It’s always fun watching the evolution of breweries, how they change, grow and develop their thing - and Urbanaut is the perfect example.
They began brewing for the “global citizen” with a small range of classic beers inspired by cities and cultures with names like Kingsland Pilsner, Brixton Pale Ale and Williamsburg IPA. I guess a theme is a good means of bringing direction in the early days when you are very much finding your way.
Today’s beer though, shows just how far they have come, and its naming seems equally apt. The Bermuda Triangle is a vague area and urban legend at best, where things purportedly disappear. In this beer it is the conventional brewing approach that has been lost in favour of more innovative and experimental pursuits - something we now come to expect from this brewery.
I love the delivery in a small can - to keep the price down and the responsible drinking up. I also love the the mash up wine hybrid thing too - a Brut IPA doesn’t sound like the perfect beer to chuck into a barrel, but with the bitterness down and the notion of brut - we’re firmly in champagne territory, and so a spot of maturation in a chardonnay barrel is a clever thing indeed!
Let’s see how it tastes…
Pours an anaemic pale orange with a bright white head. The nose does indeed have a grapey vibe which isn’t really ripe enough to call tropical - it’s crisper than that - with some hints of green apple and perhaps some fuzzy peach skin. The palate is a delight, super lean and dry, and although there’s no real toastiness - there is certainly a champagne (or more specifically blanc de blanc) type vibe - but with enough bitterness to keep you firmly in the beer world! A real drinker and thinker of a beer this one - with some real complexity and interesting novel flavours!
It’s a clever beer that nudges a newish style in a direction it was already keen to be taken, and ends up creating something quite different and unexpected in the process.
Urbanaut used to take us to well known cities with their beers - but this beer invites us to a familiar place, before pleasantly losing us in a world of uncharted flavours.
