Mach 11 would be seriously fast - Hypersonic fast is what Wikipedia tells me, about 13,500km hour google tells me, or if I jumped on a plane in my home in Melbourne Australia I could be pretty darn close to landing in Europe in an hour.
Why all this talk of Hypersonic travel, Well this weeks beer is called Mach 11 or more correctly Bridge Road Brewer's B2 Bomber Mach 11. Let's break that down. Bridge Road Brewer's are on of the original craft brewers in Australia, based in Beechworth about 3 hours north of Melbourne they pioneered pretty much everything since they started way back in 2005. the B2 Bomber is an anniversary beer that they have been bringing out for, well it would appear 11 years. Each year to keep the aerial theme of the B2 Bomber they add a 'Mach'
Untappd tells me I've been neglecting my Bombers of late - I appear to have drunk Mach 2,3,4,5,6 and 7, but then missed everything until this one - Mach 11.
So what is it? This is how they describe it...
In 2021, we celebrate our 16th year as a brewery.
To mark the milestone, we’ve brewed this beauty: The 11th edition of our annual birthday beer, the fabled B2 Bomber.
This year’s incarnation, brings the unmistakable combination of complex dark malts, fruity Belgian yeast characters and big punchy hops.
What do we call it? A Black Belgian Double IPA. Weighing in at 9.3%, Mach 11, artfully balances these complex elements and makes for another memorable beer to celebrate a rather memorable year.
But what do I think?
Well it pours a pitch black, strangely it's not a boozy as I expected, or you would expect a 9.3% beer to be. As such also not a silky as I would have thought, not thin in the body but just thinner than I expected, maybe it's because with the blackness my mind is preparing for solid stout and this is not that, sure it has nice roasted flavours but there is also a touch of funk from the Belgian yeast. But it is a IPA so you would expect hops but it's not a punch in the face bitterness and maybe this is the trick to the beer, It is so balanced, so no single characteristic stands out. The Hops are there with a hint of and spiciness but it’s the malt and the yeast carrying this one.
All in all another great beer from this brewery which has produced hundreds of fantastic beers over the journey.