So as part of my June care package from
Beer 52, I received a beer called “Killer Cat Manga.” The label
is a plane black label with orange picture of a feline mouth opened
wide. Oh it tells me it is 5% ABV. So no indication of what sort of
beer this is at all. On the back of the bottle it simply says “It's
Beer.” There is some more rhetoric but nothing to tell me what I'm
getting myself in for.
Beer 52's litrature tells me that Manga
is brewed without the normal early bittering hops, all of the taste
comes from huge late additions. The back of the bottle tells me “its
beer of course, but not ordinary run-of-the mill beer. We made this
to be more interesting tasty and exciting than that. A beer
revolution? Who cares. It's beer. So drink it.”
I don't often review beers publicly,
nor do “tasting notes” publicly but I feel like I owe you this
because I just cannot explain what this beer is. So before I start I
want to put my cards on the table, despite not really knowing what it
is, I like this beer.
So, when I review beers at home I
always start with what happens when you open the bottle, pop the cap.
Is it a slight psst or is it an explosive pop or somewhere in
between? Well Killer Cat Manga made no noise at all when I opened it.
Great I thought, a flat ale for old men with bushy side burns,
packaged for the younger markets....Then the beer quite literally
exploded out of the bottle. I want to point out this beer has been
sitting in my fridge for approximately 3 weeks, horizontal with very
little movement. I placed the bottle into the pint glass to catch the
spillage. The plot thickened.
Colour, well after the explosion
subsided I poured the beer into a pint glass, it poured with a rich
orange colour, almost Irn-Bru in colour! I didn’t get much of the
nose, the head maybe a finger or so stayed fast what I did get
reminded me of a Gold Ale. So a Gold Ale fragrance, an Irn-Bru visual
and an explosion out of the bottle. Intrigued I took a sip, nothing
on the initial sip, yeah I knew it was beer, but it was so delicate
on the palate I couldn't decipher what I was drinking. Then all of a
sudden BAM! The after taste was dark and hoppy, it lingered in my
mouth for a long time, somewhere between an IPA and a double IPA in
terms of taste. I got some roast flavours before the flavour all but
left my mouth. Each mouthful was as enjoyable as the previous, I
certainly didnt down this beer, the length of flavour meant I was in
no rush to empty the bottle but I could easily see myself sitting
with half a dozen of a night and drinking them all.
Beer 52's litrature recommends you
drink this with a curry, I couldn’t disagree more, I think the dark
roasted flavours of this light beer will overpower and distort the
delicate spices in curry. I would recommend drinking this with red
meat, possibly cooked on a barbecue!
The last words go to Killer Cat
themselves, “Its beer of course, but not ordinary run-of-the mill
beer. We made this to be more interesting tasty and exciting than
that. A beer revolution? Who cares. It's beer. So drink it.”
