The beers less travelled

Part two of my run through Hagstravaganza 2018 concerns itself with the Irish brewers who were there. The hosts, White Hag, had a couple of collaborative beers brewed abroad in the line-up. One was Bretty Fool, made at Schneeeule with additional input from fellow Berliners BRLO. It's an unattractive muddy brown and headless with a strong dirty funk aroma. The texture is a bit thin and watery while the flavour is a game of two halves: a lovely roast that complements the horsey funk, but a sharp plastic bite as well which lets it down. An interesting beer overall, a nice twist on your standard Orval-alike, but not brilliant all the same.

The other collaboration was Watershed, a session-strength New England IPA brewed at Big Smoke in Surrey. At 4.2% ABV it's light and refreshing without being thin. It's properly bitter too, which is always pleasing in these sorts, showing a very real, sharp note of grapefruit pith as the central feature.

Entirely off their own bat, White Hag was offering Hagstravaganza #4 as the headline beer of the event, a version of their Black Boar imperial stout, aged in bourbon barrels with added raspberries. It arrived jet black with no foam on top and its flavour brings an equal mix of tarry stout, fresh raspberries and boozy bourbon vanilla. They contrast with each other nicely, providing three top-notch flavour experiences from a single glass.

I got my first opportunity to try beers from Tipperary's newest brewery, Canvas. Raspberella was where I began, being a 4.6% ABV amber ale with brewery-grown raspberries. The fruit gets straight to work in the aroma, exuding the crunchy woody character of raspberry seeds. In the flavour it's thick and sweet, like raspberry ice cream sauce, boosted by quite a dense treacle-like malt base. It might have become difficult and cloying were it not for the drying balance of burnt roast on the end. This is an unusual concoction, but by no means unpleasant.

Alas I can't say the same about Road Not Taken, described as a "west Cork porter" and 7.5% ABV. They've gone for smoky here, but have ended up with a beer that tastes acridly of iodine and musty old oak. It's all a bit rough and severe. Perhaps ageing would help round it out, though it could be that the whole recipe needs redrawing.

DOT rolled out the barrel with Mother Mezcal, an IPA aged in a mezcal cask. There's lots of wood here too: a dry splintery effect in the aroma which transfers into the flavour as well. But there are plenty of hops: green and quite herbal, ensuring it still comes across as an IPA first and foremost. A relatively modest 6.5% ABV means it's not boozy, and I got no trace of the spirit that was in the barrel previously, although that said I don't think I've ever tasted mezcal. This is perhaps not as exciting as the name implies, but it's still a jolly good, clean, IPA.

Boundary's Double Screwball ice cream IPA was brought to the table by my wife: it's not the sort of thing I'd have chosen off my own bat. And more fool me, because it was really nice. It's 8.7% ABV and lurid pink with lots of raspberry in the aroma. The flavour isn't too sweet, with a certain jammyness and a creamy vanilla element, but also a significant citric hop kick. I was reminded more of a classy lemon and raspberry torte than a kiddies' ice cream cup.

One last beer before legging it for the train, and it's a big one: High Viscosity from Galway Bay, a 10% ABV bourbon-barrel stout which they brewed as a collaboration with Uiltje and which includes stroopwafel in the ingredients. Full craft points, there. It smells sweet and treacly but tastes bitterer, thankfully: a kick of herbal liquorice offsets the sugar, and there's an espresso roast finish. The name isn't lying: it is incredibly thick and this makes it satisfying and sippable. It's definitely not as much of a novelty as the description implies, being instead simply a well-made big stout.

With my remaining tokens I purchased a bottle of White Gypsy Vintage for the train. This beer has been a long time in development -- the process got its first mention on this blog in 2010 -- and is an attempt to produce Irish stout in the traditional way: wood aged and naturally soured. This particular batch was brewed in 2016 then left for two years before bottling. It came out at 6% ABV and I was first struck by the poor head retention. It has a savoury aroma, crisp like actual crisps, and the flavour continues that theme: soy sauce and MSG; all the umami. It is still a stout, though, and there's a dry roasted edge on it too. While fine, it didn't taste like anything special to me, and certainly not worth the €8 it set me back. Lambic pricing should mean lambic quality.

The day's final beer, as our train lumbered back east across the midlands, came via Ronan's generosity. He shipped Henderson's Beast over from Toronto. It's an imperial amber ale, bourbon aged to 11% ABV. The whisky cask is very much in charge of the flavour, from the lime-like sourness to the smooth and heavy vanilla, this is bourbon all the way. It's good though: like the High Viscosity it's calm and relaxing with no sharp edges or difficult parts. Cheers Ronan.

And cheers to The White Hag for running another excellent show, and for the complementary tickets. Even when ticking beers against the clock it was a fantastic day out.