Brewery -SpeySide
Strength - 5.5%
Type - IPA
Moray IPA is the first beer in the British Brew series, and I've chosen it for a reason.
I'm a big fan of IPA's in general, some have even received 9's and 10's on the Grover-Debs Beer scale, but it takes a rare care to get the delicate balance of smooth bitterness and full hops to compliment the perfect carbonation. This is why I love trying new IPA's, and I also love reviewing them.
SpeySide Brewery is set in the Moray Country-side in Scotland, along the river Spey (Hence the name) It shares the area, and the highland water, with some of the worlds most renowned single malt whiskeys. The area is well known for it's Beer, Whiskey, and Food - giving the Moray IPA a tough reputation to live up to.
This Ale was first brewed to provide a Pale Ale to our troops in India. Obviously this was in the days before air travel and so the Moray IPA had to be shipped over, a trip which can take several months.
To survive unspoilt for this passage it was very highly hopped, and had a higher alcohol content than most other IPA's. This extraordinary formula has survived unchanged to this day, so I was expecting a lot from this small Scottish brewery.
I was not disappointed. It's golden and rich in colour, and has a very distinctive hoppy aroma.
The medium-low carbonation is expected from a normal IPA, but this is far from normal. The expected hoppiness continues into the taste, and it creates a rare tangy hop flavour which is finally complimented by a bitter citrus aftertaste which lingers for minutes or more.
This is likely the hoppiest IPA I have ever tried, but it somehow pulls it off.
Most will not appreciate the hoppy flavour though, and once I was through most of the pint, it did start to lose it's appeal.
Be that as it may, it's still a delightfully satisfying IPA, and the increased hops give it a flavour to remember. Not a game changing beer, but one I will visit again.
GDBS - 8
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