HOP PROPAGANDA THE BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM …

HOP PROPAGANDA

#37THE BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM BREWDOG

ISSU

E 37

/ CO

NTEN

TS

LIKE WHAT YOU READ, OR WHERE YOU ARE READING IT? HERE’S HOW TO LET US KNOW!

ABOVE: ISSUE 36 OF HOP PROPAGANDA

FANTASTIC FOUR: BREWDOG 4

FANTASTIC FOUR: GUESTS 5

EQUITY FOR PUNKS LAST CHANCE TO INVEST 6-7

B IS FOR BRETTANOMYCES 8-9

LONE WOLF SPIRITS 10-11

UNLEASH THE HAMMER HEADS! 12-13

FOCUS ON: BOON 14-16

PERFECT PAIRING: SHIP WRECK 17

HOME ON THE RANGE 18-19

FROM DICKENSIAN LONDON… 20

…TO THE PEARL OF THE ORIENT 21

BOWMAN’S BARREL-AGED SECRETS 22-25

NOW:NEXT 26

THE FIRST TIME… 27

DIY DOG AND BOURBON BABY 28-29

BOTTLEBOX IS HERE! 30-31

THE LAST WORD 32-33

NEXT UP…HP 38 34

[email protected]

HOP PROPAGANDALET’S HEAR ITWELCOME TO THE

LATEST ISSUE OF HOP PROPAGANDA – THE

ONLINE AND PRINT MAGAZINE FROM BREWDOG! ONCE AGAIN WE THROW OPEN OUR PAGES (BOTH REAL AND VIRTUAL) TO THE LATEST CONTENT FROM OURSELVES AND SOME AMAZING CRAFT BREWERIES IN THE UK AND OVERSEAS.

For this edition, we are turning our attention to the majestic unpredictability of barrels. Ageing beers in wood is a challenge more and more breweries are taking

on – with amazing results. We pick Bowman’s (not inconsiderable) brain as to why this is, how ageing can go well – and what happens when it doesn’t.

Plus, we delve into the murky world of Brettanomyces, focus attention on our plan to distil (and barrel-age) spirits and take a look at one of the most storied cellars in Europe at Brouwerij Boon.

Thanks for reading – and however quickly your beer reaches you, we hope you enjoy it!

The BrewDog team.

HOP PROPAGANDA– 4 –

ISSUE 37


ISSUE 37

FANTASTIC FOUR FANTASTIC FOUR

A QUARTET OF BEERS THAT ENDED UP IN OUR BARS AND ONLINE VIA THE MEDIUM OF THE BARREL

BREWDOG GUESTSTWO OF THESE GUEST BEERS HAVE BEEN BARREL-AGED, TWO

HAVE NOT. ALL FOUR HAVE A STUNNING VARIETY OF FLAVOURS HOWEVER, AND LEAP OFF OUR NEW GUEST BEER MENU…

9.5%

7%MOVIE PAIRING: FULL METAL JACKET

SPECIAL MOVE: SOUR POWER

MOVIE PAIRING: CUJO

SPECIAL MOVE: CAFFEINE POWER

5.3%

SPECIAL MOVE: PALATE SCOUR

SPECIAL MOVE: FUNK POWER

BLACK EYED KING IMPINTENSELY COMPLEX AND RICH VIETNAMESE COFFEE EDITION STOUT

OUDE GUEUZE BLACK LABELSTUNNING BLENDED LAMBIC HERALDING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF BROUWERIJ BOON

DOG DOUR MIGHTY EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY IMPERIAL STOUT INFUSED WITH COFFEE AND CHILLI

ESPRESSO OAK AGED YETIWORLD-BEATING STOUT INFUSED WITHEPIC LEVELS OF COLORADAN COFFEE

SHIP WRECKANTI-TAKEOVER NON-COLLABORATION WITH UN-NAMED BREWERY

DEVIANT DALE’SENORMOUSLY COLUMBUS DRY-HOPPED MONSTER IPA. A CITRUS AND RESIN BOMB.

AB:18TWO-YEAR RUM-AGED DECADENT IMPERIAL BROWN WITH BERRIES

WITNESSAUTHENTIC BELGIAN-STYLE PALE BEER BREWED WITH BRETTANOMYCES AND ORVAL YEAST

A BEER THAT’S: CELEBRATORY

IN A WORD: COMPACTED

A BEER THAT’S: DILATORY

A BEER THAT'S: MANDATORY

A BEER THAT’S: LAUDATORY

STYLE: IMPERIAL STOUT

STYLE: GUEUZE



STYLE: IPA

STYLE: BROWN ALE

STYLE: PALE ALE

IBU: 100

FROM: WILD BEER CO

FROM: OSKAR BLUES

IBU: 85

IBU: 100

11.8%

13.8%

12.7%

16.1% 8%

FROM: BOON

FROM: GREAT DIVIDE

IN A WORD: EXTRACTED

IN A WORD: IMPACTED

STYLE: STRONG ALE

IBU: 60

IN A WORD: REDACTED

MOVIE PAIRING: TITANIC

MOVIE PAIRING: TREASURE ISLAND


ISSUE 37

All things come to an end – whether it’s your favourite TV Series,

sporting season or that pint of Punk IPA. And soon joining that list will be our new generation business model Equity for Punks IV – the share offer will close on the 20th April 2016.

So if you’re reading this before that date and have a half-formed plan to claim your seat on the frontlines of the craft beer revolution, you have until then to make those plans a reality! In so doing, you will become a member of our kick-ass beery community and help shape our

This is issue 37 of Hop Propaganda, not a prospectus. Please visit brewdog.com/equityforpunks to read the prospectus and find out more about investing in BrewDog. Investors should only subscribe for shares on the basis of information contained in the prospectus, and should note that invested capital is at risk and that past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance.

