The one and the zero

Digital IPA is the first Yeastie Boys beer I've ever had. It has been popping up in lots of places around Dublin lately and I caught up with it at Alfie Byrne's.

5.7% ABV and a perfectly clear gold colour, this stuff is New Zealand in a glass. It has all of that spicy, peppery hop blast that switches over into ripe mango mid-sip and continues in this binary fashion -- spicy and juicy -- all the way along. The firm body helps the hop flavours do their thing, but it's so clean it could still pass for being a much lower-strength beer. I got a tiny touch of butane or diesel in the finish, those crazy kiwi hops again.

More than anything this is an entertaining beer. I'm guessing from the supreme freshness it was actually brewed somewhat closer to home than Wellington -- I understand some of that work happens in the UK these days (at BrewDog, say my always-reliable commenters below). But it certainly does a great job as an ambassador for its purported country. I'd love it if a beer could taste so unmistakeably of Ireland as this does of New Zealand.