Girls rule in Brewdog's latest range of beers, each representing a different European country. There's Marianne for France, Helga for Germany, Sofia for Italy and so on, while the beer made for Ireland is called Hello My Name Is Niamh.
Brewdog loves a gimmick – they once stuffed beer bottles into taxidermied roadkill – but they've become a little less outrageous, it seems, as the years go by. Their latest venture has echoes of a Coca Cola campaign a few years back, also with different names on bottles. In this case the names were crowdsourced from Brewdog fans in each country, with Niamh chosen for her connection to Irish mythology.
Hello My Name Is Niamh is “a local beer with a global aspiration” which sounds good but the more you think about it raises questions about the idea of what exactly craft or local beer is, and whether that changes the bigger you get as a brewery. Brewdog, which has 47 bars around the world, is seeking to raise €56 million in its latest round of Equity for Punks crowdfunding to expand their European and worldwide presence.
Elderflower double IPA
But what about the beer? Hello My Name is Niamh is an 8.2 per cent elderflower double IPA – as are all of the beers in the range, although each gets a different fruit infusion. You’ll get a hint of elderflower on the aroma under a big hit of resiny hops. There’s a real bitter punch, but not of the palate-stripping kind, that is balanced nicely with a light, citrus body – overall it’s an enjoyable and well-made beer, as you’d expect from Brewdog.
But why only women’s names? The fact that most craft beer is consumed by men probably has something to do with it (even though there are more women drinking it these days). So perhaps for male drinkers, asking for a pint of Hello My Name is Fergus wouldn’t have quite the same appeal.
@ITbeerista beerista@irishtimes.com
