Scotch Coffee). The place was opened a few months ago and the decor was stylish. A straight lines, and the gray color. The interior was to my liking. There were 24 beertaps and very wide range of whiskeys and beer bottles. The first beer that I took was so Epic…
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| CASC:n Draft beers |
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| bottle selection… |
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| …and little bit more! |
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| Three dogs!!! 🙂 |
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| EPIC Hop Zombie |
EPIC Hop Zombie
8,5 % staggering Double IPA from New Zealand.
that we had little
whiskey tasting with Martin and Pierrick.
Whiskey that we tasted was Glen Garioch.
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| Four pure Amber Ale |
Four pure Amber Ale
5,1 % Amber Ale. Nothing special Quite dry. There are lots of better Amber Ale’s like Beer Here Dead Cat, Stone Levitation Ale and BrewDog 5 A.M. Saint.
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| Summer Wine Maelstrom |
Summer Wine Maelstrom
9 % Double IPA. Grapefruit and tropical fruits. Very tasty DIPA.
From there, we moved with smaller group to have few cocktails. I was at the hotel at four in the morning and I had to wake up at six. So the journey home was pretty tired. And that was my travelogue to Scotland.
The trip was memorable in every way, and I had awesome time there. Thank you for the invitation. Thanks to James, Martin, Sarah, Zarah and Bowman for good company. Thank you also to the rest of the people from the brewery. Special thanks to other beerblog colleagues and beerauthors for awesome company. Thanks!
Olipas hyvä jo ensilukemalta ja palaan lukemaan tuota vielä palasina erikseen..ehkäpä BrewDogin olut seurana. Nyt alkoi loma ja Alkosta tuli matkaan Ridgeway Quadruple Strong Ale. Voltteja vähän liikaa (12.0%), mutta voltit ei tule ollenkaan päälle. Vauhdikkaan vapaapäivän olut ruuanlaiton kaveriksi. Niin ja oikein kelpo englantia luettuna ja myös kuunneltuna nuo aiemmat videot.
MR
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