Like a three course meal: questionable puns, near perfect drinks, but a bitter aftertaste.(16/94)
Slightly behind schedule, but not too much we’re back in Scotland once again with the random generator seemingly loving going north of the border as we try Pilot brewing out of Edinburgh.
Pilot are one of those
breweries that I’ve seen out and about, but in all honesty have been put off by
the small can, so with the random generator bringing me to them it’ll be interesting
to see what quality they are going to bring to the table.
Pilot Brewing in their own words.
Pilot was born when Matt Johnson and Patrick Jones met while studying for masters degrees in Brewing & Distilling at Heriot-Watt University in 2012. A shared view that there was something different to be done in brewing – not traditional real ales, but not just another U.S. craft beer clone either – led to home-brewing together, which eventually led to buying a second-hand brewhouse and moving to the heart of cosmopolitan Leith, commencing brewing right at the end of 2013.
We’ve never done things the easy way. We dismantled the plant ourselves. We moved it to Leith and rebuilt it ourselves. We dug out the drainage (pro-tip: pay real men to do that), installed the flues and built the cooling system ourselves. We design, brew and drink the beer ourselves. We even did the logo, artwork and THIS BLOODY WEBSITE ourselves. We are Pilot.
Not taking the easy road runs through everything we do. The coffee in our Mochaccino Stout isn’t supermarket instant, but beans roasted and ground to our exact specifications, the cocoa a mix of raw and roasted organic nibs. The 50% malted oat mash for Blønd is, frankly, a swine. There are no shortcuts to the results we want. It’s hard work, it takes time and it’s expensive. But it’s worth it.
Charity
I do love when there is some sort of charity link to the beer I buy as well and Pilot have created the drinklusion fund.
Again in their own words:
Drinklusion is our initiative to support charities both national and local that promote the idea of inclusivity, in all its forms. There’ll be more details to follow, but the basic idea is that 2p from every can we sell goes into the Drinklusion fund.
At Pilot, we believe that beer should bring people together. We’ve no agenda other than supporting organisations that help support this ethos and Drinklusion is our way of enabling us to do just that.
I ordered their pick and mix twelve pack with the total coming to £45.10 with £4.99 delivery bringing the total to £50.09 meaning an average of £4.17 a can, which for 330ml, cans is a little on the high side before you consider anything else. They appear to have some different beers available at time of writing and also do premade mixed cases.
https://www.pilotbeer.co.uk/product/pilot-330ml-cans/
Now, onto the beer.
The first of Pilot’s beers and I’ve played it safe with just your standard core IPA, it’s always a good barometer to see where their core beers are at, before looking at the specialist beers. The beer poured beautifully and filled the glass in a pleasing way, leaving a perfect head to linger for a little bit whilst remaining a rich amber hue. On looks alone this should be a good one.
To the nose it’s pretty sensational and one of those smells where your tastebuds begin tingling in anticipation as the tropical notes really start playing around the nose.
Ooooh now that is lovely. A really finely balanced beer which starts with strong fruity flavour which is only enhanced by the nose with it, just as you think the fruit might be a little bit too much the beer flavour kicks in with a pine like earthiness just to pull the palate back and the dance continues with each drink.
This is a really strong start for Pilot and I’m very optimistic about where they will go from here. It’s certainly a core IPA that I would keep an eye out for in the wild.
As well as looking absolutely gorgeous, what intrigues me with this one is the description on the back ‘A session NEIPA from before NEIPA’s were even a thing’. As avid readers (or anyone that’s spoken to me about beer will know I love a good NEIPA, so a stealth NEIPA here can only be a good thing.
This smells absolutely gorgeous, with pangs of fruit and freshness but with a richness hidden deeply behind it all.
Mmm. Another really strong contender from Pilot here. The very first instance is aggressive pangs of citrus which attack the extremities of the tastebuds. This soon mellows every so lightly and leaves a fresh feeling, which was picked up in the nose across the mouth. It’s almost unprecedented in the way that the initial pangs actually become a palate cleanser to the point that even breathing in through the mouth feels like more oxygen is entering the lungs.
At the very back of the tongue and mouth sits the hoppiness and the beer profile just rests there gently and awaits the next wash of fruity flavour to rejuvenate the flavour and repeat the joyous process all over again.
I’m quite upset there is only 1 330ml can of this one as I’d be all over this a lot.
