PARADOX ISLAY AND LIVE BLACK HAMMER

This first week of March is set to end in the very best possible way, as from 6pm tonight a pair of returning heroes hit the taps of your local UK BrewDog Bar. Both are eulogies to the power of dark malt and both have been updated, refined and given a new lease of life for 2019. One is the rejuvenation of a cult classic, returned from three years ago – and the other the latest iteration of the beer that predates BrewDog itself.

LIVE Black Hammer and Paradox Islay are out today, launching on draft at 6pm.

Paradox Islay

Paradox Islay 2019 is also available online – you can buy it right here

First on the depth chart, a beer that cuts to the heart of everything we do. Paradox Islay is one of the most important releases in our decade-long history – it was the first barrel-aged beer we created, back in Martin’s Mum’s garage, in 2006. It was then one of the beers that legendary writer Michael Jackson tasted when James and Martin met him, before BrewDog even existed. Such were the Beer Hunter’s positive opinions that the rest was history. Paradox Islay – and BrewDog – were here to stay.

This most important recurring Paradox is back for 2019, returning the power of peat to the fore. The time capsule that lies recumbent under our home nation imparts its unforgettable flavour into the intense, smoky peated whiskies that flow from the Scottish islands. Unique and inspiring, the casks also flavour this Paradox and bring it to life. At 14.0% ABV it is hugely complex, with rich roasty malt flavours of coffee and dark, bitter chocolate combining with the intense whisky notes of peaty smoke and a lasting espresso character.

Paradox Islay is irreplaceable. You can discover its secrets online now, and on draft tonight from 6pm in our UK BrewDog Bars (with bottles in our bars soon to follow).

LIVE Black Hammer

Also out today, solely on draft, is a beer that continues to prove 2019 will be remembered for sparking a #BIPAComeback. Back in 2016 we released a quartet of Hammer Heads – twists on our ruthless India Pale Ale – and one of the most popular was our one-off brew of Jack Hammer with highly-kilned Carafa dark malt. Given the moniker Black Hammer, this 7.2% ABV ruthless Black India Pale Ale united American hops with that dark twist, giving new life to our resident piledriver of bitterness.

And now, it too, returns. But this time we have given it the LIVE Beer treatment – the first dark beer to be served in our pioneering system of real ale for modernists; craft beer conditioned in the keg with live yeast. This method amplifies the unification of dark malt and American hops; pithy grapefruit and piney resin meet dark chocolate and roasty coffee – the serve giving all of these flavours room to breathe and then some.

LIVE Black Hammer is launching tonight, Thursday 7th March, at 6pm in UK BrewDog Bars with a LIVE Beer tap.

We love dark malt – at any time of year, but particularly when spring has failed to find its feet. With this pairing of returning beers, we hope you will discover exactly what we mean. And if you have an idea for the next beer we should give the LIVE Beer treatment to, let us know in the comments below!