This communication is a financial promotion approved by Blears Limited (FCA no: 610217).

i

WANT A FRONT-ROW SEAT TO THE CRAFT BEER REVOLUTION? HERE’S HOW TO RESERVE YOURS...Shares cost £47.50 each, and the minimum investment is two shares (£95). To invest and receive these benefits (plus the rosy glow of simply becoming a shareholder) there are two ways in which you can join our army of BrewDog Equity Punks.

AT HOME

Go online and visit www.brewdog.com/equityforpunks. There you can download the prospectus, see all the information online, and purchase shares using credit or debit cards.

IN A BREWDOG BAR

Go over to the bar and visit one of our staff members! They can supply you with all the infor-mation you need, plus all our bars stock the forms enabling you to become an Equity Punk there and then!

company as we continue to make other people as passion-ate about great craft beer as we are.

For those who do invest, there are many benefits – which are just our way of saying thanks for becoming a BrewDog investor. Lifetime discounts in our bars and online shop, a free beer on your birthday, exclusive options on all of our newly-released beers, an invite to our epic #PunkAGM and much more!

Every penny raised will be invested in our business to help grow BrewDog for those who have become shareholders.

We will continue to use the investment of our Equity Punks to develop our eco-friendly brewery at Ellon, as well as our new state of the art facility in Columbus, Ohio.

We’re also actively looking at opening new bars and employ-ing more amazing people to add to our workforce, as well as continuing to make the very best beer we can. And our investors are front and centre in all of this.

Putting the people who care in control is what we are about. And that won’t change. Ever.

HOW TO INVEST IN BREWDOGLAST CHANCE TO INVEST!


ISSUE 37

EQUITY FOR PUNKS IV

CLOSES 20TH APRIL


ISSUE 37


ISSUE 37

B IS

FOR

BRET

TANO

MYCE

S

With Bowman unlocking some of the secrets of how to age beer on page 22, this

edition has already got ‘B is for Barrels’ well and truly covered – so we figured we would dial up another aspect of developing flavours in beer that begins with that same letter. And in a welcome co-incidence, the country in which this ingredient was first truly mastered also claims that first initial. So for these next couple of pages, B is for Brettanomyces – and B is also for Belgium.

Although, saying that, the history of how brewers got to grips with this potentially reputation-destroying organism actually relates to two different countries entirely. Around the turn of the Twentieth Century, the science of biochemistry was undergoing many advances – and one problem to which it was challenged was to work out why ales in England were sometimes spoiling and tasting sour, earthy and otherwise unpleasant.

Scientists in the Carlsberg Laboratory in Denmark were tasked with finding out what was going on, and duly isolated strains of yeast that were responsible. Once they did so, they named the newfound microbes either in homage to the English ales of the time (or possibly as a tongue-in-cheek riff on someone else’s problem) the ‘British Fungus’ or Brettanomyces.

In the wild, these yeasts live on the skins of fruit – particularly grape skins (where it can cause spoilage problems in the wine industry) and orchard fruits, from where it likely wafted on the breeze from Brussels-area copses and formed one of the core flavour impactors on the classic wild-fermented lambics of the Senne Valley (together with bacteria such as Acetobacter, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus).

Once these strains of yeast – Brettanomyces lambicus and Brettanomyces bruxellensis amongst them – enter a brewery, they find a true home in part of the process that this edition of Hop Propaganda is taking a closer look at; wooden barrels. The cells inoculate the oak commonly used to age Belgian beers, and are responsible for a great deal of the long-term secondary fermentation alongside their more traditional sugar-loving cousins, Saccharomyces.

Indeed, such is the difference imparted by these two yeast types to the final beer, legendary writer Michael Jackson summed up the interplay between the two with this truly brilliant quote. “Saccharomyces is like a dog and Brett is like a cat. It’s a little less predictable. It’s going to do its own thing; it’s not going to come when you call it and sit when you say sit. If you can respect its individuality and suggest rather than dictate what it does in your fermentation, it can reward the brewer and the drinker.”

So how exactly can Brettanomyces reward the homebrewer? Our Franz has the lowdown!

“A couple of different strains of Brett are easily available for commercial use by homebrewers, which can be used as the only microorganism for fermentation or blended with a normal yeast. Even if you blend there are different options: either pitch at the same time, or let the yeast do its thing first and then pitch Brett later for conditioning. If only Brett is pitched it develops less of the horse blanket (typical Brett flavour) as compared to a mixed fermentation.”

So if that’s the reward, what’s the risk? We asked our resident Brett-fanatic Jack that very question!

“Within a brewery you must be very careful if introducing a strain of Brett into your usual routine. Having tanks and barrels completely separated from the normal beers is key. Some breweries go as far as to change all of their bottling line connections before packaging a Brett beer, while others have set rotas

MIKKELLER NELSON SAUVIGNON (9.0%)

White wine barrel-aged, bringing another dimension to the Brett

CANTILLON KRIEKENLAMBIK (5.0%)

Unblended lambic with cherries, tartness and flavour aplenty

RUSSIAN RIVER SUPPLICATION (7.0%)

Lacto, Pedio, Brett and Pinot Noir barrels play off this stunning beer

PUCKER UP

ORVAL (6.2%)

An all-time classic – intensely dry and aromatic Trappist beer

not allowing anyone working in a 'Brett site' to enter normal production. For home brewers – pass down your old equipment to use for Brett, and buy new for your brewer’s yeast beers to avoid contamination!”

