Beer Review - Hog's Head Brew

"Hog's Head Brew"

I do like myself a good Scottish Ale. They can be lovely after living in a bourbon barrel. I’ve also had some clunky ones that wanted to put the Scotch in Scottish Ale by going real peaty instead of sweet. These typically scare off most drinkers before they have time to enjoy the nice balanced flavor in this style.

“Hog’s Head Brew” is the beer which takes on the name of the best place to drink it, the Hog’s Head Pub In the Hogmeade section of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal’s Islands of Adventure. The beer is a 5.5 % ABV Scottish Ale with 0 IBUs. The taste is sweet, with a nice caramel tone from the malt sitting on backbone of the taste of traditional beer. The 0 IBUs is paired with no smokey or peaty flavors, making it a really nice and easy to drink Scottish Ale. This is another Wizarding beer brewed up by Carib Brewing USA.

I was going to say, I really enjoy this beer sitting in the Hog’s Head to escape the heat or sitting on the patio outside of the Hog’s Head and Three Broomsticks. But, with this being a Wizarding World brew, you will only get this pint when feeling magical and more likely than not this is the exact location you are drinking this. In this wizard cosplay moment, I might debate if I wanted sweet and grab this brew, or hoppy and grab a “Dragon’s Scale” instead. Maybe there is a spell to help one decide.

Let’s run back to Scottish Ale and what it is. They style can jump all over the flavor spectrum. Generally a malt-character is the beer’s trademark, which explains why “Hog’s Head Brew” is a sweet sip with malt greatly impacting the flavor of this potion. This sweetness helps many Scottish Ales to play well with aging programs. It will also give it the light brown color instead of yellows. But, as a brewer plays with it, they may add peat flavors in the recipe or aging program, or allow the grains to be smoked in the brewing process to give it a fire kissed flavor. Personally, I think this has mixed results with some Scottish Ales being too earthy, like Scotch. This can be a little hard to swallow, literally, with the earth taste in the beer. Also, not everyone likes smoked beers, which can also vary in quality from those that taste like liquid smoke has been added in the brew to those where the smoked grain lightly brings forth the smoke profile, like smoking ribs or brisket at home. But for “Hog’s Head Brew”, sweet is the overwhelming note.

Who Drinks This? Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has made you feel like a Wizard. You want an traditional beer style from the United Kingdom and are willing to be a little adventurous in flavor. Maybe you don’t like IPAs, you’re no hipster! Then you take a little adventure, but not too much, with a “Hog’s Head Brew” sitting right there in the Hog’s Head, refreshing yourself with some sweetness before you wait the long line to see Hagrid’s creatures. Honestly, this is the best way to pretend play!