Beer of the Week

Gypsy Inc.,Pale Trail – DE/Scotland 4.7 p%,£2.99

BREWED at Brewdog’s new brewery in Ellon, this is a new beer from a ‘new’ brewery. Only it isn’t a brewery; Gypsy Inc. is a new collective of contract brewers headed by the infamous Mikkeller.

So this is a beer at least somewhat related to Mikkeller, brewed at Brewdog... but it’s not either of their beers. Or something.

According to Brewdog, Gypsy Inc. have launched “over 600” commercial beers, and yet only two are currently available, two more are due soon, and nobody has heard of the other 596.

Hopefully somewhere beyond the smoke and mirrors is a nice beer for me to drink, because my head hurts now.

Pale Trail is a 4.7 per cent hoppy pale ale brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Tettnanger hops, and the former two really show in the aroma; dripping wet pineapple and Um Bongo. The beer itself is a lovely bright copper, in part because it isn’t bottle conditioned, with a delicate white head.

Of course the taste is what matters, however it isn’t, as you might expect from the aroma, aggressively hoppy. Rather it tastes like raw, unfermented wort; caramel sweetness and dry toasted cereal play off against gentle hop aromatics, and yet it’s remarkably light bodied.

It might be made by nobody, but you know what? This is a lovely beer for a sunny Spring day.

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