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Azacca is up there with one of my favourite hops so I have high expectations again of this one, coupled with how nice the previous beers have been. It has the thick fresh fruit juice look about it somewhere between mango and orange and maintains it’s head pretty well.
The nose presents as you’d expect with a fruit and sweetness being first and forefront really rich and full bodied.
Ok so this is really striking, it’s once again perfectly balanced but with beer more at the forefront carried through by the fruity nature of the hops. The dried nature of the Azacca Lupomax hop also means that the more prominent beery notes are the ones that remain in the palate. There is a certain heaviness to this beer too, leaving a little bit of gas in the throat and stomach, which reminds you that it’s actually a strong beer rather than something disguising itself as something else.
The dried hops aren’t always for everyone and the after taste can be a bit overpowering, but with this as noted at the beginning and throughout all the beers so far Pilot seem to be bang on point with the balance.
Pronounced IPA-Napple according to the can and what I’m hoping for here is something that will remember it’s a beer and have a fruity undertone rather than the other way round. On the whole Pilot have been bang on with their balance so I’m not too worried. On the pour there is very little maintained head and it dissipated almost instantly as you can see from the photograph.
The smell of pineapple is incredibly welcoming and paints the mental image of a tropical island, you can really feel the tang in the nostrils and the juice pushing through with just the nose, it’s a really powerful nose which really draws you in.
Oh, this is really lovely. The first taste to the mouth is that well known pineapple pang that dances around tastebuds and sits nicely coating almost all of the mouth, then right when you think there might be a little too much, it subsides and leaves a beery bitterness to travel down the throat and take over dominance in the mouth. You take the next drink and the dance happens again and I’m ready to dance until the early hours with this one.
It met everything I hoped it would, with the last taste being that of a beer, thus remembering what it is, but uses the fruity hops as not only the perfect accompaniment, but also enhancement to an already quality beer (based on the other IPAs from Pilot).
So, first things first, this pun fits far far better than IPA-Napple. This like the Pineapple IPA pours in much the same way with very little head maintained for a very short amount of time, it looks a bit thicker and richer too, which could well be due to the nature of Apricot and the hops used to generate the flavour.
The beer has an even more notable nose on just the pour than the Pineapple IPA, pre pour I was actually struggling to place how Apricot smelled, having only recently been subjected to the dried variety in cooking, however upon a prolonged smell I’m transported back to childhood and whatever brand of Apricot yoghurts I used to have, there fruity notes are deeper and not as tangy as the Pineapple, but I’m getting strangely nostalgic on smell alone.
Food and drink are a medium that can make people feel things that they wouldn’t feel anywhere else. It can transport you on a journey to a memory. It can make you lean back in the chair and exclaim “wow or oh my god”, however it had been quite a long time in any food or drink that I have been rendered speechless and legitimately a little bit emotional. It’s that good.
You see when something is truly brilliant, you struggle to comprehend it and all rationale goes out the window and as I type this, I’m struggling to put into words exactly why this is one of the best drinks I’ve ever had.
If you are a fan of fruity beers then you owe it to yourself to try this beer, you might think I’m being overly emphatic, but I can’t place anything that I don’t like about this beer. The first instance it hits the mouth you taste perfection, with all of its components just forming a full-frontal assault on the tastebuds and smell. The hops work in such a way that it’s a constant cascade through the mouth with everything working perfect harmony, with a sensational rich and tart apricot taste which just lingers almost eternally in the mouth, with the absolute tiniest bit of bitter hops in the background to force through the flavour.
I just know I haven’t done this drink justice in its description so I’ll just end with a quote I sent to my friend.
“I think ipapricot might be perfect”.
As we move into the stouts and sours, I’m reflecting a bit on perception, I recently undertook the Bermondsey beer mile and found IPApricot on the route and raved about it, only to be met with a damp squib reaction from Matt and Jamie, with Rob really appreciating it. I suppose it’s only natural otherwise there would be no variety in the world but it kind of knocked me for six a little bit that something I thought was near perfect was knocked back so effortlessly. That said I still thought it was sensational.
Anyway, I digress we’re hear to drink a lovely stout.
To the nose this is incredibly deep rich and bitter with the coffee notes really punching you in the back of the throat through the nasal cavity, for context I’ve been cooking in the kitchen (where I write and drink these), pretty much all day a mixture of Vietnamese and Greek and still the coffee bitterness smashed through.
