Brewdog Bar Glasgow

I have to apologise for not posting in a while but I moved back to Dublin from Westmeath and have been a little too busy. I also have not got my internet connection yet but hopefully that will be done today.

Anyway a few weeks ago I visited Scotland in my campervan and our first full day was spent in Glasgow, using Ayr as our base for 3 nights. We had our bikes with us so we cycled from the train station to the Brewdog bar, which is a few kilometres from the train station.

I started off with Never mind the anabolics. It's 6.5% ABV and I picked it because I had never had it, and also I needed a little recovery after the cycle and was hoping it would do some good on the cycle back.

The aroma was grassy hops with citrus notes. A surprisingly thin body at first but it bulked up a little later and  was easy drinking throughout. Bitter orange and some sort of tropical fruit. Not as in your face as many brewdog beers. I quite liked it, even if it is a bit if a gimmicky beer. The gimmick is that it contains creatine, guarana, ginseng, gingo, maca powder, matcha tea and kola nut. All supposed to be banned at the Olympics for some reason. I believe it is now available in bottle in Ireland so I will try pick some up.

Inside is pretty typical of what I have seen from pictures of other brewdog bars. The most obvious one being that there are no bar stools. The bar is for ordering only, not sitting down. A shame because I love sitting at the bar when it's quiet. It's a mix of high tables and stools (with kegs underneath) or comfy sofas. There are also board games as well as an old school arcade game that's free to play.

One of the best things I found was the ability to buy a whiskey measure of Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink The Bismark for £5 each. In the picture above: TNP is on the left and STB is on the right. They are very different beers. I have heard people say they prefer STB but for me, TNP was far superior.

TNP has a sherry like aroma. It's full of dark fruits. Hard to tell its beer actually. A very strong alcohol burn and sweet middle. Lovely but impossible to drink a whole bottle in one sitting, this small serving was perfect, though I think I could have had another one easily.

Bismarck is lighter in colour and similar smelling but less of that lovely rich aroma. This one is nowhere near as good. A real sense of sweet glucose candy and some nail polish romover. Very odd, not bad but I have no interest in trying again.

Dead pony club (left) is something I never thought to see from Brewdog. I bog standard English bitter (kegged though). I would then expect them to hop the bejaysus out of it but they didn't. Instead it put me in mind of bitter and twisted. Sessionable, full of citrus but not an in your face American style pale ale. The hops are grassy and while there is little sweetness, it's not very bitter either.

Riptide is a beer I've had before under a different guise. I did not find this nearly as interesting as the bottled and rebadged version. Either I had overpowered it my taste with the previous beers or else it's just not as good on keg as it is in bottle.  

Brewdog also does beer cocktails which my wife decided to try and I had a taste. I don't recall what it was but it contained punk IPA. I have never had a hoppy cocktail before. It was actually not a complete travesty of a beverage, but I would rather just drink a punk IPA.

The food was slightly disappointing but only because I expected more choice. I had heard it was good food though and the chilli burger certainly was, though I was hoping for a little more. The chef said he put too many chillies in and if it was too much, pull them out but I was hoping for a hot chilli sauce. Still, it was a nice burger. They also do a meat and cheese board, pretty essential for tasting different beers.