Beers Of London Series
2. Brupond - Tip Top Hop 6.0%

In contrast to yesterdays post, here's a beer from a new brewery - Brupond. If you follow the link to the website you'll find that there's lots of stuff there, but it required a little searching and sifting to find the out something that I could actually put down here. From what I can ascertain the brewery is based in the Leyton (E10) area of London and started brewing in either December 2012 or January 2013. It was set up by David Brassfield from Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA who raised finance for this venture after pitching to Crowdcube, an online investment organisation designed to bring entrepreneurs together with investors in exchange for a stake in the business.
Tip Top Hop is a continually hopped IPA, made by adding small amounts of hops (Perle, Hallertau, Willamette, Goldings and Celeia) continuously for 60 minutes during the boil. There is no 'best before' or 'brewed on' that I could find on the label or bottle which would give me some idea how old it was, or even a batch number.
It's very lively out of the bottle, throwing a big bubbly white head. The colour is a thin orange, and, while this may not be the most tasteful analogy, it reminds me of nothing more than dark urine. The aroma is really very promising, there's peach, pomegranate juice and elderflower in abundance here, it's really rather fragrant. Unfortunately, as I top up my glass lots of brown lumpy yeast muddies the liquid, making it a rather murky soup. The taste doesn't live up to the promise of the aroma as sadly it's all soggy cardboard which is never a desirable flavour in beer and basically says one thing - oxidation. This is a real shame as there is clearly a problem here and I hope that they can sort it.
After I posted my initial findings on Untappd I received comments on twitter confirming my findings, but also some saying what a fantastic beer it is. I hope therefore that I had a bottle from an early batch and these issues are now resolved. I've also heard nothing but praise for their Ain'Cho Mum's Porter which I'm anxious to try.
Should you wish to find out for yourself, the brewery is having it's 'Opening Event' this Saturday, 6th April at 1.30pm. Details on their website. It might be worth a look.