Radikale Hopster

On a recent trip to Ireland's second city of Cork I met Alain, the brewer from the latest addition to the ever growing Craft Beer selection being produced on this island, Radikale. He very generously presented me with a couple of bottles of his first brew - Hopster, a single hopped American Pale Ale - to sample.

Pouring a nice inviting deep amber, almost red, with a nice looking head that reduces rather quickly to thin lacing, the initial aroma is candy sugar, which suggests a cloying, malt forward red ale. This is not the case, the Chinook hops cut through the sweetness pretty well, giving some slight lemon and spices, enhanced by the light, prickly carbonation, allowing the flavours to meld and mingle on the tongue.

That sweet spiciness sticks around the palate for a while, giving way to some chewy toffee richness offset by the final flourish of the hops, just enough to cleanse ready for the next mouthful. This is an interesting take on the Single Hopped idea, which certainly has it's constraints as far as layering flavours is concerned - however there is enough going on here to make you want to drink a couple more. I wouldn't leave it hanging around though, as it started to warm up a little the malt naturally came more to the forefront, and it did begin to overpower the flavour a little bit. At 5.2% though,this is probably not much of a problem.

I enjoyed making my way through this beer, I particularly liked the way the almost playful, cotton candy sweet aroma was present throughout, and I certainly look forward to more offerings from the hand of this Belgian brewer who has somehow found himself brewing beer in Cork.