Beer of The Year

It's coming to the end of the year, and it's been a great year for Irish Brewers, with many new ales appearing on the scene. It's always amazing to see the number of Irish Craft Beers available, and it's growing all the time.

I've been meaning to write about one particular beer for a while now, and having been prompted by a few "what was your favourite Irish beer this year" comments around the various forums and blogs, I decided the time was right to decide on my own. In my mind there is only one clear winner.

Other people are mentioning Galway Bay Brewery's Of Foam and Fury as being their favourite. It's a great representation of the DIPA Style, lots of up front hops, balanced by some great caramel malty sweetness, and a quite decent 8.5% ABV.

I, however, prefer less hoppy, less in-your-face and more accessible libations. I also like to drink beers with lower ABV than 8.5%.

I had tried, and reviewed a different beer from the brewer. I had also tried and loved a similarly styled beer from a different brewer, so when I saw this beer I immediately thought it was going to be good.

I brought home a couple of bottles and had them while watching a movie, I also saw it on sale in a couple of pubs - by the bottle, and finally I had one recently just after myself and the Beer Mistress had put up our Xmas Tree.

Kinnegar Rustbucket Rye Ale.

This beer does not disappoint. Pouring a lovely rusty orange colour, it is immediately inviting and you can smell some lovely hop aromas, but you can also get the spicy rye in there too.

I really enjoy the flavours that appear with Rye, spicy, peppery, even a little hint of sweetness. All combining to tame the underlying hops and present a really drinkable, warming and also refreshing russet ale. Perfect for a late Autumn or early Winter evening.

The fact that it's 5.1% ABV means you can enjoy a few of these, which really is a major plus point, to be able to drink a few bottles of this extremely tasty beer is a very good thing.

About halfway through the glass, I picked it up and got a really lovely hit of caramel toffee in the aroma, it was surprising and very welcome. This malt character balances rather well with the fresh and spicy hops and rye, to give a fully complete beer drinking experience.

I want more brewers to use Rye in their creations, but for now Kinnegar continue to impress with their small but innovative range of brews.

Well done to the brewers, they have created a real gem here.

Bravo!

Something Hoppy

Over the last few months I've been boldly going into the land of the hop. Never a fan of overtly hoppy ales, I decided I'd need to take a leap, and so I've been sampling progressively hoppier beers. (Metalman Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada, Punk IPA...).

Last evening I found myself presented with a choice. O'Hara's have released a bottled version of their Double IPA. But exactly what does "Double" mean in this context? I took myself off around the internet and found - as always - beer styles are not defined in stone. Ratebeer has this description:

"Imperial IPA, Double IPA or DIPA is a strong, often sweet, intensely hoppy version of the traditional India Pale Ale. Bitterness units range upward of 100 IBUs and alcohol begins at 7.5% but is more commonly in the 8.5-10% range. The flavour profile is intense all-round. Unlike barley wines, the balance is heavily towards the hops, with crystal and other malts providing support."

Well, O'Hara's Double IPA is 7.5%, so we are in the right territory - you can tell that it's up there in the ABV stakes too, which is not a bad thing to my mind, I like to know I'm drinking a big hitter.

Unfortunately, this is where the beer stops resembling any other DIPAs I've come across. It's not "intensely hoppy" - in fact, for someone like myself, who isn't a died in the wool hop-head, it's actually ok. There is nothing too resin-ey, there is nothing extremely bitter, you don't get that huge hop hit when the bottle is opened and poured into the glass.

What you do get are lovely complex malts, some sweetness, caramel even toffee at points. They've done a good job on the malts used to up the ABV. This Double IPA does have a more in-your-face hop profile than the standard O'Hara's Irish Pale Ale. What they've done here is made a perfectly palatable Double Irish Pale Ale. It tastes good, but I think it's mis-labelled.

I don't like drinking beers much stronger than 6% on a regular basis - I prefer to drink 3-5 beers at a time, and I can't do that with this one, however, in saying that, I wouldn't be averse to getting this again, now knowing what to expect. If you're a fan of Irish Pale Ales like O'Hara's, Metalman, Comeragh Challanger then this would be right up your street.

Sunshine in a Glass

When the sun shines in Dublin it's a lovely place to be, so after a Saturday in work the late afternoon left nothing more to be done than sample a few brews while soaking up a bit of the early summer while relaxing in the garden.

I headed to the local supplier of beers, and made a selection of lighter coloured, and hoppy beers to counter the thirst from the warm sun.