This is the key point with Brettanomyces – its sheer persistence. There are few more stubborn micro-organisms in brewing, so not only will it happily live in wooden barrels for decades, imparting the classic funky, ‘horse-blanket’ aromas and flavours, but if introduced by accident it can be like playing whack-a-mole with things you can’t see. Careful and completely thorough sanitation is the only way to remove it once it has taken hold.

So in short, Brett needs to be treated with respect, and if used in a commercial brewery, never cross-pollinated with regular equipment and beers. Unless you are a traditional Belgian lambic brewery of course, and merely open the windows, to let the play of chance and the evening breezes determine how your beer will end up...

SACCHAROMYCES IS LIKE A DOG AND BRETT IS LIKE A CAT. IT’S A LITTLE LESS PREDICTABLE. IT’S GOING TO DO ITS OWN THING; IT’S NOT GOING TO COME WHEN YOU CALL IT AND SIT WHEN YOU SAY SIT.”MICHAEL JACKSON

What better than a barrel-aged issue to bring you a closer look at our

BrewDog spirits project – the brand new Lone Wolf Distillery!

Our hand-made copper stills are in place and we are ready to revolutionise the world of spirits by doing something no-one else is doing – and it all starts with the very beginning of the process. We intend to become the only craft distillery in Scotland to make our base spirit from grain, and under one roof.

This is hugely important to us. We have removed a section of our brewhouse roof to install a colossal 19m high 60-plate rectification column, to get the purest, cleanest spirit possible.

This will then form the basis of our vodka and gins, and where others buy in neutral spirit in bulk, we will distil everything from scratch, under one (now holed) roof. The head of our distillation team Steven Kersley is dialling in our gin recipe using the 50 litre pilot still, with over 30 different botanicals for trial, building up the

flavour complexity until the blend and ratios are perfect.

Testing is key, so following tests of everything from the operational side to the water we will be using, we hope to be ready to produce our first batches of BrewDog spirit around the time you read this!

We don’t want to rest on the laurels of a location, like so many within the

industry. Flexibility is vitally important to us, and the Lone Wolf distillery will have experimentation at its heart. With the pilot still we can produce a huge range of potential spirits, and with our epic barrel store we can

age and then blend the results to allow a fascinating range of flavours to develop.

We want to stretch the boundaries of what a distillery can do – and what a distillery should do. Starting with our own all-grain distilled vodka, through our bespoke gins and whiskies and a range of other spirits besides – we can’t wait to make this natural progression for BrewDog and make as big an impact on the spirits industry as we did on the beer industry.

WE HOPE TO BE READY TO PRODUCE OUR FIRST BATCHES OF BREWDOG SPIRIT AROUND THE TIME

YOU READ THIS!

LONE WOLF SPIRITS


ISSUE 37


ISSUE 37

UNLEASH THE HAMMER HEADS!

A NEW TWIST ON OUR RUTHLESS IPA

For such a simple two-worded notion, ‘What if…?’ has a strong resonance

with brewers. Experimentation and never being satisfied with the status quo should be at the core of any brewhouse, and this self-posed question is one that comes up on a regular – if not daily – basis here at BrewDog.

Such is the sheer variety of dif-ferent beer styles that leave our brewhouse (featuring different techniques, recipes, ingredients and timespans in their creation) that every brewer on our roster will have at some point thought about the outcome of switching up a beer, just to see what would happen.

So, we are turning that inquisi-tive attitude towards one of the most popular beers we produce – Jack Hammer.

For those of you who have wondered ‘What if…?’ about our resinous pile driver we have a brand new series of beers, each one a play on Jack Hammer but with a singular aspect tweaked, taking the beer in a brand new direction. We have ramped up our amped-up IPA to new heights with our Hammer Heads.

The first of these extra-dimen-sional beers is Monk Hammer – our ruthless IPA fermented with Belgian yeast. Malt forms the tried and tested backbone of a beer, and we truly love hops (as you probably know), but the effect yeast has on the outcome of a beer is truly awesome.

So performing the ol’ switch and pitch with Belgian yeast proves a fascinating experiment. Typically the continental strains major on fruity esters reminiscent

of oranges and lemons, with a peppery kick alongside, and/or bringing a clovey richness with classic banana or even bubble-gum fruitiness to the party. Anyone who has flipped the top off a Belgian beer will know these beers are intense, complex and multi-dimensional.

So what effect does this yeast have on our ruthless IPA?

Well, Monk Hammer is a com-plete transformation of the orig-inal. Jack’s punchy citrus layers are still there – in evidence on the far distance finish – but the yeast has supplied that massive complementary hit of fruity esters and classic Belgian notes of cloves and peppery spice. It’s a totally different beer. ‘What if…?’ indeed.

We love Jack Hammer – we can’t bring ourselves to refer to it as the ‘base beer’ in this case. Since bursting into existence as part of the 2013 Prototype Challenge it has become a firm staff favourite, and a beer we simply can’t brew fast enough, so taking these detours of aroma and flavour with the Hammer

Heads will give us a whole new outlook – plus it will enable Jack Hammer fans everywhere to see the beer in a new light!

