What's New Pussy Cat?

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.”

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