Sunday 15 May 2016

I Hardcore You

Origin: UK | Date: 2010 | ABV: 9.5% | On The Beer Nut: September 2010

"A while" is how long I said I would leave my second bottle of I Hardcore You back in 2010. I really didn't intend it to be over five years.

The beer is a blend of BrewDog's Hardcore IPA with Mikkeller's I Beat yoU and is all about the hops. Or at least it was. At 9.5% ABV it's doubtless robust enough to survive the years of neglect, but would there still be any sign of the pine or elderflower notes I wrote about first time round?

Short answer: no. The beer seems darker than before, and murkier too. There's a sizeable amount of yeast built up in the bottom of the bottle. Maybe it decided that the residual sugar wasn't so unpalatable after all. It smells mostly of alcohol: white port or one of those lurid Italian aperitif liqueurs. The flavour is very sweet with an almost syrupy cough mixture vibe and just a whisper of orange pith bitterness for any semblance of balance. I tried hard to pick up some more subtle elements in the flavour but there aren't any really -- anything that hasn't rotted away gets buried under the weight of raw alcohol.

It's not awful, but is very definitely past its best -- following Alpha Dawg back in January, this is strike two for the hoppy beers. Thankfully I don't think there are any more in the stash.

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