Bashah by BrewDog and Stone Brewing

I've been giving my liver and waistline a break over the past few weeks after consuming a lot of great food, beer and other festive cocktails during the holiday season. However, when I got home from work yesterday, I decided to crack open the bottle of bashah, a collaboration beer from BrewDog and Stone Brewing. Almost pitch black in the glass with a tan foamy head. Very light aroma of roasted malts. Smooth creamy mouthfeel. Flavours of dark chocolate and burnt coffee with light grapefruit and pine notes. Maybe a little fruitiness if I reach for it. A dry and slightly bitter finish but with a little of the pine returning at the very end. I think I noticed some of the flavours though because I was trying to. It's labeled as a "Black Belgian Style Double India Pale Ale" which sounds interesting enough, but I'd probably just identify it as an American stout or porter if someone handed me a glass of it in a pub and I hadn't read the made up style definition. I wouldn't call it a bad beer, but considering that one 12oz bottle is the price of most other sixpacks, its not one that I'll seek out again.

I checked out some reviews for this beer on other blogs and forums after I had written my own and they seemed to be all over the board. Everything from great and complex to sloppy and watery. The expectations on collaborative beers can be high, particularly when you bring two high profile breweries together and living up to that hype will be difficult. Add in the fact that they produced a style of beer that hasn't been done before and its not really a surprise that the reviews are mixed.