Given the gold award on the neck of the bottle, I was expecting more from 13 Guns by Thwaites Brewery.  It is a American IPA at 5.5%.

Much like yesterday’s entry, there isn’t much to this one.  No smell to it.  The “hit of hops” listed on the label is there at the start but it has faded over the tasting.  By no means the worst beer I’ve had but it doesn’t stand out.

“It’s like drinking beer with a mouth full of Opal Fruits”.  That’s Spike’s verdict of Apocalyptic Thunder Juice, an IPA at 6.5%

The smell is quite hoppy and I was surprised with the fruitiness in the taste.  Apologies for the shortness of this one but Brewdog has many beers to try.

Apologies up front, this is going to be a bit of a rough one.  Tonight’s beer is Ninkasi from the Wild Beer Co.  Up front it states “Bubbles, Apples and Wild Yeast”, but what it doesn’t advertise is the 9%.  Also, this bottle is even bigger that yesterdays.

I’m calling this a rough one as my flat mate was kind enough to give me one of his free employee cinema tickets and we went and watched The Last Jedi.  We then went to the pub to discuss the film and had several pints.  Which means this large volume of 9% is going down rather fast.  I’ll probably be found asleep in the kitchen with a burnt to a crisp pizza later.

As for the beer, it really minds me of Belgian beers, particularly Leffe, in both taste and smell.  The previous mixture of ale and stout (not in the same glass, I’m not a monster) isn’t helping in picking out specific smells and tastes for this one.

Now that’s a decent sized bottle of beer!  Today we have Slot Machine from Brew Dog.  A red rye IPA at 5.2%.

Now this might sound odd but the smell is definitely a Brew Dog beer.  Not sure if it’s just me but I have found there is a distinct smell to all their beers.  The taste is hoppy and sour.  I will be interested to see if the “rye spiciness” mentioned on the label surfaces as I get further down the bottle.

Another from the Pressure Drop brewery in London, Bosko, a retro IPA at 6.5%.  Chosen because it reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld.  My criteria for buying beer isn’t exactly complex.

It’s hard to notice unless you hold it up to the light, but there is a lot of stuff just floating in this one.  Not much to the smell and the taste is mainly hops with a slightly sour after taste.  The tasting notes on the bottle mention caramel, zest and pine but I’m noticing any of these.

In another first, this is being written from the pub.  Today’s drink is passion fruit Seacider at 4%.

This is more like fruit juice than a cider.  I would put it in a group with the Old Mout ciders.  Very much the taste and smell of passion fruit.  If you didn’t know this was alcoholic, it could be dangerous.  Not that anyone would be dumb enough to get drunk on what they thought was fruit juice *cough Scott cough*.

Up today we have Mojo from Robinsons.  A pale ale at 5.5%.  There is a stick figure cartoon of a person describing the drink and says it “tastes tropically”.  Don’t think I’ve had a tropical beer before.

The smell is remarkably sweet and slightly tropical, so the beer is living up to it’s description.  It’s a clean taste and it doesn’t linger.  Though no where near as tropical as the smell.

This snowy evening (well at least in north London) we have Safe Word from Weird Beard.  It’s a chokeberry IPA 6.6% (I will admit I had to look up chokeberry as I had no idea about it).

Quite a clingy taste to this one, bitter, sour and quite hoppy.  Not bad, but I won’t be raving about this one.  There is a light citrus smell which is quickly becoming a theme for this year.