- Brewery: Brewdog
- Country: Scotland
- Style: American Strong Ale
- ABV: 11.8 %
- Size: 375 ml
- Bought from: Brewdog Shop, 9.99 pounds
- Beer Advocate
- RateBeer
Brewdog brew a series of one-off concept beers, known as Abstrakt, with a new beer released every 3 months. AB:09 was just recently released and today we will be trying AB:08, which was released in December 2011 (so about half a year ago). AB:08 is a blonde imperial stout, which has been brewed with Oats, liquorice, heavily toasted oak chips, cacao, coffee and smoked malt, to give it the taste of an imperial stout, without the color. Seems like an interesting experiment. Let’s see how it tastes.
[easyreview title=”Brewdog Abstrakt AB:08″ cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours with a clear golden-amber color and a slight white-colored head, that collapses quickly. Looks like a pale ale.” cat1rating=”3.5″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma is interesting and reminds me a bit of an imperial stout. There are tones of coffee, smoked malts, caramel, alcohol and hops. Seems to be missing the roastiness of a stout.” cat2rating=”3.5″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins sweet and caramelly, but is quickly taken over by some earthy tones of liqourice, oak and smoke, that last all the way to the bitter aftertaste that stays on the tongue. Very strange flavors, that certainly try to mimic an imperial stout, but are missing the balance to make this beer enjoyable.” cat3rating=”2.5″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a relatively full and oily body, with a quite low carbonation level. The bitterness is quite unpleasant, and there is some alcohol present as well. Maybe needs some age.” cat4rating=”3″ summary=”This was a fun experiment, but not that fun of a beer. The aroma was promising, but the flavors didn’t go well together, and the beer felt a bit unpleasant to drink. This might have needed some aging. This is the first Abstrakt beer I’ve tried, and am definitely disappointed. I have a bottle of AB:06 waiting in the fridge, so hopefully that one is a bit tastier.”]