It’s been a decent while since I last had a North Brewing Co. beer and this one is another from Tesco’s latest release of craft beer. This is ‘Ornament’ a 4.1% ABV Kveik IPA. You may be wondering “what on earth Kveik means?”, well so was I and it turns out to be Norwegian for a type of domesticated yeast. All beer has yeast and different strains have different properties. This particular strain, which is seeing a resurgence, is able to ferment at much higher temperatures and provide different flavours across temperature ranges. Needless to say, always up for trying something new.

Visually the beer has a lovely apple juice like quality to it with a great haze as well. Not your traditional IPA look. The nose is quite light overall with no strong aroma although there is a light citrus hint. The beer itself is actually surprisingly dry and crisp. There is a touch of lemon in the taste that’s quite pleasant. Refreshing drinking overall with a little fizz on the end.

A quick note on the can art: North seems to go for two styles on their cans. Their core range uses the abbreviation of the beer name while the specials go for more abstract designs. I really like this one, it’s clean and stood out clearly on the Tesco shelves. And interestingly uses Tesco colours.

A rather interesting beer and certainly distinct to other IPAs I’ve had. While in my opinion there’s nothing stand out flavour wise, it’s incredibly clean drinking. I imagine it’s the yeast strain giving it that crisp, dryness to the beer and that punchy fizz finish. A bolder flavour profile would take the beer to another level. If you’d like more information on the yeast strain give this little article a read, it’s fairly comprehensive (https://www.hopculture.com/kveik-yeast-pronounce-homebrew-fermentation/).

Score: 7/10

Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Additional Information:

• Hops: Citra, Azzaca and Simcoe
• Malt: Extra Pale
• IBU: Not Available
• ABV: 4.1%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: Yes!
• Purchase Price: £1.80 (4 for £6)
• Purchase Location: Tesco