Brewdog Hardcore IPA 330ml x 24

When James Watt and Martin Dickie founded BrewDog in 2007 in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, they open-sourced their entire recipe catalogue — a move no major craft brewery had attempted at scale — and Hardcore IPA sits squarely in that tradition of radical transparency.

The Ellon brewery, built in 2013 on a 5.5-acre site at Balmacassie Commercial Park and expanded with a 300-hectolitre brewhouse in 2016, draws on local Aberdeenshire water to brew an all-grain mash at approximately 65°C, building a Maris Otter Extra Pale malt backbone that keeps residual sweetness firmly in check.

The hop bill leans on American and Southern Hemisphere varieties — Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo, Cascade, Ahtanum, and Nelson Sauvin — sourced from Yakima Valley and New Zealand, with a multi-addition schedule running bittering charges at 60 and 30 minutes, aroma additions at 15 minutes and flameout, and a post-fermentation dry-hop at approximately 14°C for 5 days to lock in volatile aromatic compounds.

What sets Hardcore apart within BrewDog's own lineup is its position as a double IPA — pushing bitterness and ABV well beyond the flagship Punk IPA's 5.6% ceiling — while remaining vegan-certified and filtered for consistency across the 24-can format. Drink fresh to capture the full aromatic charge of the dry-hop charge before hop fade sets in.