This is the second go at a Wormwood IPA. The first one was a 0.5 - totally undrinkable with bitterness far beyond anything I’ve ever tasted. This time the dose has been cut a bit. Hazy tan colour. Woody aroma - sort of a potent aroma accented by Storm’s typical earthy English hops. Massive bitterness - not as extreme as last time but still up there. And the bitterness of wormwood simply isn’t as cohesive as hop bitterness is. What isn’t overwhelmed is some of the pale malt and house yeast.

Light hazy pale. Big basil nose. OK, I like basil. The flavour is also big basil. It actually works in the sense that the hop bitterness still shines through and complements the herbal blast quite well. You still have to love basil to tolerate this brew, but at least it works on the palate.

Another special edition brew that’s made the rounds of beer geek events lately. Quite hazy, a rather dull copper-amber hue. All told probably not murky & ugly enough, though. Sahti is supposed to be butt ugly. Big aroma - shitloads of juniper. Very fruity, with a little bit of bubblegum. The carbonation is low but zippy in the finish. Creamy body. Flavour is sweet with a bursting, juicy juniper berry fruitiness. Very drinkable. The malts have a slight toastiness to them, enough for nuance, but not enough to mess with what this beer does best. It remains as drinkable as a good sahti.

I’ve never had a sahti like this...it seems like juniper berries were added rather than the brew filtered through juniper twigs as per tradition. This makes it more of a juniper berry fruit beer than other sahtis. But that juiciness is great...it’s better than half the sahtis I’ve ever had. For a brewery with such staid everyday fare, Storm really cuts loose with their fascinating and exceptionally tasty specialties. 8-3-8-4-17=4.0

Re-rate...new batch at 6%. Murkier and uglier...just the way it should be. The aroma still has a ton of juniper berry, but it also more phenolic and yeastier...more sahti-like in other words. Same refreshing juiciness from the berries. Very sweet, with a hint of tartness and this time in has a hint of alcohol as well. Somewhat harsh graininess - not sure if this is rye or just random tannins but it offsets the gains made in authenticity. 7-4-6-3-13=3.3 Score above is an amalagam, since I expect this brew to be rather variable in all its future incarnations.

Draught, The Whip
Close to black. Nitro pour so a fake boob head. Not much aroma. Flavour has a stingy bitterness - a roasty pungency - but finishes quite sweet anyway. The added roast makes me like this beer more than Black Plague but I’d still prefer more hop in my stout.

Hazy dark amber. Strange, almost sake-like koji aroma (which admittedly blows off after a couple of minutes) with a very pungent herbal quality (bog myrtle, gooseberries, coriander seed, sage)...weird as hell. Strong, dry, with a hint of acidity and lots of herbal character (mainly bog myrtle, maybe a bit more of the coriander). Dry, alcoholic finish but I’d say the 15% is probably overstated...more like 9-10% to me. What’s not to like? This is pretty good gruit and that kiss of acidity makes all the difference.