#MASHTAG 2015 DAY FOUR: THE TWIST

We’re over the hump of #MashTag week and have a fantastic-looking beer developing already! But there’s one way we can turn this particular beer into legend. By adding a BrewDog-esque twist! Before that, though, the all-important votes from IBUDay. What came out on Top of the Hops?

#MashTag 2015 Hops and IBU:

US Hops and 100 IBU – 48.3%

European Hops and 65 IBU – 35.6%

UK Hops and 35 IBU – 16.1%

There you go. A high-IBU American-hopped 10% Black Barley Wine - we’re looking forward to this beer already! If you’re not quite sure, however, what the heck we’ve been banging on about all week, #MashTag is a crowd-sourced beermaking process that you control! Here’s how it works.

Today is the final day on which you can vote for one of the beer’s characteristics (although there will be an additional chance to vote later on; stay tuned for that. The post will list three potential options for you to select from – it’s entirely up to you and your fellow BrewDog fans in which direction #MashTag 2015 proceeds. You can cast your vote on the blog using the poll or by leaving a comment, and also vote via our Facebook page or on Twitter, tagging your vote tweet with #MashTag2015.

At the moment, that particular beer is shaping up in this way:-

Monday: Beer Style – Barley Wine.

Tuesday: Malt Bill & ABV – 10% Black Barley Wine.

Wednesday: Hops & IBU – US Hops & 100 IBU.

Thursday: Special Twist (Soured, Smoked, Salted, Spiced or Simcoe’d?)

Friday: Label

Voting is open from 10am - 6pm today, but longer tomorrow (as the artwork magic commences, to a longer deadline). We’ll tally up all of the votes across the different platforms this evening, and tomorrow’s blog post will include the results from today. As the week has passed, we’ve explained all the ingredients and methods involved, hopefully making you confident in your selection at every stage of the process. It also served as a chance for us to expound on our thinking behind each of the multiple options!

So, speaking of which – it’s time to mix things up a little, hey?

Day Four: The Twist

How can we put a unique stamp on the 2015 version of #MashTag?

Belgian Yeast

The first option is to switch up the fermentation stage, by subbing out our regular yeast strain for a powerhouse from the continent. Pitching Belgian yeast into our proto-Black Barley Wine would take it in an entirely new direction, with the high levels of esters and phenols producing – in layman’s terms – flavours of banana and clove. These would naturally complement the rich warmth of the Barley Wine, and with the dark Carafa malt we could end up with something dangerously close to a Big Bashah.

Vanilla Beans & Toasted Oak Chips

Alternatively, with the citrus-heavy US hops piling on the bitterness, we could harness the unremitting fury generated by those 100 IBUs, and balance with two ingredients to introduce a smooth undercurrent. Vanilla beans and toasted oak chips will send the mouthfeel off the charts, yielding a long, complex array of flavours such as marshmallow, almonds and – of course – vanilla. The result? A Barley Wine with an opening salvo, but a decadent conclusion.

Cascara & Dark Berries

Finally, we can layer our black brew with ingredients guaranteed to give prominence to the rich, enveloping darkness of the #MashTag recipe you have created so far. Cascara is the dried husk of the coffee cherry (which itself is the fruit that surrounds the coffee bean), and yields a woodsy, fruity, smoky flavour. Added to the beer with a generous addition of dark berries, this will take our big-hopped Black Barley Wine into a new and uncharted territory; one of tannins, jams and campfires.

So – a tough choice! Think very carefully about where the beer is headed based on these potential twists, and cast your vote accordingly! You have until 6pm today to get those vital votes in. Then it’s time for Friday’s traditional roundup post of what #MashTag 2015 will be, and the launch of the next quest – that for the label artwork. But that’s for tomorrow – today it’s all about that Twist…