Brewdog Dead Pony Club

Brewdog Dead Pony Club

Style: Californian Pale Ale

Alcohol Content: 3.8%

From: Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK

Purchased From: Sainsburys

Brewdog was founded in 2007 by James Watt and Martin Dickie. The brewery at the Kessock Industrial Estate in Fraserburgh produced its first brew in April 2007. It claims to be Scotland's largest independently owned brewery producing about 120,000 bottles per month for export all over the world. The company moved premises to nearby Ellon in the Autumn of 2012, however it as been announced that the Fraserburgh site will be used as a brewing laboratory for experimental beers.

Brewdog's provocative marketing has been a key aspect of the business, and has gained them substantial international coverage.

In 2008 Brewdog were challenged by UK drinks industry watchdog the Portman Group. Portman had claimed Brewdog to be in breach of their Code of Practice. Brewdog denied these allegations and countered that Portman was impeding the development of smaller brewing companies. After an 8 month long dispute and a preliminary adjudication which had ruled against the company, in December 2008 Brewdog were cleared of all breaches of the Code of Practice and were permitted to continue marketing their brands without making any changes to the packaging. In protest to their targeting, Brewdog introduced "Speed-ball", saying "...we thought we would give them something worth banning us for..." . Speed-ball was promptly banned by Portman before being renamed as Dogma.

Brewdog were also described as "...one of the prime movers..."behind the campaign which changed the law in 2011 to allow new beer measures in Britain.

Colour: On the pour, you are rewarded with a beer that is a glorious pale brown with an orange hue. There is little foam in the glass but this will stay with you throughout the drink. There is a low level of carbonation in the bottle which makes this beer looks very, very inviting.

Aroma: One of the amazing points of note about this beer, is its nose. Once poured into the glass, you are slapped around the chops with notes of lemongrass, fresh lemons, pine and grapefruit. Imagine you are in Sorrento, Italy on a hot summers day, walking though the lemon trees. That is exactly what this aroma is like.

Body: This beer looks extremely light but when you have a sip you are really knocked off your feet by the hops. This sensation makes the beer a lot heavier in the mouth. My old man commented, "Stone the crows, that beer is so hoppy I can not even think straight. I'm not sure that I like this beer very much. It's so heavily hopped that it's so heavy in my mouth. It's almost as if I'm drinking a amber ale".

Taste: As eluded to above this beer is extremely hoppy. In fact this brew uses three different types of hops. These are Simcoe, Citra and HBC. To be honest, it's a bit to heavily hopped for my tastes and that of my father. The Brewdog website suggests that "Being shot from a Hoppy Howitzer beats the hell out of trotting round a submissive paddock." Well in this case the howitzer has decimated all my taste buds. You can pick up notes of lemons, orange peel grapes and thyme. There is a very bitter after taste to this beer which will stay with you sip after sip.

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