I began with a Belfast Blonde from the College Green Brewery in Belfast. A yellow coloured ale of 4.3%, it both looks the part on a summer's day, and at this ABV you don't have to watch your step too closely. It's pretty sweet, and there isn't much hop bitterness - more of a floral, grassy flavour. I was disappointed with the carbonation, I expected a much more lively ale - also the head didn't last the whole way down the glass, which was unfortunate.

However, and this is a very important point - this ale would be perfect for someone new to the craft scene. It showcases perfectly the sweetness of malts and the characteristics that hops can bring to a beer, without being too in your face with either. This subtlety of flavours is a plus point for this brew, especially for anyone who picks some up for an afternoon at a barbecue.

                                                                  

Next up was a Barney's Brew from the Hilden Brewery in Lisburn (yes, two more beers from the Northern portion of the island!). This is a clear, straw coloured ale made with both Malted Barley and Wheat with Cardamom, Corriander and Black Pepper. A strange list of ingredients, flavours and aromas to get to grips with.

You immediately get the sweet cardamom on the nose, and it is the first flavour that hits the tongue too, then comes the corriander tang, and finally at the back of the throat the black pepper bitter spiciness which then moves to the front and imparts itself into the cardamom and corriander in the next mouthful. There is enough subtle spiciness going on to counteract some of the sweetness from the wheat. There is not much comparable to this on the market - perhaps Hoegaarden with corriander in the flavour profile, but that's a bit of a stretch. I also had a Cracked Black Pepper Stout one time, and the finish in this one reminded me of that too.

The Beer Mistress was quite taken with this one and said she's definitely drink it again. It is a nice brew, but I don't know if it was really suitable for a sunny afternoon in the warm sun.

It offers something different enough from the norm that I'd look out for it and get one or two in the future.

                                                               

Irish Red Ales

A Friday evening in Dublin City, and there's a good choice of places with Craft Brews, but one of the oldest and most established is The Bull & Castle, over by Christchurch Cathedral. Famous for both it's Craft Beer selection, and excellent food, downstairs is a restaurant, and upstairs boasts a German Style Beer Hall. It was here we found ourselves in the early part of the evening for a few pints and a bit of grub.

They have a rotation cask, and when we were there the ale was Metalman Brewing's Windjammer. This is a lovely amber coloured brew, starting off slightly sweet, and with a fairly subtle hop refreshment in the finish. Great for a session in the springtime. I've no picture of this one, unfortunately, but being from the cask, it was slightly cloudy. Slightly less in-your-face hops than their Pale Ale offering, but still well worth seeking out whenever it's available. It's a seasonal, so won't be around throughout the year. I look forward to sampling their other seasonals as they arrive.

Next up were two bottles of beer, both Irish Red Ales. A staple of most of the Irish craft brewers, red ales span the spectrum from malty to robust hoppiness - so it's probably unfair to pigeonhole them all into one category. Some of them could be called Red IPAs, while others could be light-coloured porters. Both of these ales hail from the northern part of the island.

The first one was a Devil's Backbone from Kinnegar Brewery in Donegal. They have a strange way of labelling their beers, I've never heard of a Northern Pale Ale, or a Northern Amber Ale - this one is the Northern Amber Ale, but to all intents and purposes, it's a red coloured ale, so fair game for this I think.

I quite liked it, some lovely hoppy flavours, nicely balanced by caramally malts and roasted chocolate notes towards the back. I also saw available it's sister brew Limburner, which is a paler ale. Devil's Backbone is another quality ale in the ever growing Irish Craft scene and if you are a fan of darker beers with a more pronounced malt profile, then this is for you. The hops are there, but they don't dominate the palate, again, a good sessionable ale.

The third ale sampled on this visit was McGrath's Irish Red, from the Clanconnel Brewery in Co. Down.

The hops are much more pronounced in this one than in the previous two, and it's not a bad thing. This dark ruby ale is very good, and along with their Porter, McGrath's make a welcome addition to the Irish Craft Beer world.

We get some good initial biscuit and caramel sweetness, but very quickly find cleansing hop bitterness. Another fine sessionable ale, and well worth seeking out.

All in all, this section of the Irish Craft Brew market is well stocked, session ales with a red tint, so it can be hard to distinguish one from another - however all three beers sampled here are distinct and different enough to warrant a sampling of each.

Summertime!

