Ale.is.good

Brewdog and Tesco? It seems a bit like having a Macdonald's Family "Restaurant" with three Michelin Stars! That said, I often eat Tesco Finest* soups for lunch at work… just because it is Tesco doesn't make it cheap-and-crap. So why not sell a Brewdog beer under the Finest* banner? So, today, in dreary England I visited Tesco and bought some Scottish-made beer called "American Double IPA" … hell, considering the Pom's idea of "Australian beer": why not?

This gave me an opportunity. Brewdog's Hardcore IPA is one of my favourite hop-bombs, super-resinous but mellowed by malt. By luck I'd got my hands on a bottle of the legendary "old recipe" Hardcore when I visited the Brewdog brewery up in Fraserburgh. I wasn't even certain the "old recipe" bottle was the right thing, neither was the bloke I picked it up from, it had no label. I'd been planning a new-skool versus old-skool head-2-head for some time but hadn't got around to it – the American Double IPA was the perfect catalyst. A hardcore threesome!

There has been much talk of old-Hardcore vs new-Hardcore within the Brewdogosphere, wars waged between people who prefer one over the other. (Well, not wars perhaps, but at least a few meaningfully typed words.) Now we have a new player, some claim it is different and others claim it is identical. From the Brewdog Shareholdersphere I can quote Brewdog's Head-of-Stuff, James Watt: "It is a slightly tweaked beer." (not particularly revealing!)

Disclaimer: we're imbibers and lovers of beer, especially beers that go a bit further (in any direction) – but, despite being "scientists" (of a sort), this tasting was not scientific! Rather, it was non-blind, not conducted in ideal conditions, and done for a bit of fun! ;)

Health warning: These beers, the ones with labels at least, are 9.2% ABV. This isn't beer for pint-swillers, enjoy these beers as you would a glass of good drinking wine: in a careful, considered, and (most of all) relaxed fashion. Perhaps in a comfy armchair before a roaring fire on a cold winter's night.

So the above, non-evenly lighted, photo is our third observation of the tasting. Alongside each other in this form there was little discernible difference, none perhaps. The first observation was the opening of the bottle – the same hiss, the same vapour. The second observation was the first sniff of the bottle. In this the Tesco-A2IPA and the new-skool-Hardcore had a hoppy zest that the old-skool-Hardcore lacked.

This initial observation extended to a good sniff of glasses of the beer. This is not surprising, the more zesty/floral/citrus volatiles from the hops are known to mellow with age. We can never know what a deep sniff of a "fresh" old-skool-Hardcore would have given us!

A final, and more considered, snorting and wafting lead to a feeling that the new-skool-Hardcore is more sprucey and resinous, the Tesco-A2IPA more citrus/fruity. Keep in mind though: we are trying to find differences here in full knowledge of which beer is which.

Next for a round of tasting, then another, and another. Etcetera! Taking notes along the way of course.

The less volatile hop-notes of the old-skool are proven here, though this may be influenced by age (as previously explained.) The old-skool is quite a different beast from its siblings in this front and, possibly as a result, comes across as more biscuity/malty with a hit of gingerbread. This is a hefty and full-bodied warming/spicy beer, I feel inclined to put some current new-skool-Hardcore's aside for a year or two. Taste and smell here are not the only difference of note however. While the Tesco-A2IPA and new-skool are hard to tell apart visually, the old-skool seems clearly darker to the eye than the other two. So perhaps an aged new-skool will never be quite the same as its older old-skool sibling?

The harder call is picking differences between the new-skool and the Tesco-A2IPA. I think Kathlene and I both agree: the new-skool has a more in-your-face, resinous, mouth-coating bitterness. That said, the Tesco-A2IPA is hard to tell apart from it… but it seems a little more fruity/citrusy, less sprucey/piney, less mouth-coatingly resinous, more smooth.

On closely considering the colour comparison between the Tesco-A2IPA and new-skool-Hardcore I believe the Tesco-A2IPA seemed, almost imperceptibly, darker. However, the difference was not convincing.

Interestingly, some time later we lost track of which was which! (Between the new-skool-Hardcore and the Tesco-A2IPA.) At this point our pallets were pretty much hop-hammered so subtle nuances in hop volatiles were well beyond us. However, both of us felt that one of the beers was clearly more malty/sweet than the other. Kathlene uses the terminology "oaky/vanilla" to describe the maltier beer. At this point I decided we had to open another new-skool-Hardcore. This turned out to be equivalent to the less-malty/sweet glass. So, under some influence, we'd pin down another difference on this front.

So that's it. Tesco Finest*[1] American Double IPA is a fruitier, sweeter and less resinous take on the Brewdog Hardcore IPA. But the difference is subtle, perhaps psychological and phantasmagorical, if it exists it probably falls within the bounds of expected variation between batches of a beer at a micro (and I've seen some comments about a lack of consistency of Brewdog's Punk and Hardcore IPA batches.)

In the end it doesn't even matter. All three bottles of beer were enjoyed. I'll probably never taste another old-skool again and if I were forced to rate one of the other two above the other I'd be stuck. I do think that the Tesco version was more smooth and feel I might actually prefer it for this reason. Then again, I really love those warm/piney/resinous hop notes and think (presuming the difference is real) that the new-skool-Hardcore pushes more of my sensory happy-buttons. The Tesco version on the other hand? I think I could drink more of that, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.

I have 5 more Tesco-A2IPAs in stock, and more new-skool-Hardcores, so additional head-2-head hardcore tastings are on the books. Any additional observations will be appended here.

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[1] For my non-UK friends I should mention that Tesco is a megalomaniacal super-market chain. In Australia the closest equivalent is possibly Coles or Woolworths. Tesco is similar, like a Haulpak is similar to a Ute. The Finest* range encompasses their "premium" own-brand products. Nice black and silver packaging. The * does not mean I have a footnote, that's actually part of the brand. I suspect the products have a micro-dot on them which is a footnote defining "finest" in strict and safe legal terms.