Labour of love

There was a rare opportunity to sample Land and Labour beers in Dublin at the Black Sheep last month. I missed it, but was along to scoop up the dregs a few days later.

First out, Assemblage, a wine-aged mixed fermentation ale of 5.4% ABV. The aroma squeals quality, offering up gently sappy oak with a hint of grape and a pinch of saltpetre. It was sweeter than expected, reminding me a little of faro: somewhere between that sweetened style and plain young lambic. The gentle sparkle certainly gives it the air of something you'd find on cask in the better class of Brussels boozer. The spicy sourness bursts on the palate with each mouthful, then fades quickly leaving an air of white wine. This is beautifully balanced, very drinkable, and difficult to believe it comes from an industrial estate in Ballybrit.

Seedling is next, a paler and brighter number the colour of burnished gold. There's a wine aroma here too, but sharper and flintier. The sourness is more intense on tasting, almost curdling, and it doesn't resemble any other soured saison I've encountered. The turned-milk effect lasts a bit too long in the finish, after the lemonade and Shloer aspects have faded out. Knowing nothing about how production of these sorts of beers works I have no constructive criticism to offer, only that I'd like more spice and more wood. Maybe longer than 18 months or barrel ageing is what I'm looking for, though 18 months sounds like it should be plenty.

Completing the set is DeNovo, a Brett IPA at 6.6% ABV. It's another fairly pale one, the lack of head making getting an impression of the aroma difficult, the eventual result being pineapple juice and lemon sherbet. The flavour, though, is a lovely mix of serious slurry-pit funk and bright candy-store tropical fruits: mango, pineapple again, and lychee, deriving from the Amarillo and Simcoe hops. It's quite a contrast, and takes a bit of getting used to. In between these two elements there's a resinous frankincense and cedar wood flavour. While it's certainly the boldest of the three, the texture is a little thin and the finish quicker than I'd like for an IPA, funked up or otherwise.

I think the mix of flavours found in Assemblage is more to my taste, but all three are genuinely world class, and you can taste the absence of shortcuts. That said, at €7.40 a glass, you would want to.