I remember reading on their website how proud they are that their coffee sourced isn’t some standard basic instant coffee and is locally sourced from Edinburgh Tea and Coffee company and to the nose at least to a semi coffee snob, you can really tell the difference.
Ok, first of all I feel I should note that this is a Lactose Free recipe and you can really tell, sometimes with stouts you get that really sharp initial taste however it was not the case with this, as it ended the mouth it was luxuriously smooth, cautiously slipping over the palate. There is a real subtleness to the flavour of this stout compared to the nose which was really punchy. Instead, I’d almost liken this to a cold brew, there is a velvet like texture which accompanies the drink and eases its way down the throat. I was about to type that it could do with a bit more coffee punch, until I realised that it’s not a coffee stout but Mochaccino as such it has really nailed the brief, with the slightest hint of cocoa carried in the background. A really well-balanced drink and one I’d encourage people that shy away from stouts as being too harsh to consider.
On either the second or third brewery I tasted, there was a drink called Trawlers Dread, which was essentially a really salty seaweed type beer and it was absolutely grim. As such seeing Sea water is bringing my slight PTSD, coupled with Liquorice which I actively hate. This could be a really interesting drink which I’m fully prepared to not like.
To the eye and the glass this is an incredibly thick drink, even on the pour it felt like it was clinging to the inside of the can. The nose is very malty and thick as well, it almost feels like a warning to those that would drink it. There’s actually a note on the can stating that much like the North Sea this is to be treated with the utmost respect and I fully anticipate that in a few seconds I’m going to get punched in the palate. What is quite interesting on a personal level is that I’m actually salivating a little, which I wasn’t expecting.
I was fully prepared to go with a bastardised line from Jurassic Park “Your brewers were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” Yet…. I can’t, because against EVERYTHING I know about myself, I like this proving once again to myself that the brewers at Pilot somehow have unlocked the cheat code and found that perfect balance once again.
First things first, this is a sipping beer the abv and flavour profile would force that anyway, but there is a rich decadence to this beer that demands it to be enjoyed slowly. You have a deceptively smooth drink which is incredibly deep, dark rich and passes the coating test of upper lips and tongue. The liquorice, something I loathe in an eaten context is very slight and rather than being a dominant flavour is used as an accompaniment to the malts at show, what really heightens this drink however is the saltiness of the sea water, something I never thought I’d type.
Every so often a big pang of salt, like someone has dropped a sea salt flake randomly on your palate and it brings the entire thing to life and provides levity to such a strong and harsh beer. As a whisky drinker also, you can really pick out the flavour left over from the aging process and it’s really a wonderment to pick out all these little flecks of genius, where I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to finish the drink.
It does smell incredibly aggressive and on its own a little off putting if truth be told, but if you are able to pull the trigger and take that first sip, what you have is a drink which has multiple layers of flavour for you to explore and enjoy as a sumptuous sipping beer.
A second of the barrel aged selection from Pilot (which is actually their fifth version). This porter has interestingly been aged in both bourbon and Tempranillo barrels, which could be a really interesting mixture of infused flavours.
The pour whilst not as thick as the stout above, is certainly close and maintains a thin white head of a few millimeters, which allows it to look like a fancy espresso and as such quite inviting at the same time.
There is an element of sweetness to the nose, but also the rich and heavy maltiness which works its way across the olfactory senses. Each sniff seems to alternate between sweet and malty as though the two are vying for dominance.
There’s quite a harshness to this one which lingers on in the after-taste, however with more and more this fades away as the palate adjusts to the bombardment, first and foremost what you get is a bourbon aftertaste for sure, anyone that’s been on a night out and done a neat shot, because it seemed like a good idea at the time will know the tang that remains, what you aren’t expecting is that when that fades away you get the sensation and like tingle on the tongue that remains after a glass or two of red wine, the one that makes you want to get another bottle.
After being initially put off this I am really enjoying it as a drink aside from the bourbon and wine notes you really have to try and pick through everything else as it’s slightly over powering. There is a very slight maltiness, however it kind of gets lost. That being said it’s still a really nice beer and enjoyable for what it is, once the palate adapts.
As time has passed, I’ve strayed away from sours, which used to be my go-to happy place now though I’m finding that a lot of the sours are too Lambic or lactose heavy which leave an ache in the stomach and a sharpness in the throat. That said time and time again Pilot have got balance bang on so I’m expecting big things from this.
