Abstrakt

Earlier this month I wrote about ordering some beer from the BrewDog Brewery.  Although all of these beers were splendid, I was also in for a surprise.  One of the beers I had ordered was called Abstrakt: 08.  I researched the beer and found its website (Ok it is on the back label): http://www.abstrakt.com/.

 According to the website the beer was supposed to be a deconstructed blond imperial stout.  “What?” I asked myself.  How can the words “blond” and “stout” be used in the same description?  As I read more, I was intrigued by the whole Abstract concept.  Each beer that they brew is a one-time-only production.  And, each is brewed in limited quantities.  What a great marketing scheme.  The labels are minimalist in design, with just enough information to make you want to search the Internet for more information.  

One side of my brain said: “Celler it and enjoy it later.  At 11.8% alcohol, it will age marvelously.”  The other side of my brain said, “I wonder what a blond imperial stout tastes like. Try it now.”  Well, it really was no contest—I opened it.  The beer is truly unique, with lots of interesting flavors: coffee, malt, chocolate, etc.  There was really nothing about it that said “stout” to me, but who cares?  The beer was a delight.  Now I’ve got figure out a way to try some of the other Abstrakt beers.

Cheers,

Zymus 

BrewDog brewery

It will, no doubt, come as no surprise that I consider myself a devotee of craft beer.  I'm always on the lookout for something new and interesting.  A few months back, I was researching some specialty beers and I came across the website for BrewDog brewery in Scotland. They claim to brew beer for punks.  "Ok," I thought and I wished I could try some of their products.  I went to their "shop" portion of the website and found that they sell their beer over the Internet.  Hmm...would they ship to the USA?  I ordered a selection of beers including two that were high gravity beers.  I completed the order form, expecting that the order would be canceled once I typed in my USA address.  To my surprise, they accepted the order.  I got a call from my credit card company a few days later asking if my credit card had been compromised, because there was a charge on it from Scotland.  Cool, I thought, maybe they will actually send me the beer.

About two months passed, and I had nearly forgot about the order.  Then, one Saturday afternoon the doorbell rang and it was the postman with a abhorrent-looking package wrapped in plastic.  He apologetically explained that this was how he got it and I needed to sign on the dotted line.  The package was from Scotland.

I brought the sorry looking bundle into my home and quickly realized that the bundle was a cardboard box and at least one beer bottle had broken destroying the cardboard on one side.  As I carefully undid the package I was pleasantly surprised to find that only two of the 16 beers I had ordered were broken and these two were from 4-packs.  Other than that, the rest of the beers were fine.  Some of the beers were amazing.  I'll talk about that in another post.

Cheers,
Zymus