The Physics - BrewDog Ltd, Fraserburgh

BrewDog's popularity seems to be increasing just as fast as the alcohol percentage in its extreme beers. The rarity of their beers certainly helps. I finally spotted a bottle of BrewDog a couple weeks ago in a bargain big of all places. This bottle of The Physics is an an Amber ale that some claim is more of an ESB. I'm deferring to the brewer on this one and calling it an Amber since that's what they put on the label. Anyway, I decide to pull this beer out of the fridge tonight and see just how laid back this "laid back amber beer" really is.

I tried to go into this with an open mind but I was cautiously optimistic about this beer. I was afraid the hype around the the 30%, 40% and 50%+ beers was just that, a lot hype, and there BrewDog's "lesser" beers weren't crafted with the same amount of care. The Physics weighs in at a respectably modest 5% ABV which is low enough to fly under the radar while everyone is distracted by your 55% beer that comes in a taxidermied bottle.

I grabbed my imperial pint glass and poured about half the bottle. The aroma of The Physics was much sweeter than I was expecting. It was malty but there was much more to it. There was something along the lines of orange liqueur on top of all that caramel malt. Hops were hidden fairly well behind the caramel and sweeter notes. There wasn't much Amber-like about this beer's aroma, and the same was true for its appearance as well. If this beer were sitting next to a cloudy Bavarian Dunkelweizen I wouldn't have been able to tell the two apart.

The flavor of this beer was more in line with what I expected from an Amber. The Physics still isn't something I'd blanket classify as an "Amber" though, there needs to be some distinction here. The flavor starts out creamy (not just in texture), with a lot of malt up front. Caramel flavors persist as the beer gets a little dry on the back of your tongue and the hops hit you just as you finish. The malts are sweet but not sugary, which works out pretty well in the end. The spiciness of the finish is a good change of pace as well, and I appreciate how the hops were subtle rather than in your face.

If you're looking for a paragon of the Amber style, this beer shouldn't be your first choice. That being said, it's a great beer that lingers somewhere between Amber and a creamy ESB, it's a different approach to a style I'm general ambivalent about. I'd gladly drink another bottle of this.

DISCLAIMER: After drinking through this beer and examining the bottle in greater detail, I noticed this was from batch 001 with a best by date of 01/01/09 which means this beer was meant to be consumed a year and a half ago... So, if you've got a fresh bottle of The Physics, your experience may be a bit different than mine...

If you've had a bottle of The Physics, let me know how it went. Did it differ from what I described above? Let me know in the comments.