I’ve wanted to do blind tasting between Brewdog‘s Infamous Punk IPA and Thornbridge’s Stunning Jaipur for a while, but haven’t actually managed to keep a bottle of either in my beer cupboard long enough to compare them side by side. So with the arrival of my latest 52 week beer club I finally had both beers in my possession at the same time.
The 3 beers awaiting opening
I also had a couple of other IPA’s kicking around in the cupboard but in order to keep things simple I decided just to add just one more to this battle royale, this came in the form of Crown Brewery‘s excellent and often underrated Unpronounceable IPA.
I nagged Emily into trying to pour each beer the same, washing and drying the glass (My new favourite Duvel Glass) between beers and to make sure I didn’t know what was in each glass, so that I was completely in the dark and couldn’t make judgements based on what I thought of the brands or brewers.
Beer number one arrived, it was light golden with a thin, pale white head, the lack of aroma took me by surprise, I was expecting something bigger and bolder on the nose, there were hints of citrus, hops and a little spice, but they were all really faint and it took me a while to pick them out.
The body was light and smooth, flavour wise it was quite and peachy there were hints of tropical fruit, nothing huge, as the beer warmed the malt came through as did a little caramel. The finish was hoppy and bitter, the bitterness lasted ages. I plumped for this one being Brewdog‘s Punk IPA.
Once finished, Emily kindly washed the glass out and poured mystery beer number 2.
The first thing I noticed about this beer was that it’ head was a lot bigger and frothy. It was a similar colour to beer number 1 but maybe a touch darker.
The aromas were of a fair bit stronger than beer number 1, citrusy hops, some pine and really strangely some caramel popcorn.
Flavour wise the hops come first, citrusy, bold and grassy then the caramel malt comes in, this again becomes more prominent as the beer warms up and where I think the caramel popcorn in the aromas came from. The finish is a lot less bitter than beer number one, smoother and more refined, this makes it mega drinkable. I put this down as Jaipur.
Perfect day for drinking Jaipur, Punk and UIPA
Emily then cleaned and dried the glass again and poured beer number 3.
It was a bit cloudier and a darker amber than the previous two beers, the head was huge and a really tight foam. The aromas were boozy, fruity and a little bit yeasty.
Flavour wise there was grapefruit, hops a hint of sweetness and touches of malt, the finish was hoppy and bitter, the bitterness was somewhere between beer 1 and 2, not quite as bitter as the first but slightly more bitter than the 3rd, process of elimination and familiarity had this one nailed as Unpronounceable IPA.
So out of the three and without knowing which was really which, I marked number 2 down as my favourite followed by number 3 and then number 1, I loved just how drinkable beer number 2 was and how really well balanced it was, it was a beer I could drink all night every night.
Emily then revealed which beer was which, I’ve put them below with a bit of information about each and where to get them so if you want to give the blind tasting a go you can get your hands on some beer.
Beer Number 1: Brewdog Punk IPA, 6%, £1.49 per 330ml bottle, available from the Brewdog website, Tesco and Sainsbury follow James on twitter, follow Martin on twitter or follow Bracken on twitter here.
Beer Number 2: Thornbridge Jaipur, 5.9%, £2.00 per 330ml bottle, available from My brewery tap and selcted Tesco stores, visit the Thornbridge website here or follow Kelly on twitter here
Beer Number 3: Crown Unpronounceable IPA, 7%, £2.50 per 330ml bottle, available from My brewery tap, visit the Crown Brewery website here or follow Stu on twitter here.
Excellent review Andy. I saw your tweets during the blind tasting but was unable to comment back at the time. I too like my Duval glasses, my favourite being the one with the bartender juggling some beer glasses.
I haven’t tried any of the IPA’s you reviewed above but I’ll be sure to add them to my list now.
Mike
(@mcdent)
Nice test! I’m waiting to find a pub with both Jaipur and Punk on tap so I can do a draught blind tasting. I’m looking forward to mybrewerytap’s box with UIPA in as I haven’t had it for ages!
I keep saying I should do more blind taste tests. I’ve had one planned for all the trappist beers for over a year and all the bottles are still sitting in a box waiting – I must make the time soon!!
Thanks Mike!! not seen the glass with the juggler on i will have to keep an eye out for it!!
Mark – I wish I had done it at Sheffield tap when we were there for twissup, got a feeling it will be a while before im in a pub with both on again. I am sure Lauren won’t mind blindfolding you and pouring beers for you…
I want to do more tastings like this, i’ve got a few other beers lined up, ones i’ve not had before too so that should be interesting.
Nice idea and nice blog entry … interesting to see the write up after following your tweets. UIPA is very different to the other two, but you’ve done well there to get all of them right! 🙂
Like Mark says, it would be interesting to do the same thing with draft Punk and Jaipur. I think you’d still be able to tell the difference but that the overall quality would be higher. Jaipur on draft – in good nick – is just outstanding.
Memory serves that Punk has out-edged Jaipur on the occasions I’ve tried them side-by-side on cask.
I’m trying to sort out a cask versus bottle Jaipur tasting. Possibly the same for Punk. With the logical extension being to try all four together in a blind tasting…
BeerBirraBier, glad you enjoyed the post! Agreed that UIPA is a different beast it’s a fair bit stronger for a start and you really get that extra booziness from it.
Scoop, shame we can’t arrange all 4 for the next twissup, id love to give it a go and see if the difference between cask and bottle is noticeable….this on a group scale would be epic.
Good write up. Only had Punk so far, got Jaipur on the way. Am I strange that I generally prefer bottled to cask? I think it’s the condition/mouth feel rather than taste that I like more.
Good test, Couldn’t agree more with your conclusion Punk is one of the best with so much flavour but all of them are top brew’s. If you can find it Marble Brewery Dobber is mental.
Pete – I think Brewdog may do better bottles than they do cask, i know a couple of other people have said the same too…
Dave – love dobber – it’s one of my favourite ales, could sit and sup that for ever.
AndyMogg, I meant generally, not just Brewdog (never had it in a pub)
I prefer the carbonation of bottles to the smoothness of cask.
I can see what you mean pete, for me it depends on the beer, some beers are better in bottle others in cask some it’s hard to decide between!