BrewDog Introduces Kingpin – Lager As It Should Be

Of all the beer styles in all the world, the most bastardised by far are those of the lager family. You only need to conduct a brief round of mental word-association and the first things that pop into the grey matter are numerous images of ‘ice-cold suds’ from expensive advertising campaigns. It is one of the scandals of the brewing world that the history and innovation that first created lager has been shunted aside by lowest common denominator beermaking on an industrial scale.

So we are, once again, redressing the balance. Our new lager Kingpin launches today.

Kingpin

You can buy Kingpin here

We have worked for months to develop our new Headliner, channelling the spirit of classic German pilsners into a king amongst knaves – a true twenty-first century lager. The recipe has been dialled in using our pilot kit and the ingenuity of our brewery team – with lagers, there is nowhere to hide and nothing upon which to fall back. And as with every beer, it begins with the malt bill.

We wanted our new lager to have a robust, full-bodied malt character upon which to layer the hopload, so have developed a balance of Pilsner, Munich, Cara and Pale Malts to act as the baseline for Kingpin. This all-malt bill sets the bar for everything that follows, allowing a showcase for the Germanic hops. Nothing extra, nothing unnecessary.

Speaking of which, Kingpin is then hopped with a huge amount of Magnum and Perle. It may sound like an 80’s Eurovision entry but this double act is a quintessential German one-two of floral notes and spicy bitterness. The Magnum in particular brings a high-alpha intensity to the lager, resulting in a classically assertive Pilsner-style bitterness to the finish.

From Hop Rocker through 77 to This. Is. Lager. we have long brewed lagers that break the mould of tasteless, dumbed-down clones that have flooded the market. Kingpin is the latest in our family of cold-conditioned beers to act as a barrier in this stream of mass-produced insipidness.

Kingpin is live now in our online shop and will launch tonight, Thursday 19th May, at 6pm on draft in our UK Bars. Let us know in the comments when you have had a chance to sample our brand new lager!