I Heart You I Hardcore You

There is nothing more frustrating than when you really want to try something and it let's you down or doesn't live up to the expectation. A guest blog post I did recently for www.FoodandBiscuits.blogspot.com about the new restaurant Rib Shakk in Leeds, highlights this exactly. It wasn't quite up to scratch.

So with this in mind I was a little apprehensive to pop the cap on one of the bottles of I Hardcore You I bought when in Belgium recently in case it didn't live up to my expectations.

I Hardcore You is a Mikkeller / BrewDog collaboration beer from a fair while ago - a mixture of BrewDog's Hardcore IPA and Mikkeller's I Beat You that's been dry hopped into oblivion. It sounded right up my street, and after reading this review by Zak I've always wanted to give it a try, but never got a chance to, until now...

Thankfully it's an excellent beer. Even if this beer isn't super fresh (I haven't got a clue if they ever made it again or if this beer is just a year old, there's no date on the bottle) I can safely say that the time in the bottle has done it no harm.

It's fresh and fruity and vibrant, and I can only imagine how good this was when super fresh. The aroma definitely has the pine and intense tropical fruit of hardcore IPA but there's a massive freshness and a really floral hop character behind a lingering sweetness.

The flavour has an initial sweet red apple lollipop flavour before the hops kick in, but when they do they are big and piney and orange peel tinged yet not overly bitter. The finish is bittersweet with sharp orange and bitter pine.

It's massively drinkable though and before I knew it the bottle was gone. Thank God I bought two.

I love it.