{"id":1183,"date":"2010-12-25T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T11:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2011-03-02T15:20:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T02:20:22","slug":"brewdog-paradox-isle-of-arran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/25\/brewdog-paradox-isle-of-arran\/","title":{"rendered":"BrewDog ‘Paradox: Isle of Arran’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BrewDog<\/a>
BrewDog 'Paradox: Isle of Arran'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My Christmas Day was a rather relaxed affair, this year. Less of my already-smallish family was in town than usual, so things were toned right down, presents were waived entirely, and my sister and I spent a good few hours taking my niece \/ her daughter for a bike ride and a muck-around in the park. The flatmates were also out of town, so I came back into the City late at night to feed the Cat and treat myself to some nice quiet time with a good beer and a good book. I paired this, one of BrewDog’s ‘Paradox’ series of whisky-barrel-aged stouts, with Surface Detail<\/em>, the newest book by the equally-Scottish Iain Banks — who himself had basically introduced me to whisky with an earlier (non-fiction) book of his. The hot summer day had turned into a crisp and clearish night, and Catface (evidently happy to have company) plonked herself nearby on the deck and just mooed at me occasionally, as she does. It all went together bloody marvellously; a fine present-to-self.<\/p>\n

Malthouse had imported two of the other ‘Paradoxes’ the previous year, and the contrasts among them are a staggeringly awesome testament to the richly varied world of Scotch — each is aged in barrels from a different distillery, and the stout is absolutely transformed in unique and well-worth-finding-out ways. The ‘Smokehead’ version (with somehow-varied whisky barrels suspected<\/em> to be from Ardbeg) tasted appropriately enormously of smoke — somehow glorious<\/em>, righteous<\/em> smoke, like you’d get standing nearby the burning houses of your enemies, I said at the time — and the ‘Springbank’ edition was just propelled into all-around massive<\/em> flavourful heights, with all sorts of lovely richness biffed in at speed and with purpose.<\/p>\n

This one<\/em> was comparatively ‘confronting’ — really quite a full-on spicy nose to it, with borderline-concerning funky edges that defied pinning-down. It’s a deliciously and seriously complex kind of a thing; something of a fight to get to know properly, but damn well worth it.<\/p>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> BrewDog ‘Paradox’ — Isle of Arran 25\/10\/10 10% @ Home. $10+? [Actually $15] from NWT. Out on the deck, with the latest Banks book, which seemed apt. We loved the Paradoxes at work, so I had to get this. Very different. Smokehead was righteous fire; Springbank was enormous lushness, this is actually quite confronting. There’s a funky, feisty tartness to it. Spicy, gingery, rough woody. The ‘funk’ in the nose is almost<\/span> off-putting, but you’re rewarded for getting past it. Not that it’s a struggle, but the clangs on a few alarm bells get ready<\/span>, at least. Hanging out here with Catface makes for a very civilised end to a nicely understated Christmas.<\/p>\n

\n
\"BrewDog<\/a>
BrewDog 'Paradox: Isle of Arran', the igloo joke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"BrewDog<\/a>
Diary II entry #44, BrewDog 'Paradox: Isle of Arran'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Christmas Day was a rather relaxed affair, this year. Less of my already-smallish family was in town than usual, so things were toned right down, presents were waived entirely, and my sister and I spent a good few hours taking my niece \/ her daughter for a bike ride and a muck-around in the … Continue reading BrewDog ‘Paradox: Isle of Arran’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,19,8,11],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-scotland","tag-photogenic","tag-stout"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":892,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/01\/mountain-goat-hightail-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1183,"position":0},"title":"Mountain Goat ‘Hightail’ Ale","author":"Phil","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The New World supermarkets in Wellington are surprisingly-good places to find some seriously out-of-the-way beers. Amanda, one of our bartenders at work, was at their Thorndon store, found this, and generously split it with me. I was pretty damn chuffed; my particular fondness for good Australian beer is pretty well-known\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mountain Goat 'Hightail' Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mountain-Goat-Hightail-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1261,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/31\/brewdog-rip-tide-imperial-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":1183,"position":1},"title":"BrewDog ‘Rip Tide’ Imperial Stout","author":"Phil","date":"December 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I normally try not to have too-many 'new' strong beers in a single day, but New Year's is New Year's, so what the hell? I'd been looking forward to this for a while, and was still happily perched at the bar in the window, so the randoms mostly ignored me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BrewDog 'Rip Tide' Imperial Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/BrewDog-Rip-Tide-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":665,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/01\/13\/brewdog-the-physics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1183,"position":2},"title":"BrewDog ‘The Physics’","author":"Phil","date":"January 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A wonderful little amber ale with a very nice silky and enduring froth on top -- and so perfectly amber that it'd make for a good colour chart entry, or something to point to if someone doesn't know what the word means. It's only very subtly hopped, leaving loads of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BrewDog 'The Physics'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/BrewDog-The-Physics-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1516,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/02\/23\/brewdog-%e2%80%985am-saint%e2%80%99\/","url_meta":{"origin":1183,"position":3},"title":"BrewDog \u20185am Saint\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"February 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"BrewDog aren't all about the stunt beer and over-the-top prankish gimmickry. They aren't even all about brewing at the stronger end of the spectrum. They do happen to do both of those things particularly well, but they don't neglect the more-everday stuff, either. I really liked 'The Physics', an amber\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BrewDog \u20185am Saint\u2019","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/BrewDog-5am-Saint-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5668,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2013\/07\/02\/brewdog-boundary-road-and-becoming-the-villain\/","url_meta":{"origin":1183,"position":4},"title":"BrewDog, ‘Boundary Road’, and becoming the villain","author":"Phil","date":"July 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an interesting angle on the \"faux-craft\" clusterfuck that has besieged the local beer business: BrewDog, plucky young Scottish upstarts equally loved and loathed for their antics and attitude, have finally signed up an official New Zealand distributor \u2014 and it's 'Boundary Road'. That is to say, it's the grotesquely-misnamed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Rambles and rants"","block_context":{"text":"Rambles and rants","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/blahblah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"'Boundary Road' \/ Independent \/ Asahi's BrewDog flyer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Asahis-BrewDog-pitch.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Asahis-BrewDog-pitch.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Asahis-BrewDog-pitch.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Asahis-BrewDog-pitch.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3776,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/27\/beer-diary-podcast-s01e08\/","url_meta":{"origin":1183,"position":5},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast episode 8: Strong Beer","author":"Phil","date":"June 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My profuse apologies for the inadvertent summer hiatus. Inspired by the impending holidays \u2014 impending, that is, when we recorded \u2014 we have a little bit of a ramble about Strong Beer (partially also to balance the ledger after our Midstrength Beer episode). There are a lot of ways to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Liberty 'C!tra' and Twisted Hop 'Red Zone Enigma'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Liberty-Citra-and-Twisted-Hop-Red-Zone-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1697,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions\/1697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}