The remaining Hammer Heads will follow as canned specials being released throughout the course of the year (check out the graphic for all the details). If there are any twists that you would love to see on Jack Ham-mer, then let us know, as we may dial them up for the series next year. Because it’s not just brewers that say ‘What if…?’ to themselves – beer drinkers do too…

MONK HAMMER

RELEASE: MARCH

TWIST: BELGIAN

YEAST

BLACK HAMMER

RELEASE: JUNE

TWIST: DARK MALT

CHILI HAMMER

RELEASE: MARCH

TWIST: CHILI-

INFUSED

RYE HAMMER

RELEASE: MARCH

TWIST: ADDED

RYE


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RYE


ISSUE 37

FOCU

S ON

: BOO

NFrank Boon stands, quietly, at the

end of a colossal room filled with wooden barrels each large enough

to park a car in. It’s a room he visits every day, to check on the stocks of lambic ageing quietly in the enormous oak foudres that are stacked in alternating rows off-set from one another.

In this room, and the even larger one that sits in semi-darkness adjacent to it, are 130 of the wooden foudres, collectively holding the largest stock of lambic in Belgium – in all, 1.6 million litres of fermenting beer.

Frank is extremely softly-spoken, but has owned and operated Brouwerij Boon for 41 years and knows every inch of the facility and how to operate it – given the fundamental uncertainty with brewing lambic and blending into gueuze it probably takes that long to fully get to grips with this most historic of European beer styles.

Records of the brewery date back to the late 17th Century, long after the small village of Lembeek south of Brussels became known as a centre for the production of alcohol. Being outside the influence of the church, there were no taxes levied on brewing or distilling, and this had predictable results. With a peak of 43 distilleries (and countless breweries) the town stood out – even today its population is only 7,000.

History is all-encompassing at lambic breweries – more so than at producers of any other style. At Boon, Frank casually gestures towards an old wooden mash tun and says that before electricity arrived it took six men to mash in, stirring the turbid wort with large wooden paddles to circulate the grains. Astonishingly, it was used by the brewers every day for almost exactly 150 years (between 1863 and 2013).

That link to history at lambic breweries like Boon is always this way – through the medium of wood. The equipment, the buildings, the cathedral of foudres next door. Each one holds an average of 8,000 litres of beer and they are so individual that the brewery knows where each one came from and how old it is. Such as the very oldest in the brewery, cask number 79.

This foudre was hammered together somewhere in France in 1883, using oak timbers that at the time were almost 250 years old. So you can legitimately drink a glass of Boon Geuze Mariage Parfait (which incorporates 95% lambic aged three years or over) and you will be tasting beer that came into contact with trees that germinated from acorns in the 1670’s.

As you’d expect, with all of this individuality comes a huge amount of variation – this is where skill becomes almost an art form. There are five brewers at Boon who also do the blending, producing the Oude Gueuze (the style is a blend of different aged lambics, typically one, two and three-year old beers carbonated in the bottle). At any one time, they know which barrel has what qualities, and how they would pair up when combined.

It is inside the wooden foudres that the wild yeasts and bacteria do their work, during fermentation. Many arrive on the breeze during the brew (the hot wort is left in an open-topped ‘coolship’ to allow inoculation) but many more reside inside the wood itself, the grain of the barrels yielding microscopic crevices for inhabitation and also small amounts of air to give them a start (Brett in particular needing oxygen to develop its flavours).

“THE FLAVOUR OF A LAMBIC IS AFFECTED BY MANY THINGS – EVEN THE LOCATION OF THE BREWERY. THOSE FROM GIRARDIN HAVE MORE ACIDITY – THEY ARE UP ON A HILL. OURS, AND LINDEMANS, HAVE LESS ACIDITY AS WE ARE DOWN, NEAR A RIVER.” FRANK BOON.


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PERFECT PAIRING: SHIP WRECK

BEER AND FOOD GO TOGETHER BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN EAT AND DRINK AT THE SAME TIME. WINE LIKES TO CLAIM THE HIGH GROUND, BUT BEER HAS SUCH A WEIGHT OF VARIETY BEHIND IT.

And when you’re looking for variety – the flavours unfurled by barrel-ageing provide it in spades. Our redacted collaboration ale was inspired by Mezcal – the Mexican agave spirit that forms a broad umbrella for other high-impact drinks (such as its cousin Tequila). So what foodstuffs go best with Ship Wreck?

Well you probably saw this one coming. Often with pairings, just look for the local match – in this case, go like for like with Mexican food. Something like spicy beef tacos would be ideal, as the dark, smoky chilli complements the smoky Mezcal-inspired beer flavour perfectly. The huge malt bill apes the roasted meat element of the tacos, and the long residual sweetness found in the beer helps keep a lid on the fiery heat, for those who inevitably add a dash of chilli flakes too many.

Both the dish and the beer have many different aspects, yet they are ideal together. It takes two to taco!

These organisms are all-important – in fact, the brewers refer to the beer process almost backwards, in that respect. “The aim of our brewery is not to make a sour beer,” Frank says, whilst uncorking one of the caravan-sized barrels and catching a stream of beer in a small cup. “It is simply to brew a beer with wild yeast.” The implication being; the sour and tart flavours of lambic are the result, not the intention.

This is a very Belgian way of looking at things. Harnessing a completely natural ingredient and then using their experience to dial in every

OUDE GEUZE (7.0%)

A world-beating classic blend of

18mth and 3yr old lambic

OUDE KRIEK (6.5%)

Year-old lambic with added

cherries, tart and hugely refreshing

GEUZE MARIAGE PARFAIT

(8.0%)

A majority 3yr lambic, giving

deeper, broader flavours throughout

BOON FARO (5.0%)

Spiced, sugared lambic to be

sweeter and for lighter drinking

aspect of the process until it tastes as they would come to expect. And only then does the beer leave the brewery. Of course, with wild yeasts and bacteria, the irony is they continue to affect the flavour long after the cork or cap has been applied (just taste a fresh versus year-old Orval).

