Strength: 5.5%
Brewed: Aberdeen, Scotland
Since launching their first proper brewery earlier on this year, Scotland’s Fierce Beer Co. has become intensely prolific. Having produced over 50,000 litres of beer within the past six months, the brewery offers a whopping core range of ten beers amongst some limited edition offerings and collaborative efforts of which are currently in the pipeline. Now operating from an industrial estate in Dyce, Aberdeen, Fierce was originally set up by joint owners Dave Grant (Managing Director) and David McHardy (Operations Director) as a home-brew hobby, initially selling kegs to Aberdeen clients from a home nano-brewery. Now, the new brewery boasts a state of the art stainless steel brewing set up with six fermenting tanks and an in-house bottling and labelling machine. As for the beers, unlike many other local breweries there is very small focus on IPA. Instead, the core range’s main focus is a selection of pale ales, fruit beers and dark porters, all intended to deliver strong, bold flavours.
Inspired by the traditional Scottish dessert made from raspberries, honey, toasted oats and cream, the brewery’s ‘Cranachan Killer’ is a pale ale made with toasted oats, raspberries and honey. When poured, the beer is a vivid opaque red with an off-white head that has fair retention. Unsurprisingly, the most prominent notes that prevail on the nose are of raspberry, oats and a complex, albeit subtle, malt profile. On the palate, it’s also unsurprising that raspberry is the most prominent flavour, followed by some back notes of biscuit. What’s particularly impressive, however, is the balance of sweet and sour with a very subtle bitterness that leads into a short, clean finish. A very well balanced beer, ‘Cranachan Killer’ is a fruit beer that is to be taken seriously, and another fine brew from one of Scotland’s most exciting new breweries.
Further information on Fierce Beer Co. can be found at fiercebeer.com.