Once again to the nose I’m transported back to childhood and the four packs of yoghurt where you’d got Apricot, Peach Melba, Raspberry and Strawberry and is once again just making me smile that it seems to be replicated so well, in smell at least.
Served out of the fridge this at first struggles to make its flavours known, however it’s in the aftertaste where the drink comes alive. You get a gentle sweetness that doesn’t stray too far from the tongue with the combination of peach and raspberries just resting delicately on the palate. It’s a very restrained drink, which could maybe lean into the sour a little bit more potentially, however I understand where they’re aiming for here and I think they have leaned into the less is more approach to sours, which I’m all for.
If it was a hot summers day, this would be the perfect accompaniment to it light, fruity and refreshing. With it’s low(ish) abv as well you could have a number of these and really enjoy, without getting that acid build up you get with bad / average sours.
Pale Ales can sometime be a bit of a nothing drink, which is why I’m quite excited to see that Pilot have featured Cascade hops in the brewing process, pulling away from the more lager affair and looking to add a little extra punch to the drink.
The beer has a delicious amber hue to it and looks incredibly light and appealing, the head has dissipated reasonably quickly to leave a slight head on top. To the nose you can really tell the additional hops have been used to bolster the drink and instead of a bit plain affair you’re already getting fruity notes hit the senses.
Oooh, what a fantastic beer this is.
Echoing the nose notes this pale ale some how walks the line between lager and something far more interesting, again with relative ease. When you get the first mouthful it carbonates on the tongue and top of the mouth, much like a standard lager, however when the beer is then swallowed, a raft of flavour is left on the palate. The cascade hops leave tropical notes across the tongue and elevates the beer to something really lovely.
I often use the term gate-way beers, for those who might want to explore craft beer, or order one to fit in with their mates on a session etc. This would be the perfect beer for that. The hops used are not overpowering and leave a pleasant tingly sensation of fruitiness in the mouth. That said, if you weren’t too keen it’s still close enough to a lager that you would be able to drink it before moving onto something else.
We arrive at the end of our journey on beer number 11 (it should have been 12 but more on that later) and I’m not entirely sure what to expect from this table sour. I’ve had very limited exposure to sour beers, rather than fruited sours and it’s not something which has always agreed with me to much.
There’s a low-level haze to the beer which the light breaks through and looks incredibly inviting. It’s the nose however where it knocks me back a little bit. There is an overpowering sour smell which made me inadvertently recoil which on the balance of things is probably not the best of reactions.
The can itself notes a stone fruit acidity, however it’s incredibly over powering and there is very little that I can pick out from the taste. As the palate adjusts it does become more drinkable, but there’s no getting away from the fact that this is a sour beer. There is no real fruitiness to pick out, it’s not smooth and is quite abrasive on the palate. There is a slightly out metallic after-taste as well which sits across the mouth.
Ultimately, I’m struggling to see the appeal of a sour-beer, the only thing I can think of is if it is to be used like a sorbet to cleanse the palate however there is very little discernable enjoyment to get from this drink, which is a shame to end this way after what had been a near perfect run.
And yet that’s probably quite apt to end here, as despite how much I’ve enjoyed the beers Pilot left a sour taste in my mouth a little bit and this beer has reminded me of it.
Final Thoughts:
As noted above there is only 11 beers reviewed and I ordered 12. This is due
to the Philly Cherry Sour arriving damaged as per the photo below and empty.
Whilst obviously not happy and a bit disappointed because the cherry sour was one that I was probably most looking forwards to, I decided to take it in my stride as these things happen from time to time, but decided to send Pilot an e-mail just to make them aware. I subsequently received a reply apologising and advising as an apology they would send out some beer. I was to be honest pleasantly shocked by this, as those that have read this from the beginning know this is not about influencer guff or anything like that.
What did annoy me however was when these beers that were offered by way of apology then didn’t arrive. I think it’s the double disappointment that has left the bitter taste, don’t say you’re going to do something and then not do it.
Which is a shame, because the beer that I had were truly great, just go back and read the reviews and how I gushed over 90% of them. I think I used the word perfect and balance repeatedly because I was so blown away. It’s just a shame that due to this previous interaction it has tarnished my view a little bit, a real shame.
Next County: Worcestershire
Next Brewery: Brew 61