And that very fact is the underlining reason why lambics, gueuzes and their fruit-filled cousins such as kriek and framboise are so fascinating. They are the perfect blend (pun intended) of history, time, skill, learning and yet the biggest factor can still be the play of chance. After all, the

BOON OR BUST

brewer and blender can only do so much. It is the yeast and bacteria that have the final say – and you get the feeling that is exactly how Frank Boon thinks it should be.

The stars of his brewery are the mighty oak foudres, and the beer within – not him. When asking Frank if his 40 year career and global reputation for creating lambic and blending gueuze leads him to be a local celebrity, he gets even quieter. Does he get recognised by people in the town? He purses his lips. “I’m afraid so, yes,” he says simply, looking down at the beer in his hand.


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HOME ON THE RANGE

It’s safe to say that London rolls to its own beat. A city of 8.6 million people, threaded with every collective personality you can think of,

all formed from a series of interconnected villages. We love the energy and the undercurrent that flows through London – each tube stop or bus route leads somewhere new. And our latest bar for the city is front and centre in one of its most historic districts.

Clerkenwell is the heart of old Dickensian Lon-don, an area that previously teemed with distill-eries, gin houses and breweries is a perfect fit for our 18-tap craft beer cathedral, serving a range of cutting-edge beer this discerning city has come to expect. As befits its central location, the bar is in prime spot for those extra hard workers who wish to channel the night-owl spirit of Charles and his contemporaries (it opens until 1am).

The bar also features a multitude of guest beers in bottles to satisfy any style craving, from sours to imperial stouts, served up by knowledgeable, friendly, Cicerone-trained staff. To pair with the multitude of beery offerings there is also a range of epic food on offer, with full vegetarian options across the board and designed to satisfy any level of hunger; for those seeking the best of times...

45-47 CLERKENWELL ROAD, LONDON EC1 5RS

@BREWDOGCWELL

@BREWDOGCLERKENWELL

BREWDOG CLERKENWELL

[email protected]

…TO THE PEARL OF THE ORIENTBREWDOG HONG KONG

FROM DICKENSIAN LONDON…INTRODUCING BREWDOG CLERKENWELL

Our second temple of craft beer in Asia is similarly in a part of the world never far from the play of history. It may have more

neon in evidence than central London, but Hong Kong is a city with a similarly long and storied past. A short distance from the iconic Victoria Harbour and in sight of the imposing peak of the same name, BrewDog Hong Kong is the perfect place with which to celebrate our first International bar opening of 2016.

Located directly over the road from one of the city’s most notable colonial buildings – the Old Po-lice Station – right in the teeming midst of the his-toric Central District on Hong Kong Island, our bar dispenses from 14 taps of craft beer from ourselves, a number of specially-selected global breweries, and some amazing local Hong Kong-area beermak-ers including Young Master Ales, Moonzen, the Kowloon Bay Brewery and more.

We have an international kitchen team in place, so expect a fitting selection of small plates and classic soul food, including French Dip sandwiches, burgers and more! And for those indulging in larger portions, BrewDog Hong Kong is steps away from the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System – so glide on out and take in more culture in this fascinating global crossroads; the jewel of the Pearl River.

19 HOLLYWOOD ROAD, CENTRAL, HONG KONG

@BREWDOGHONGKONG

@BREWDOGHONGKONG

BREWDOG HONG KONG


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TWO OF OUR LATEST BARS ARE THOUSANDS OF MILES APART YET ARE VERY MUCH CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH.

THEY SHARE A PASSION FOR CRAFT BEER IN LOCATIONS STEEPED IN HISTORY.


ISSUE 37

BOWMAN’S BARREL STORE SECRETS

LIFTING THE LID WITH OUR BARREL MASTER

There’s no two ways about it – barrel-aged beer has something of a mystique

to it. Add a beer to wood and you’ll end up with something that will clean up at the top-end of the RateBeer rankings and have people queueing round the block for. Or at least, you will if all of the variables are kept in check. And this is the problem – but also the fascination – with ageing beers in this way. Once you pour beer into a barrel that used to contain something else, you start a journey that could end in any one of a dozen different destinations. But for brewers that is well and truly part of the fun.

Our barrel master Bowman has seen it all – from Paradox Islay Ardbeg onwards. That was, fittingly, the beer that introduced him to BrewDog in the first place – two pints consumed at the Bon Accord in Glasgow opening his eyes to what beer could be about, whilst presumably then closing his eyes for several hours afterwards. We caught up with him in our barrel store, surrounded by the near-900 ex-spirit casks quietly holding thousands of litres of beer, many of them dating back years. So in a chicken and egg kind of deal, which comes first with regard to barrel-ageing – the beer, or the cask?

“Well, we will occasionally design a beer to go in a specific barrel, but you can take the same beer from a tank, put it in two identical-looking barrels, and come out with two different beers at the end of the day.” Is that unpredictability exciting, or does it drive him mad? He bursts out laughing. “Oh, it’s very

exciting. Some of the best barrel-aged beers have been things that have gone into wood and come out even more amazing. Black Eyed King Imp is a great example. Both the 2014 AGM and Vietnamese Coffee editions gained an awful lot from the wood, they were cracking beers.”

These transformations can be controlled, however. Wood might be variable, but it isn’t fickle – the best barrel-agers know at least in some degree what they will get from a particular cask, and then monitor it faithfully once the beer is inside until everything is ready for the beer to come out and be enjoyed by the public. And as you would expect, this process – and ultimately how successful the ageing will be – begins with the wooden capsule you acquire, and depends what its previous occupant was.

