What Happens When 3 Brewers Get Together?
They decide to make a Black Pilsner, that’s what. What is that you ask? Well, this is what it is. Juxtaposition is a collaboration between Stone, Cambridge, and BrewDog and is the third in an ongoing series of special release beers. I’d heard about this beer back in April and was waiting for it’s release. It came out in late July and I picked up a bottle near the end of August. I decided to have this beer with some brisket I cooked “low and slow” on the Big Green Egg:
Juxtaposition is a very good beer, but I could not exactly place the flavor I was tasting. It looked great in the glass with a nearly unpenetratable black color and a nice off white head. Lacing was pretty good. The aroma was fruity and a little piney. The flavor, however, was something I was unable to correctly identify. There were elements of coffee, pine, chocolate as well as dark fruit, but something just wasn’t clicking in my brain. This lent a bit of mystery to the beer and maybe that was the point. Either way it was a very tasty beer with a complex and full bodied flavor. The 10% ABV was pretty well hidden but it is definitely not a session beer like many “normal” pilsners are. It went excellent with the brisket I made on the ‘egg. If you have had this beer please let me know what you thought of it. Maybe you were better at identifying the “missing” flavor than me.
Once again, Stone Brewing, along with Brew Dog and Cambridge, have produced a high quality beer that is just a little different. Well done, guys!
Here’s the score:
1. Appearance- 8 points (out of 10)
2. Smell- 7 points (out of 10)
3. Taste- 18 points (out of 20)
4. Drinkability- 7 points (out of 10)
Total 40 (out of 50) Points-4 Mugs
Isn’t this the hoppiest beer Stone have ever brewed? I can’t wait to try it, it was released ages ago so hopefully it’ll get onto the BrewDog website for sale soon! Their collaboration in Scotland – Bashah – sounds very good, especially the ones aged with berries in whisky casks!
I enjoy beers where you can’t quite work out all the flavours, it makes you drink it with more interest, trying to work out what’s going on!
Great review!
Hi Mark!
I think Juxtaposition is the hoppiest but I didn’t get too much hops. I need to get another bottle of this if I can and give it another go to see if I can get some more out of it. The flavor and aroma was wonderful and baffling at the same time. But you’re correct, half the fun is figuring out the beer, the other half is drinking it! It was a very good beer and I’m sure you will enjoy it.