Craft Dan, 13 Guns - We Salute You.

A look at the website of '13 Guns' brewer Daniel Thwaites would put most people off this beer - clearly the brewing is of secondary importance for Mr. Thwaites; and as far as I could tell 13 Guns doesn't feature anywhere on site. Indeed the website resembles something from a by-gone era, while the imagery looks like something straight out of Shutter Stock. If this half-baked website was anything to go by then perhaps a secondary project would receive even less attention.
So, not a positive start then; but there is the small matter of 13 Gun's Gold Award at the 2014 World Beer Awards. Could it be that the resources have been diverted in the wrong direction? I had to find out which way was this gun going to fire, as my interest had been peaked and I wanted to see if Crafty Daniel Thwaites kept his power dry for this one.

The Good:

First thing you notice when raising a glass of 13 Guns towards your face-holes, is the aroma. It is not exactly something which will be unfamiliar to anybody who has drank IPA's previously, but it is pleasant none-the-less. A typical fruity scent, which is the Marmite calling card for IPAs. A thumbs-up from me.

Moving onto the taste, you'd imagine from the scent that it would tow the party-line and deliver that traditional IPA flavour that we all know so well. Largely it does, nothing too out of the ordinary in terms of flavour, but the drinking experience as a whole is noteworthy. As you'd expect from a beer who carries a tagline of 'An Intense Hit Of Hops', 13 Guns is a fairly hoppy IPA, but it's hardly overbearing. Instead it manages to release all the flavour of the hops without completely taking over and nullifying any further taste from the drink. The hops do, what I believe, hops ought to do - they warm, they add substance and compliment the fruity taste already present in the beer. If anything, the hops may just take the edge off the fruitiness which could appeal to some people not won over by the traditional IPA taste.

This blending of the hops also effects the texture of the beer, such that it goes down quite easily despite appearing like heavy work.

The Bad:

Not much to say here, the drink was quiet enjoyable, but I do have one major gripe. While all the elements worked well together, I for one think that the taste has been curbed just a little bit and it holds 13 Guns back from being a truly delicious beer. A shame really, as they've concocted something brilliant in every other regard, but at the end of the day the most noticeable thing about a drink is its flavour. And while 13 Guns is not necessarily an unenjoyable drink, it doesn't do enough to stand out of the crowd when put up against the competition. I feel there is a truly spectacular drink waiting to be released in this brew, but for whatever reason Crafty Dan settled for this. Perhaps, they were right to, they did win Gold after-all.

The Verdict:

Despite the last paragraph, I did enjoy this beer and for sure I will be drinking it again in the near future. I just wish that they didn't play it so safe and pushed the brew just a little bit further, it would have been enough to turn a fine IPA into a spectacular IPA.

7.5/10 - 13 Guns has won me over to a certain degree, and definitely has the pulling power to turn my head when passing the beer section in the supermarket. Unfortunately however, I don't think it will ever be the main feature on a shopping list of mine. So close, yet so far. 

Price: €2.75 - Molloy's Liquor Store.