“You need to know where to go to get good barrels,” continues Bowman. “If you buy dead wood, you’ll not get the compounds you are looking for

during maturation; that vanilla and coconut character. You’ll get musty, dusty tones instead that really aren’t nice. The beer has got a huge potential to extract flavour from the wood, so if the compounds that you want aren’t in the wood, it will just extract something else. We have partnerships that enable us to get hold of barrels of a fantastic provenance, which is really important.”

Dead wood in this respect means barrels that have been used too many times, until the flavours have faded. Even more than one use will result in this drop-off, which is why first-fill barrels are so expensive. There is another way, in that some distillers will send the barrels back to the cooperage to be sterilised, re-charred and used again – but this process typically removes the inner layer and can leave the staves so thin, they crack under the strain. Obviously, this isn’t ideal (unless you have a lot of thirsty people nearby with buckets).


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So once a beer has been married with a barrel, how long should it be left inside? This is where the careful and regular sampling comes in. Typically we will taste the beers in each barrel every two to three weeks, and note any flavour development – or deviation – from what we expect to see. But how do you know when it’s ready to be removed? According to Bowman, it’s all about two vital things – experience, and instinct. “We try and get round as much as possible to ensure we catch the beers at their peak so that they don’t deteriorate over time.”

“All beer that has gone into wood has a very distinct bell curve in terms of the characteristics that will positively contribute towards the beer – beyond that you won’t

get any additional benefits. It will just go downhill. Stored in the right conditions, and in a good wood, they’ll go through a series of stages. Firstly, in about two to three months, you’ll get a big pickup of the spirit, obviously from the former contents of the barrel. The beer is going to be soaking into the wood and as it does so it extracts whatever was in there!”

“Within the next…say…four to five months you’ll start to get a big pickup of the wood character. And that’s about the time you’ll want to be pulling the likes of Bourbon Baby as you get that bourbon character, the sweet woody vanilla and coconut flavours; pull it straight out. Beyond that, so up to about six to nine months, you’ll get more and more of that

woody characteristic coming through. Past that, so nine months to eighteen months, that’s when you start to get quite a lot of influence from oxidation.”

The effect of air inside the barrels can really make a difference (both good and bad). If the fill level is quite low, the greater headspace means beers that went in ‘hot’ with ethanol aromas can mellow out, with the malt coming to the fore and the beer rounding out. This kind of development is exactly what barrel-agers are looking (or more accurately, smelling and tasting) for. As Bowman summarises – “you can target certain characteristics in the beer, but overall if the beer doesn’t have balance as its ageing then it doesn’t carry anything. You have to make sure it’s tasting good.”

That last line is delivered as he shuffles between two rows of casks, hunting for a particular one to remove the bung and take a sample. He acknowledges the room is pretty full. “Ah, I don’t really like throwing anything away,” he says. “It’s a repository – we have so much good stuff in wood here!”

OBVIOUSLY, IT’S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TASTE ALL 900 BARRELS EVERY TWO OR THREE WEEKS.


ISSUE 37

DRINK THIS NEXT:

BA DORIS THE DESTROYER (10.5%)

On the other hand, the fact that Doris (the sister to Hoppin’ Frog’s many Boris beers) has been aged

in Bourbon barrels gives such a riot of flavours that a period of extended ageing would do wonders to round

them all out. As a ‘double imperial stout’ Doris has plethora of sweet, boozy caramel that would develop beautifully.

The beer is also brewed with oatmeal, so another layer of smoothness will appear with six months additional ageing (if you

can wait that long). The vanilla flavours will deepen with more time too – in fact, they may bring this beer to a similar ballpark to

Outta Kilter. Ageing experiment ahoy?

DRINK THIS NOW: BA OUTTA KILTER WEE HEAVY (8.2%)

Hoppin’ Frog specialise in big-hitters (the weakest of the Ohio brewery’s core beers is 6.2%) and Outta Kilter is a barrel-aged Wee Heavy. The Scottish-clad amphibian on the label hides a huge variety of flavours, all of which result in a beer worth tapping into as soon as you can.

Oaky wood, vanilla and sweet caramel are in evidence right from the off – and although more age wouldn’t do it any more harm, the balance of flavours has such a depth to it that, to be honest, you don’t really need to add anything. Find an opener, sit in that wingback chair, and enjoy (bagpipes optional).

THE FIRST TIME…IT’S TIME FOR ANOTHER OF OUR REGULAR ‘DRINK NOW, DRINK IN AN APPROPRIATE AMOUNT OF TIME’ FEATURES! BARREL-AGED BEERS ALREADY HAVE A FAIR AMOUNT OF TIME ON THE CLOCK, SO HERE ARE TWO FROM HOPPIN’ FROG – ONE TO GET TO GRIPS WITH RIGHT AWAY, AND ONE TO LEAVE UNDER A LILY PAD FOR LATER…

Cast your mind back, for a moment, to the early days – those formative drinking years. Not to the feelings of discovery, the first earth-shattering

hangovers or the attempts to hide your furtive boozing with a handful of Polo Mints on the way home (they’ll never know!) – but think back instead to the colour of those first forays.

International lager has a stranglehold on the European beer scene – still – but even more so for the first few drinks of your lifetime of beer appreciation. This has many causes and effects, but one that never really gets considered is that it means almost all of us start on light, golden beer and never taste the darker stuff until later.

