Brewery: Brewdog
Style: IPA
ABV: 8.7%
Brewdog are currently facing the conundrum of being that cool punk kid who fights authority at every turn for the right cause, but is now facing the problem of having to grow up and put on a suit to compete in the big bad world to make money. Luckily for us, this punk kid has skills and a talent for brewing that surpasses exceptional, and is now investing that new found, hard earned cash in great new beers.
Restorative beverage for invalids & convalescents is part of a new double barrel launch by the Scottish brewing behemoths (the other release being a highly interesting gluten free beer) and is billed as a "very new, yet very old" styled IPA.
You know when you were younger and one of your older relatives would say "eat that, it'll put hairs on your chest"?
Well this should be the tagline for this bottle.
Brewdog created the recipe using an extract from a 'Treatise on Food and Diet’ , a mid-19thcentury medical textbook written by the ‘father of pharmacology’ Dr Jonathan Pereira, in which the Indian Pale Ale of 1843 is described as ‘carefully fermented, so as to be devoid of all sweetness, or, in other words, to be dry; and it contains double the usual quantity of hops. It forms, therefore, a most valuable restorative beverage for invalids and convalescents.’
Restorative beverage for invalids & convalescents (or RBIC for the purposes of the rest of this review) is an old school IPA, styled to be an 18th century tonic - a restorative beverage for those suffering a hop deficiency if you will - that follows in the tradition of its forebears the Punk, Hardcore and Jack Hammer IPAs, and is a true hop monster.
The Nose:
The nose is all floral and biscuit notes, a real punch of hop aroma, that eventually mellows to reveal fruitier tones of orange and melon.
Taste:
The first taste offers a dry hoppy wave of high IBUs (International Bitterness Units to those not as dorky about beers as I am) that leaves a tingling on the tongue and has a moreish quality that's not easy to dismiss. The second thing you will notice is that this beer, although pushing on 9% abv, is deceptively easy to drink.
However, if you don't like dry hop monsters, you may struggle to enjoy it.
Perhaps the only major problem with this beer is that it's only 330ml, and it will leave you wanting more.
Perfect for those cold nights when your feeling poorly and need a great tasting beer (that also happens to double as a medicinal tonic) as a pick up. Just what the doctor ordered.
