Review: BrewDog Punk IPA


I never expected to see anything by Scotland-based BrewDog Brewing but when one of the LC clerks told me that I had to pick up the IPA or else it'll be long gone.. I knew I had to pick up a bunch!  The beer turned out to be so popular at that liquor store that there wasn't any left by the next time I visited a couple days later. I assume that the beer was part of leftovers from this year's Flatlander's Beer Festival as I've seen some remnants of the festival make its way to stores after the festival ends.

BrewDog's Punk IPA is an IPA brewed with a medley of Chinook, Ahtanum, Amarillo, Cascade, Simcoe and Nelson Sauvin hops. So I'm expecting it to be quite a bitter-forward IPA but with a mild citrus presence to it. 5.6% ABV/35 IBU.

Appearance: Clear golden straw with a very heavy amount of micro-carbonation in the body, thick beige head on top, easily two-two and a half finger's worth. Once the head goes down a bit, it leaves behind a liberal amount of lacing.

Aroma: Incredibly grainy and cerealy, there's a hefty amount of wet barley, the smell of your typical industrial brewery, a hint of caramel, oats, lemon and a bit of a medicinal smell.

Taste: There's a decent hop presence to it that gives off a bit of a piney bitterness, there's also some grassiness, a decent wet grain profile, a moderate amount of caramel, lemon. The beer is fairly dry and has a light pine bitterness and a wet cereal aftertaste at the very end. 

Overall Thoughts: I've had this beer a few times over the course of the past few weeks and the first few times I've had it, the hop presence and tropical/citrus notes were more apparent but now they're more subdued. Still a great IPA but it kind of tastes like once it hit a certain date the beer's taste/aroma changed a bit. It's possible that one store had a different canning date of the beer than another, or it could be that the hot shelves at the LC sped up the aging of the beer. At $3.29~ CDN for a 500mL can, I can't complain.. Alexander Keith's is only 15¢ less, isn't an IPA at all and is in 473mL size. Definitely worth the money here.

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