Headed out for a walk on a sunny Sunday and ended up in The Black Sheep, which is one of the pubs run by the Galway Bay Brewery, it's a lovely pub with good food and, of course, fine beers.

I started off with a Clotworthy Dobbin from a cask. This beer is nice from the bottle, but from the cask it is absolutely delicious. A dark, ruby-red beer with up front hop flavours, and a sweet caramel and toffee finish. As you can see from a previous blog entry, I've been sampling the Whitewater brews for some time now, they never fail to disappoint. The Clotworthy Dobbin is also available on cask in The Black Sheep's sister pub The Brew Dock. Go and get some while you can.

TheBeerMistress set up the chess board, then while I was pondering my next move the decision was made for me. Spotted on the menu was the Mongozo range. They have the Palm Nut and Banana varieties, but we decided on a Mango and a Coconut.

The Coconut pours a cloudy, off white as you'd expect from a beer brewed with coconut. A lovely clean, fresh flavour. Sweet too, so you wouldn't be drinking a lot of this, but it's perfect for a warm day. If you are planning a barbecue this summer, this coconut beer would be an impeccable choice. A good mouthfeel, and at 3.6% this is certainly quaffable and sessionable, reminiscent of Pina Colada.

The Mango pours a clear, golden yellow, the colour of Mango flesh. It has a lovely sharp, refreshing taste, with a slight underlying sweetness. This one would be nice after a good meal, also weighing in at 3.6%, so you can have more than one.

Both are pretty good beers, and really more than a gimmick, which I initially assumed they were.

Next up was Sierra Nevada's seasonal oferring, Ruthless Rye IPA. I'm not a huge fan of overtly hoppy beers, and first impressions of this were telling me it was just yet another in the ever growing list of IPAs, Double IPAs, Imperial IPAs, each vying to out-do the last in the Hop steaks. In The Black Sheep it's served from a keg, bottles are also available.

Yes, as with all IPAs there are big in-your-face hop characteristics, but the finish here is amazing. The Rye imparts a lovely spicey, pepperiness that takes the edge off the hops just enough to make this beer enjoyable. It's a very inviting warm amber colour, and the head stays on pint until the end, with lines down the glass after each mouthful.

An ideal beer for quenching a thirst on a warm day. I'll be searching out other Rye beers as a result of liking this one so much.

Franciscan Well Launch Night

On Thursday night myself and the lady wife, who henceforth has demanded to be referred to as "TheBeerMistress", headed to Farrington's in Temple Bar. There was a launch night of Molson Coors new babies, The Franciscan Well's Shandon Stout and Rebel Red ale, and also Blue Moon and a new Blue Moon, called Valencia Grove Amber - a seasonal offering.

Anyway, having been an avid drinker of the Franciscan Well beers for many a year now - they've had their beers in the Bull & Castle and The Gingerman pubs for a good few years - we were curious to see what the launch night would be like.

It was a low-key affair, and the only reason we knew about it was a single line post on Facebook earlier in the day. No posters in the bar, and the first barman I spoke to forgot it was even on.

Anyway, we had a couple of different beers before the 7PM launch , then the lads (not big-boobed bimbos!) arrived with their beers, and interestingly, cheese to match.

The beers were presented in a stand, about a quarter pint each of the four beers between two of us.

From left to right these are Blue Moon Original, Blue Moon Valencia Grove Amber, Franciscan Well Rebel Red and Franciscan Well Shandon Stout. You can also see TheBeerMistress' handmade black and red scarf there in the background.

Blue Moon is Blue Moon, a nice enough brew. However, the new seasonal is not very nice. I don't know what they are trying to do here, but whatever it is, it's not working. It has less body than it's brother, an insipid mouthfeel and doesn't taste too good either.

On to the Ale and Stout.

Rebel Red is one of the best examples of the Irish Red Ale genre of beers. Gentle hoppiness and a decent malt character makes for a very drinkable ale. 

Shandon Stout is a very good stout too. A nice creaminess and a robust bitterness from the roasted malt in the background.

Both of these beers have been available for a good while, but with Molson Coors' recently acquiring the Franciscan Well brand, it's good to see them pushing the brews like this.

Special mention to the cheeses too, very well matched with the beers. There was a Cooleny Soft Cheese with Mushroom & Oak, Hegarty Farmhouse Cheddar and the standout was the Crozier Blue Cheese which turned drinking Shandon Stout from quaffing a very good stout to a hugely pleasurable flavoursome experience.

All in all a very good night in Farrington's, with some very good beers on show.