And now this

The Brewers & Union beers from Bavaria have been around in Ireland for several years now, but I've only written about one previously, which won't do at all. On a visit to the newly refurbished Molloy's Off Licence in Tallaght late last year, I picked up a couple of their striking minimalist cans to take a look.

To begin, Unfiltered Lager, a 5% ABV helles, self-described as "old school". It's a bright pale gold colour and yes, lightly hazy. It smells sweetly of nectarine and silverskin onions, while the flavour is all juicy white grapes and gooseberry. A dry crispness helps balance it which, coupled with the grapes, makes it taste like a delicious sparkling wine. Until it warms a little there's virtually none of the malt that makes helles helles but I still absolutely loved it: elegantly balanced, brightly flavoured, and still ultimately a lager. I'll be coming back to this.

Its companion in the fridge was Sunday, a pale ale. The beer was almost the same lurid orange colour as the tin it came in, with lots of dreggy gunk in the bottom. It smells of oranges too, plus a more intense metallic aspirin and a hard icy mineral smell. The malt takes control in the flavour, turning it incredibly sweet, like orangeade. There's a touch of crisp biscuit in the finish but not enough to offset all that cloying sugar. I'm not a fan of this and I'm glad I only had a 33cl can of it instead of the larger bottle also available: I'd say that one is hard work.

Surprise that this German brewer makes better lager than US-style pale ale? Probably not.