The Brewdog

The Brewdog brewery in Fraserburgh, which has been brewing beer since 2007 has been picking up a bit of attention of late. Perhaps it's notoriety, but that's not a reason not to check them out. So when I heard that they had opened up a pub in Aberdeen I reckoned that was the perfect opportunity to pop round and see what's going on whenever I got a chance - which was last Sunday.

I decided I would go down the half pint line since you get to try a few more before you fall over that way (falling over was not the plan by the way). With 7 draft beers on one blackboard and about as many on another, I certainly wasn't going to go through the card but decided on a half of Punk Wit - it's a sturdy little number, fruity and something a bit peppery about it - I'm afraid I'm not much of a connoisseur, but either way it was really good. Brewdogs half pint glasses have a fill to the line mark, religiously ignored by the barmen - keep it up lads. Then I moved on to a halfish pint of 5am Saint which was not quite so much to my liking - quite palatable though and I'm sure I could pick out a slight essence of bicycle inner tube.

Brewdog last year hit the news, or at least with type of people inclined to report that sort of thing, when it produced the world's strongest and most expensive beer. It was a limited edition of 12 bottles of 55% alcohol beer presented inside stuffed animals - that is, stuffed mainly with a bottle of beer. 7 were in stoats at £500 pounds and 4 were in Squirrels at £700 and one was in a hare which was not for sale. They did have one of the squirrel bottles on a shelf behind the bar which they brought down for me to photograph - not the last photo of the night. The poor creature seems to spend a large lump of it's afterlife leaping back and forward between bar and customer for photographs.

They have a huge selection of bottled foreign beer behind the bar. Much, though not all, is, quite frankly expensive and I did feel the need for a drink after I'd read the beer menu - handy that I was in a pub. But if you fancy treating yourselves from time to time or are Norwegian and quite used to these kind of prices then you'll be hard pushed to find a better selection anywhere (perhaps, just perhaps, even in the Masonic in Kirkcudbright)

I plumped for a bottle of Black Chocolate Stout - if you like dark chocolate and beer, then this could be the beer for you. I say it's yummy but if you want a more in depth review, I recently read about it here

The barmen have been very well educated about their product, can tell you all about it and are quite happy to give you a wee taste before you buy. I tried a taste of their Punk IPA which was very fine but what I was more interested in was the range of single hop ales - this sounds like the stuff of purists to me. They make four and they had two here on draught so I had a taste of both - the Nelson Sauvin (a New Zealand hop) was a fruity little number and the Sorachi Ace tasted of coconut - coconut? hard to believe without any brewery tricks - I'll have a half pint (and a bit) of that please. The barman tells me it's a Japanese hop developed by the Saporo brewing company (they of the indestructible tin)

The bar was mainly filled with young people and not a one drinking Tennents lager. They appeared to be doing quite well considering this was a Sunday night. Another Bar is due to open in Edinburgh sometime this month and one is planned for Glasgow. Could this be a change in the Scottish drinking habit - I don't know but it definitely marks an improvement in one corner of it.

Finally, it seemed a bit irresponsible to leave without trying their Sink The Bismark, which rings in at a spectacular 41% alcohol. Not surprisingly, they don't sell it by the pint or half pint but by 25ml shorts. It's much easier drinking than you might imagine (no need to grit your teeth first) and to my surprise, still identifiable as a beer.

Brewdog website is here