Very few people furtively reach for a four-pack of stout to begin their beer drinking days, or swipe a Schwarzbier from their Dad’s stash (unless you grew up in Saxony or somewhere). So the first time you spread those drinking horizons, it can come as quite a shock. Pale industrial lager it ain’t.

But maybe going dark earlier would be good – exposing the fledgling taste buds to something more bitter and with roasty coffee and chocolate flavours. It takes getting used to – but that’s why industrial lager is a bad thing, because it is so easy to drink. If only we’d challenged ourselves and drunk more flavourful beer earlier. All those wasted years...

The First Time is our series revolving around the many moments that drinking beer can lead to. What was your first dark beer of choice – and how did it change your drinking habits? Tell us your stories via email or Twitter below. For Issue 38, we’ll be featuring the question: What was the first brewery you visited?

[email protected]

HOPPROPAGANDA

NOW NEXT


ISSUE 37


ISSUE 36


ISSUE 36

In 2007, we got a bank loan, bought some second hand equipment and turned our home-brewing hobby into our job as BrewDog

officially came howling into the world. Our original brewery in Fraserburgh was basically just a giant home-brewing set up with plastic water tanks and completely manual controls.

Many of the classic BrewDog beers were developed during our home-brewing days, and we still use a 50L system to develop new beers and new recipes here at BrewDog. Home-brewing is very much ingrained in our DNA at BrewDog as so many of the world’s great craft breweries can trace their origins back to home-brewing.

We have always loved the sharing of knowledge, expertise and passion in the craft beer community and we wanted to take that spirit of collaboration to the next level. So with that in mind, we recently launched DIY Dog – our project to give it all back.

With DIY Dog we wanted to do something that has never been done before as well as paying tribute to our home-brewing roots. We wanted to take all

of our recipes, every single last one, and give them all away for free, to the amazing global home-brewing community.

To get hold of the keys to our kingdom, just go to www.brewdog.com/diydog and enter your email address – and that’s it. Every single BrewDog recipe, ever will be yours. Copy them, tear them to pieces, bastardise them, adapt them, but most of all, enjoy them. They are well travelled but with plenty of miles still left on the clock. Just remember to share your brews, and share your results. Sharing is caring.

A near decade-long anthology of BrewDog recipes, scaled down to make it easier to follow for those wanting to have a go at home. DIY Dog is only available in digital format but we have decided to re-print one selected recipe in each edition of Hop Propaganda – and for this barrel-aged edition, what better than our baby Scotch Ale Bourbon Baby, which can be home-brewed with bourbon-soaked oak chips…assuming you don’t have an American whiskey cask in your garage of course…

MARTIN AND I (JAMES) STARTED HOME-BREWING BACK IN 2005. WE COULD NOT FIND ANY BEERS WE WANTED TO DRINK IN THE UK, SO DECIDED THE BEST THING TO DO

WAS TO BREW OUR OWN. ARMED WITH SOME VERY OLD CASCADE HOPS AND A DESIRE TO RECREATE SIERRA NEVADA PALE ALE, OUR BREWING ADVENTURE STARTED.

8

BREWDOG RECIPES: DIY DOG

KEG ONLY

#8

PACKAGING

PEROXIDE PUNKINGREDIENTS

A trashy blonde concession for those who felt that our original 6%

Punk IPA recipe was too hard hitting.

This was also the first time we experimented with dry hopping our

beers, giving Peroxide Punk a depth

of flavour that belies its modest ABV. Zesty, aromatic and thirst quenching.

THIS BEER IS

YEAST

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale™

BASICS

VOLUME20L

5galBOIL VOLUME25L 6.6galABV

4%TARGET FG

1009TARGET OG

1039EBC

18SRM

9PH

4.4ATTENUATION LEVEL

76.9%

During the mashing process, try to mix

the malt without 'turning' or splashing too

much. This will cause more oxygen to be

dissolved in the mash - and result in a beer

that will taste a little like a cardboard box.

BREWER’S TIP

MALT

Maris Otter3.85kg

8.5lb

ABV IBU OG4% 40 1039

HOPS

(g) Add Attribute

Amarillo 25 Start BitterSimcoe 20 End Flavour

Amarillo 25 End FlavourCrystal 20 End Flavour

Liberty 20 End FlavourSimcoe 50 Dry Hop Aroma

Amarillo 50 Dry Hop Aroma

METHOD / TIMINGS

MASH TEMP65°C

149°F 75mins

FERMENTATION19°C

66°F

FOOD PAIRING

Sashimi

Pan roasted poussin with spring vegLemon and thyme panna cotta

FIRST BREWED APRIL 2007ZESTY PALE ALE.

2

BREWDOG RECIPES: DIY DOG

#2

PACKAGING

PUNK IPA 2010 - CURRENT

INGREDIENTS

Punk IPA. Amplified. In 2010

we finally got our paws on the

equipment we needed to dry hop

our beers. We focused all our energy

on dry hopping, amping up the

aroma and flavour of our flagship

beer to create a relentless explosion

of tropical fruits, and adding a hint

of Caramalt to balance out the

insane amount of hops.

THIS BEER IS

YEAST

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale™

BASICS

VOLUME20L 5gal

BOIL VOLUME25L 6.6gal

ABV

5.6%

TARGET FG

1011

TARGET OG

1053

EBC

15

SRM

7.6

PH

4.4

ATTENUATION

LEVEL

78%

To get the best possible profile from the

dry hops we recommend dry hopping post

fermentation for 5 days. Dry hops should

be added at cellar temperature. We find

14°C results in the most aromatic dry hop

profile.

