Jack Russell not Great Dane

With all the hype around Brewdog's heavy hitting beers it's easy to forget that they produce beer of average strength too. Well, easy for me to forget at any rate because until recently I couldn't get my hands on any of it. This was happily remedied with a recent trip to The Drink Store of Dublin's Stoneybatter. A number of Brewdog beers have turned up there including The Physics and 77 Lager, both of which are lightweights compared to Brewdog's more potent beers, but they do not suffer in the flavour stakes and will stay in my memory just as long as their bigger beers. It is clear that the philosophy of packing in the flavour is avidly adhered to in these beers despite the pedestrian nature of the style, being far closer to the average beer on the street that Brewdog swore not to emulate.

77 Lager is unlike any other lager you will try. The hop choice is not one associated with a lager (Amarillo, I think) but the taste and aroma is very satisfying. I wouldn't class it as a lager on a blind taste and it likely only masquerades as a lager because of a period of cold storage that the majority of ales undergo anyway. It's certainly clean like a lager but the orange fruiy flavours probably undo the work of the lager yeast strain, if indeed one was used.

The Physics falls directly into standard British ale territory, but with more teeth in the form of a surprising bitterness. The malt that drives this beer is superb and probably the best I have tried in quite some time. Crystal and Caramalt is mentioned on the label. I will be seriously looking into this combination to get that juicy, chewy malt aspect into my own beer.