BREWER’S TIPMETHOD / TIMINGS

MASH TEMP

66°C152°F

75 mins

FERMENTATION

19°C66°F

MALT

Extra Pale4.38kg

9.6lb

Caramalt0.25kg 0.55lb

ABV IBU OG

5.6% 40 1053

POST MODERN CLASSIC. SPIKY. TROPICAL. HOPPY.

FOOD PAIRING

Spicy carne asada with a pico de

gallo sauce

Shredded chicken tacos with a

mango chilli lime salsa

Cheesecake with a passion fruit

swirl sauce

FIRST BREWED OCTOBER 2010

HOPS

(g) Add Attribute

Chinook 20 Start Bitter

Ahtanum 12.5 Start Bitter

Chinook 20 Middle Flavour

Ahtanum 12.5 Middle Flavour

Chinook 27.5 End Flavour

Ahtanum 12.5 End Flavour

Simcoe 12.5 End Flavour

Nelson

Sauvin12.5 End Flavour

Chinook 47.5 Dry Hop Aroma

Ahtanum 37.5 Dry Hop Aroma

Simcoe 37.5 Dry Hop Aroma

Nelson

Sauvin20 Dry Hop Aroma

Cascade 37.5 Dry Hop Aroma

Amarillo10 Dry Hop Aroma


ISSUE 37


ISSUE 37


ISSUE 37


ISSUE 36

BOTTLEBOX IS HERE!OUR EPIC SUBSCRIPTION BEER CLUB IS LIVE

Craft beer fans today are an inquisitive, yet discerning bunch – they certainly know what’s going on when it comes

to everyone’s favourite beverage. And to reciprocate, we love getting as much exciting, freshly-brewed beer as we possibly can out to those who want to discover the joys of craft beer. And in an effort to make that even easier – we have launched our curated sign-up beer club. BottleBox is here!

Curated beer clubs have two major foundations – upon which they stand or fall. One is the quality and freshness of the beers. BottleBox is exclusive, so we can keep the standard of the beers as high as you would expect; our own are just off the packaging line at our Ellon brewhouse, and we can go direct to the guest brewers to get the most exciting, recently-released beers as possible.

The second foundation is the ease of operation, which we have utterly covered. You can join, leave, pause or update your subscription at any time, simply by visiting the

website at www.brewdog.com/bottlebox. Plus if you sign up and pay for 12 boxes in advance, you will get them for the price of 11. And on top of that, BottleBox delivery is at no extra charge to all UK addresses (here’s looking at you, Highlands & Islands and Northern Ireland)!

So check out the options overleaf and head to the BottleBox website to pick a case, then sit back and it will arrive to your address of choice! Equity Punks – we have a special exclusive shareholder-only set of BottleBox options with exclusive beers, exclusive merchandise and guest beers that are amazing – just log in to your Equity Punk account and follow the links!

If you never want to miss a BrewDog beer launch again, or have a hankering to discover more about the joys of British and global craft beer, all delivered to your door – then our new curated subscription beer service BottleBox is for you!

PROSPECTIVE EQUITY PUNKS! INVEST £1,900 OR MORE (40+ SHARES) IN EQUITY FOR PUNKS IV AND YOU WILL QUALIFY FOR

A YEAR’S FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO BOTTLEBOX!

WHY BOTTLEBOXQuick and easy – no hassle beer delivered every month

Pay for the year up-front and receive 12 months for the price of 11

From just £23 a month INCLUDING UK delivery!

You’ll never miss a major BrewDog Beer Launch again

Receive exclusive not-available-to-buy BrewDog merchandise

Complete flexibility – skip, pause or cancel your subscription at any time

Try different BrewDog beer styles as chosen by our crew

GENERAL PUBLIC CASES

Again, prices are inclusive of delivery to your UK address of choice. All instalment payments will be taken via recurring payments and both the Equity Punk and Public BottleBoxes are also available to our craft beer loving fans around the world (with standard shipping surcharges).

Plus you can sign up for as many of the options as you like!

FD

8 BrewDog beers. Delivered monthly.

£23 per month.

E


£30 per month.

EQUITY PUNK-ONLY CASES

All prices include UK-wide delivery (and also the 20% shareholder discount), option C will be the BottleBox those shareholders with over £1,900 will be able to sign up to, free of charge!

6 BrewDog & 6 guest beers. Delivered bimonthly.

£40 every two months.

CA


£35 per month.

B

12 BrewDog beers. Delivered bimonthly.

£35 every two months.


£37 per month.

THE LAST WORDTAKEN A BEER PIC GOOD ENOUGH TO FEATURE IN

THE PAGES OF HOP PROPAGANDA? EMAIL A HIGH-RES COPY TO [email protected]

AND FIND OUT!

AT WORKBY SAM BRILL

WWW.BREWDOG.COM

FOOD & BEER PAIRING – WHAT, HOW AND WHY

ROAST AND GROUND: BEHIND THE SCENES AT DEAR GREEN

HOW TO HOST A BEER TASTING

OUR LATEST RELEASES; AND GUEST BEERS

WHAT WAS THE FIRST BREWERY YOU VISITED?

THE LATEST NEWS FROM BREWDOG, THE WIDER WORLD OF CRAFT BEER, AND MORE!

WE’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS ABOUT THIS NEW-LOOK MAGAZINE. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH USING THE METHODS BELOW. AND UNTIL NEXT TIME, ENJOY YOUR BEER!

[email protected]

NEXT ISSUE, COMING IN JUNE

@BREWDOG

HP ISSUE #38

WWW.BREWDOG.COM

Documents

HOP PROPAGANDA THE BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM …