Back at it

Another Irish beer round up in the same week as the last one? 'Fraid so.

Wicklow Wolf, for one, has been very busy, with the harvesting and the collaborating. The 2018 edition of Locavore landed, in two cans of oatmeal pale ale with two different hop combinations, all grown on their own farm. It must be going well as they also supplied the green for White Gypsy's Emerald this year. Named literally after where the plants were growing, The Top Field is Bramling Cross, Challenger and Fuggles, while The Bottom Field is Cascade and Chinook. They should be quite different so I opened them side-by-side.

Both are a deep orange colour, with the US-variety one almost completely clear while the English one had a slight haze. A tall pillar of foam was also common to both, one which subsided quite quickly. The Top Field is sweet, with lots of floral honey in particular, and the blackcurrant jam note I associate most with Bramling Cross. There's quite a heat for just 5.4% ABV, the flowers turning to a concentrated solvent in the finish. The Bottom Field is also quite malt-driven, giving a first impression of golden syrup rather than honey. There's a flash of sharp bitterness but it's brief, and quite waxy and English-tasting. Maybe if you bring Cascades east across the Atlantic again they turn back into Fuggles. If not exactly leaping with hops, this one is at least clean with a pleasant crispness. The Top Field does not improve as it warms, getting hotter, dirtier and more sickly as it goes. It's counter-intuitive, but new world hops seem to be the ones worth growing in Ireland.

Moving on, Dark Flight is the third in Wicklow Wolf's collaboration series, a 7% ABV five-grain porter brewed with Anspach & Hobday. It looks like a proper porter: deepest black with a crackling tan head. I thought from that it was going to be thin and crisp but instead it's rich and sumptuous, full of gourmet coffee and spendy chocolate. There's a certain cereal dryness and a lacing of bitter herbs, but mostly this is all about that coffee roast. It bears a strong resemblance to A&H's own The Porter, which is great: proper Saaaf Laahnden character in a beer from Wickla. I really enjoyed my single can of it and would suggest that if Wicklow Wolf are planning to regularise any of these arrangements, Dark Flight is the one to do again.

Whiplash had a new pale ale, a scaled back version of their Drone Logic single-hop Simcoe double IPA from last year. Let Forever Be is 5.5% ABV. The aroma is sweet and juicy with a lacing of citrus pith. Lots of juice in the flavour too, at least at first. It tails off slightly, leaving a savoury sesame seed buzz, the sort that would normally annoy me, but I think the lower alcohol helps make it less severe. There's a smooth texture that drifts over any flaws, and the residual juiciness lasts long into the finish, ending up as the feature you remember about the beer overall. The whole thing is pintable and sessionable, and very tasty: all the fancy stylings of modern hop murk, but you can drink more than one of them.

Two modest-strength Whiplash beers in a row? What are the chances? Here's Slow Life, their first porter since the original Scaldy, 4.5% ABV and served nitrokegged. And it's a very good example of why nitrokegging is generally a bad idea. Whatever flavour complexities the brewer intended to feature here have been comprehensively buried by the nitrogen. There's a vague chocolate taste and a light grainy biscuit finish, but that's the sum total. Very dull and very disappointing, this, though I'd happily give a straight-carbonation version a second chance.

Can you tell that this was originally written as an all-Wicklow post? One last Garden County beer before we move on. O Brother's If You Say So is the first in a series of arty collaborations. It's a double IPA of 8.5% ABV and an opaque orange colour. The aroma is fresh and zesty but its flavour is heavier, hot and sweet with a strong resemblance to orange cordial. Despite this, and a bit of a dreggy murk burr, it finishes cleanly, leaving just an afterglow of garlic. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you're in, it's an enjoyable one with plenty of hop wallop, a pleasant warmth and no sharp edges.

A half-step away from O Brother brings us to Red Red Redemption, which landed in UnderDog yesterday evening. It was brewed at YellowBelly with O Brother as collaborators.  The style, uniquely I think, is a New England red double IPA. And amazingly it's just what one might expect. A hazy pink colour in the glass with its foretaste presenting a massive sweet kick of tinned strawberries, brimming with concentrated summer fruit. Oily hop resins row in behind that, buoyed up on a dense 9% ABV malt body. That blend of sweetness and hops is very different, bringing in characteristics which are generally unique to red IPA, New England IPA and double IPA. Though they're combined here, each element is distinct and well defined. It may look murky but the whole creation is actually very well polished.

Two very different offerings from Dublin's Third Barrel next. Brickline is a very plain lager, created for the Two Sides brand, presumably as an approachable house beer for the principal Two Sides pubs, T. O. Brennan's, 57 The Headline and Brickyard. It was at The Headline that I caught up with it. This is a bright pale gold colour, light-bodied and fizzy like any generic industrial lager you care to name, but also with an authentically-Bohemian tasting golden syrup sweetness to serve as a nod towards flavour complexity. Mostly it's very clean and easily drinkable, with one pint inviting the next. This really achieves what I'm certain it set out to do.

From Third Barrel's own brand comes Instant Gratification double IPA. A highly involved hopping schedule had been promised here, utilising Citra and Enigma in "silly" quantities. It came out at 8.5% ABV and poured a soupy orange. There's more than a hint of New England about it: that sort of fluffy mouthfeel with a tang of sweet vanilla. The hops are indeed insane, simultaneously dry and punchy -- all grapefruit pith and lemon rind -- while also juicy and tropical, full of ripe pineapple and mango. And yet the finish is surprisingly quick for such a powerhouse, the hops fading fast leaving an unpleasant yeast bite as the aftertaste. It's still an excellent beer for this sort of super-fresh (slightly unfinished?) style. With the great and good of Irish microbrewing starting to get themselves international reputations, Third Barrel could be the industry's best kept secret.

The last beer for this week isn't exactly a new one, having been around since the summer. 9 Rubies is that rare bird, a raspberry IPA, brewed by Lacada and kindly supplied by Mr B. I wasn't expecting it to be pink but it very much is. The flavour is, well, raspberries, in no uncertain terms. It's not quite the tang of real berries but the sweeter, spicier taste of raspberry jam or sherbet. Any hops? Not really, just a very slight metallic bitterness in the finish. From the label it seems they're going for a milkshake effect here, including lactose in the recipe. It's surprisingly light-textured for that, with no cream or gumminess. This is easy-going sweet summer fun, feeling much more like a silly raspberry wheat beer than Serious Craft™ and for all that I rather enjoyed it.

 Enough local beer for now. It's back to the travel notebooks for next week.

Sierra all the way

I honestly thought they had just changed the can design. It's an indictment of slow-moving beer in Irish shops that I didn't bat an eyelid when both designs sat side by side for month after month. A conversation with the eminent Bodge about the place of lime in brewing led me to the revelation that there were, in fact, two forms of Sierra Nevada Otra Vez gose, the new one with Lime and Agave. In my defence, the writing is very small.

What Bodge was saying was that lime tends to completely take over the flavour of anything it's in, and that's definitely the case here: there's a sweet hit of lime ice lollies (or sorbet if you're posh) right from the outset and nothing much else gets past it. Maybe some of the sweetness is agave syrup, but that doesn't save it from being quite one-dimensional. Like way too many beers with the word "gose" on the label there's only the faintest, and missable, hint of salt and absolutely no coriander.

This is pleasant in an unbeery, fizzy lime cordial sort of way. I can imagine it quenching many a desert thirst in Albuquerque or Santa Fe. A dismal autumnal evening in Dublin didn't really give it any contextual advantage, however.

My Otra Vez explorations continued a while later at a Sierra Nevada extravaganza hosted by The TapHouse in Ranelagh. Among the line-up here was a third iteration: Tequila Barrel Otra Vez, a natural progression, of course. This was far from one-dimensional. A honeycomb aroma introduces it and the flavour is sweet and dessertish with a sticky texture to match, while also being sharp and tangy thanks to the irrepressible lime. Mead came to mind, as did Tokaji: it's that sort of effortlessly classy complexity. I'd never have thought that a novelty beer like Otra Vez could be poshed up like this, but it seems all you need is a tequila cask.

Among the bottles on the go was Sierra Nevada Vienna and I was startled to learn I had never tasted it. It's a Vienna lager, of course, though looked a little pale in the dim light, golden rather than the copper shade I would expect. This is a beer of understated balance, with a smooth biscuity sweetness and a tang from noble hops which doesn't turn acridly grassy as they sometimes do. I miss the dark malt richness, the melanoidins, but that doesn't seem to be the direction the brewery has taken this one. While unexciting, it's very well-constructed and doubtless exactly what it was intended to be.

And there was another quartet of little green cans, following on from the Fresh Hop set last autumn and the Southern Hemisphere ones several months ago. This time each uses a single iconic variety of American hops.

Citra IPL is 5.5% ABV with a decently clean grain base. Onto this is grafted a mild lime bitterness, very noticeably citric but not overdone. There's a surprise peppery complexity in the finish as well. India Pale Lagers rarely wow me, and this one doesn't, but it's fun and refreshing which is all that's required of it.

We go up to 6.7% ABV with the Amarillo IPA and I got a shock in the aroma here: caraway! That's not something I've ever associated with this hop breed. There's a surprising, and disappointing, lack of fruit in the flavour. Instead it's all seed husks, fried onions and alcohol, very far from orangey Amarillo and therefore a poor showcase for it.

Matters got even worse when it came to the Mosaic DIPA. This is harshly savoury, as can happen with Mosaic, and there's none of the juicy tropicality it imparts when used well. Somehow it also comes across dry and plasticky, the 8% ABV giving it a cloying claggy quality. No fun at all.

I missed out on the fourth one in the set on the night, El Dorado Session IPA, but picked it up in an off licence a few days later. It's clear and golden, with a muted aroma, though one which does show the signature tropical chew-sweets of the hop. Phew! It tastes lightly lemony, dusted with a citrus perfume and has a smooth and easy-going texture, filling out its 4.6% ABV fully without being any way thin. It's not quite as fruity as I was expecting, the hops bringing a bitterness I don't associate with the breed but which helps balance it well. I could definitely imagine a session on this.

Not for the first time the lighter ones in the set are the most enjoyable.

We finish on a different lighter note: I was surprised and intrigued when I first saw Sierra Nevada's California IPA on tap in 57 The Headline. It's a rather inauspicious name. Turns out this is their 3 Weight session IPA rebadged for the European market. It's a very sessionable 4.2% ABV and an innocent pale yellow colour. There's a beautiful, luscious soft fruit flavour, all fresh peach and honeydew melon. This contrasts with a more serious oily-dank aroma. A certain dirty yeast grit creeps in as it warms but that's very mild and does nothing to dull the zingy fruit. Dare I throw in a Little Fawn parallel? Go on then: it's very nearly that good. This is the beer to choose on dark evenings when you need a reminder of what summer tastes like.

Thanks to all at The TapHouse and Grand Cru Beers for providing most of this lot. I'm never stuck for something to write about with Sierra Nevada.

Pop-up Hag

This was unexpected. For two long weekends in late October The White Hag Brewery took over an abandoned pub in central Dublin and ran a series of theme nights. Scheduling conflicts mean I only made it to the first of these, where the theme was White Hag's own beers.

For the first time I got to try Black Pig, a 4.2% ABV dry stout that seems to go largely to export. I guess it's a tougher sell on the home market. It looks normal enough: the appropriate black colour with a creamy nitro head. Though advertised as dry, it leans heavy on the chocolate malt, giving it a flaky milk chocolate taste. There's just enough of a bitter tang to balance it, and the end result is tasty if a little plain and pedestrian. This seems very much designed as a house stout rather than a rotating special, which is fair enough.

Everything else from White Hag I'd had already, but there were a couple of tempting guest beers down at the end of the menu board, leftovers from the summer Hagstravaganza festival, I'm guessing. The one I started with was Muskoka's Legendary Oddity. This is described as a Belgian-style strong ale, and at 7.1% ABV just about qualifies, I think. The ingredients include heather, juniper and orange peel, so it's certainly an oddity, but what about the other part? I liked it. It has the look of a golden ale like Duvel and really seems to take its cues from the same. There's a clean and dry spiciness with a touch of warming honey. The unusual ingredients come into play later but don't taste like themselves. I got peach, apricot, jasmine, aniseed and marjoram. Overall, it's extremely drinkable despite the heat, the flavours remaining bright and fun throughout.

Brew By Numbers's quince sour saison, 18|11, was also on the board, and I couldn't resist. The aroma was a little off-putting: harsh and acrid vinegar. Combined with the custardy appearance this was beginning to make me regret my decision. The texture was the first bright point: that gummy quality one often gets with fruity Brettanomyces strains. The sourness is as intense as expected, but in a good way, really stimulating the palate. The throat burn which follows is less enjoyable, however. The finish mixes farmyard funk with a fruit taste which must be quince but tastes more like apple to me. It's an extreme beer, but a balanced one: the fruity murk helping offset the severity of its sourness. Still a bit of a workout to drink, though.

I left it there. In the meantime the premises has found a permanent tenant and is now trading as The Big Romance, with a couple of White Hag beers in the line-up, of course. 2019's autumn pop-up festival will have to be somewhere else.

The black cans

Pale sessiony UK beers that come in small black tins is the theme which suggested itself to me when I inspected the contents of the fridge. It's as good as any other.

Curious Session IPA arrived as a freebie from the Chapel Down wine folk who own the brand. I guess they liked my review of the last one. I was thirsty and this hit the spot bang on. Though it says "triple hopped" on the can as if that means something, the hops are not very prominent at all. Instead there's a soft tannic dryness, like in a decent bitter, and like a decent bitter it's very thirst-quenching. A very slight soapy note on the end is the only real problem with it, though others may feel aggrieved that it's not terribly hop forward. A mild herbal buzz chases the toffee malt down the throat and that's it done. I'd happily open another straight away, something that can't be said of every "session" IPA.

The next beer is Virtuous, from Yorkshire's Kirkstall brewery. It looks more "craft", being a pale yellow with a definite haze and poor head retention. The hops aren't specified, only that there's a plethora of them. I suspect Mosaic. It smells of ripe melon and apricot but tastes largely of caraway seed with just a faint hint of peach in the background. It's perfectly drinkable, a feature aided by a low level of carbonation, and I'm sure it's grand by the pint. But there's an absence of hop zing which I suspect the brewers intended it to have. The trad bitter stylings of the previous beer were more enjoyable.

"A burst of citrus fruits" promises the can of Bone Machine Green Machine. I should probably stop reading these. No heading problems here: it took a few pours to get it all into the glass. The first few of those were a clear and bright orange, followed by a good third of a can of soupy dregs afterwards. The result is a murky orange-ochre glassful. Caraway on the nose this time, and unsurprising yeasty dregs in the flavour. There's a load of smoky phenols in the mix offering eye-watering burnt plastic as the main feature. It's just about possible to taste the mandarin and pineapple that are supposed to be the beer's primary features but it's really let down by badly designed can conditioning. I'm sure that a better time is had with this on draught.

Its companion, Cloud Piercer, was demoted (promoted?) from the Stephen Street News 4-for-€10 to €1 a can, despite being many months still inside its best-before. Bone Machine describes this as an "NZ Pale Ale", so I was expecting lots of those bitter and grassy hops. The aroma is strangely juicy, a peachiness which I'm guessing is Nelson Sauvin but also a medicinal note which I hoped was Motueka or the like but you never know. Details are scarce as Bone Machine doesn't seem to have bothered with a website, but Rakau appears to be the hop at work. The peaches are absent from the flavour, while the disinfectant flavour has calmed down into more of a herbal mint and liquorice vibe. It's still sharply bitter and there's a similar dregginess as in the beer above, but there's a mellowness too, which fits it well to the session theme today.

Magic Rock brings us home with Saucery, palest and lightest of the lot at 3.9% ABV. There's rye in the recipe and I guess that contributes to the strong bitterness. I reckon the yeast bite plays a part in that as well. There is a lighter fruit element -- apricot and lemon zest -- but it struggles to make itself felt under the pointy, gritty foretaste. I picked up a touch of the dreaded caraway seed as well. Nevertheless this is probably the best of the bunch. Its flavours aren't exactly to my taste but at least they're well defined.

Still and all, a disappointing bunch. Give me a clear and well-kept pint of cask golden bitter over any of these.

Thick and fast

Another Irish beer round-up already? Blimey. I guess it's because we're coming into premier drinking season that everyone is turning the beers out now.

They often come in giftable boxes, and Boyne Brewhouse sent me a three-pack of small bottles including the new-to-me Boyne Brewhouse Belgian Dubbel. It's a properly full 8% ABV and appears black in the glass rather than brown, though turns a limpid ruby when held up to the light. The aroma is all thick treacle and booze but there's a bit more nuance about the flavour: banana esters and a sharp old-world hop bite, for example. There's a dry and crumbly chocolate biscuit note, and touch of typically dubbelish fig and plum. It's on the severe side of the style scale, with a dry roast almost akin to a strong stout. The fruit esters save it, though, making it unmistakably Belgian in style. It might need a little time to mellow but it's a perfectly acceptable winter beer right now.

Sticking with the encroaching season, Clonakilty Brewery have a rare new release in the shops now: Winter Warmer imperial stout. It's even wearing a Christmas jumper! The pour looks good: thick and gloopy (despite a modest 8.2% ABV) topped by a lasting finger of foam. It smells welcoming, all roasty and warm. Dark chocolate is the main brace of the flavour, edged with a sharper diesel note and a long black coffee finish. It's not the most polished imperial stout I've ever tasted but it does a very good impression of ones at much higher ABVs. There are no pastry additions and no barrel-aged trickery so it all stands on its own: bitter and every bit as warming as promised. Full marks for the half litre bottle too.

That was acquired in Martin's of Fairview where they've also just taken a shipment of the latest in their series of house beers created by DOT and Hope. The Portrait Project Barrel Aged Pale Ale began as the Juicy IPA I reviewed here but has been given time in French Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc barrels, picking up an extra .6% ABV along the way. It ends up a hazy orange colour and tastes very wine-like. As usual with white wine barrels, I get more of the tannins and dark fruit of a red wine from it: a rich and tasty kick of Valpolicella or Chianti. The beer beneath gets a little drowned out by the oak and the wine. You can forget about the hop resins found in the original, this is all wood and wine. It's very decent but I just wanted the still-a-beer quotient to be a smidge higher. If wine barrels are your thing, though, hightail it to Fairview.

Hope has eschewed the winter IPA it brewed last year in favour of an American Amber for the season. It's an easy-going fellow, light bodied and a mere 4.9% ABV. There's loads of fresh and resinous dankness with a slightly fudgey malt finish. It improves as it warms, rounding out though never losing the essential hop character. This is simple and tasty, well designed for carefree session drinking.

The brewery tried something more daring with Um Bango, billed as a tart IPA with mango and blood orange. It arrived looking like a glass of orange juice and the flavour was absolutely dominated by harsh, acrid, burning yeast dregs. There's some non-specific sweet fruit behind this, and a mild yoghurt-grade tartness, but it was a struggle to taste even that through the muck. I'm generally very well-disposed to sour IPAs, but whether it was intentional murk or I got the tail-end of the keg, this one didn't work for me at all.

Two new winter releases from Eight Degrees appeared side-by-side at The Hill recently. I missed the tap takeover event but they were still on last weekend for me to try.

Trespass is a saison with added blackberries, brewed last year with Jamil Zainasheff collaborating, fermented with Brettanomyces and aged a full thirteen months in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir barrels, coming out at 7.5% ABV. Was it worth it? I would say very definitely. It's a handsome cherry colour with a distinctly Flemish red sharpness, especially the vinegary aroma. It's softer than most of them, though, the flavour nuanced by ripe cherry and chocolate notes. There's a peppery spice of the sort I associate with Shiraz wine and a rounded cork-oak element as well. It never gets heavy, finishing on a lovely fruity tang which lasts long into the aftertaste. Really classy stuff and well suited to the 75cl bottles in which they've put it out.

The other new one is the second barrel-aged stout they've done since Jameson's owners bought the brewery. Blowhard is a whopping 12% ABV but tastes nothing like that, being sweet and smooth, full of milk chocolate and with a lacing of honey which I guess is the whiskey's doing. A few sips in and I noticed a growing belly-warmth which must be the spirit again so this is definitely a beer that sneaks up on you. I don't think I'm out of order by wanting a little more complexity from something like this, however.

From The Hill I nipped into town to UnderDog where Rye River was launching the final beer in its five-beer limited edition series. This is Five Finger DIPA, an 8%-er with Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy hops. I don't know why I thought it would be hazy -- because everything else is these days, I suppose -- but it turned out to be a bright San Diego gold. The flavour is just as clear as the appearance: sharp lime skin and grapefruit rind, dank hop oils, and fading to a cheerier citrus zest. The strength provides a platform for the hops but never becomes part of the show itself; there's no boozy heat here. It's not balanced, and nor is it meant to be. This is all about the in-your-face hop blast, something it delivers very nicely indeed.

Crafty Bear has skipped a couple of steps in the branding progress scale, jumping straight from half-litre bottles with Word 96 art to 440ml cans with arty embossed labels. The latest is called New World Pale Ale, and is 4.5% ABV. It's new New World, as it pours a murky grey-orange colour. The aroma is beautiful despite this: a bright and fresh pineapple scent. Pineapple is front and centre in the flavour too, juicy from the get-go, fading to a concentrated tinned-fruit finish. There's a misstep in the middle, a scorching dry yeast bite that upsets the beer's equilibrium, but only momentarily -- the tasty tropicality covers it up quickly and there's nothing to upset things until half way through the next mouthful. Yes I would like it cleaner, but this still gets a pass from me.

Red IPAs are thin on the ground, and it's a tough style to impress with. Black's of Kinsale dropped a new one recently, called Redhead. This is a strong 6.5% ABV and a murky red-brown with just a little too much of a yeast burr up front in the flavour. Beyond that, there's a very good beer present: warming malt complemented by heavy hop oils, like a heftier version of the Hope Amber above. I found myself enjoying it more as the glass went along. Cleaned up this would be a lovely winter sipper.

For Black Friday, Barrelhead put a new Schwarzbier on the taps at JW Sweetman. It might be a bit of a slow mover as when I was in on Friday afternoon there was no sign or notice that it was available on an unmarked JWS tap. It proved on the strong side for the style at 5.8% ABV and sacrifices some of the style's fizzy crispness for a deeper malt warmth. This includes raisins and a generous dose of dark treacle though it still finishes properly dry and lager-clean. Confusingly, I also got a slight acetic tang, lending it the aroma and foretaste of a mild Flanders red. This may just have been my pint and be related to the lack of promotion. Either way, it doesn't spoil the experience. If there was a possibility of this becoming a much-needed regular schwarzbier, I'd be in favour.

Rascals have been busy winding down their original brewery in Rathcoole ahead of the commissioning of the shiny new one in Inchicore. Before moving, they manged to complete the 759 series, begun back in February. Nine brings up the rear, a 9% ABV New England double IPA. Loads of oily dank in the aroma, with the full compliment of garlic and a hint of caraway. It's as thick as you might expect: solid custard with proper New England fluff. A lot of alcohol is crammed in there: clean, sharp and spirituous. There's a lime bite, its edge dampened by the mouthfeel, but still clean and properly tasty. There's not much juice here but I liked its serious boozy styles. This is a great example of the double IPA style given a New England fruit infusion. Might just stop at one though.

Out at the same time is Grey Area, a lemon thyme saison, created as a collaboration with the artists' collective who painted the outside of the new brewery, though hopefully they paid them as well. Pale and hazy, it's a light and easy-going one, lemon like lemonade and thyme like a heaping helping of Sunday stuffing. The carbonation is remarkably low, but it really works: there's no loss of crispness. Smooth and sweet saison is something I can get behind. This is perhaps better suited to high summer than the onset of winter, but no matter.

Finally for today, a new bottle from White Gypsy. Brewer's Choice doesn't cite a style, just that it uses a Belgian ale yeast and Mosaic hops, and is 6.5% ABV. It pours an unattractive muddy brown colour with a loose head, fading quickly to a thin skim of foam. The Belgian character is very clear from tasting: it has the fruit and spice of a dubbel, all baked apples and raisins. The pale malt means it's not sweet and cakey, however, and is instead tartly bitter. A tripel-like nutmeg spice finishes it off, complementing the substantial alcohol warmth. Despite the appearance this is a remarkably clean beer. It has a very unusual flavour profile, but definitely an enjoyable one. Well worth trying if you see it during its limited run.

That's all I can fit into this post. There'll be more Irish beers later in the week.

Not the Borefts afterparty

L-R: Kinsbergen, Sunshine Shack

For Borefts weekend I was staying with a friend in The Hague (hi Robert!) where a new brewpub has opened earlier this year. Van Kinsbergen is smart and modern in that angular, loft-living-by-Ikea sort of way. It feels more like an upmarket neighbourhood bistro than a pub, the brewkit tucked neatly into one corner behind glass and producing just a single beer. Kinsbergen Pale Ale is 4.5% ABV and a hazy orange colour. Pithy apricot and lemon zest are the centre of the flavour, all bright and fresh and zingy. But not clean: there's a dreggy yeast buzz here too that upsets the simplicity. This is your typical unpolished brewpub pale ale, then.

There's a guest beer list as well, with a few locals and lots of "big craft": Lagunitas, BrewDog, Beavertown, Stone. We gave Sunshine Shack a go, from Pontus Brewing in the Amsterdam suburbs. It's fairly down-the-line as New England-style pale ales go: very murky in appearance with a fruity aroma, of orange juice in particular. I'm sure the brewer meant this to come through in the flavour but it doesn't and instead there's a strange mix of sharp garlic, aniseed and mint humbugs. For all that, it's quite fun: the savoury herbs and veg elements don't clash with each other and I'm not bothered by the missing juice. Cleaning up the murk would still improve it, however.

The following day we headed for Amsterdam with no particular plans and sat watching the rain from inside BeerTemple. Our deliberations were aided by:

L-R: Blind Lion, Morning Nightcap, Aphrodisiac

Aphrodisiac by Cranker's Brewery of Grand Rapids, a chocolate imperial stout of 9% ABV. It has a massive chocolate aroma, concentrated and intense like hot fudge sauce. Fudge is the main flavour, along with lots of boozy vapours. There's a modicum of dryness included in the package; some mocha coffee and a tiny green bitterness. Mostly, though, it's what one would expect: a powerhouse of a dessert beer, warming and filling.

Morning Nightcap by another Michigan brewer, Arcadia. This is described as a salted caramel porter and is 5% ABV. It has a strangely sour aroma, and the flavour too shows balsamic vinegar and pickles which is absolutely not what I was expecting. A hint of burnt toast is the only nod towards an actual porter flavour profile. While not actively unpleasant, this was just too far removed from what I thought it would be to be enjoyable.

Blind Lion by 4 Islands, a client brewer based in Rotterdam. Hitting the New England IPA style right in the sweet spot here, this fuzzy yellow 6%-er offers a fresh peachy aroma and flavours of peach, mango and mandarin. Despite the fluff it's lightly textured and there's just enough citrus spritz to balance it, resulting in a supremely refreshing and invigorating experience. Spot on.

A decision was reached. We would, for the first time ever, cross the IJ to northern Amsterdam and visit a couple of brewery taprooms over there. The free ferry from behind Centraal station left us a ten minute walk from our first destination: Oedipus.

It's obvious that this is a working brewery first and foremost. It's in an industrial building and the "hospitality area" is little more than a bar and a few chairs and tables dropped in a corner which wasn't being used for anything else. Cosy it ain't.

I've had a few Oedipus beers over the years but Gaia, one of the core range, had not been among them. This is a 7% ABV west-coast-style IPA, orange in colour, thickly textured, and going all out for the pine resins. This type of herbal bitterness is matched by a sharper grapefruit pith and there's a gentler apricot sweetness for balance. While a perfect representation of the style it's still not very interesting: everything is apparent from the first sip with no additional complexity on offer.

The tall glass contains Swingers, a lime gose. A mere 4% ABV, it's a clear-ish yellow colour with an enticing lemonade aroma. The texture is one of its best features: a chalky effervescence instead of full-on fizz. The flavour offers a mouth-watering lemon juice sourness and a pleasant salty tang. It's clean and refreshing; much more subtle than I expected it to be.

And the other beer is a sour session IPA called País Tropical. It had a strange aroma of coconut and orange juice. The flavour is mandarin pith and apricot. I waited for the sourness to kick in. And waited. Turns out it's not remotely sour, which was disappointing. It is an easy going refresher, as tropical tasting as the name implies.

Having downed these three sunny summer beers, it was back out into the rain again. The Walhalla brewery is not far away. While still in an industrial space in an industrial area, this taproom is rather more bar-like. The long narrow space has a single huge table in the centre, designed I'm guessing to resemble a Norse banqueting hall. The brewery itself is in a separate unit next door.

L-R: Balor, Loki, Juno

Loki seems to be the flagship IPA. It's a bright golden colour and has an intense floral bitterness, all perfume and pith. This makes it a little tough to drink, which it shouldn't be at only 5.5% ABV. I only had a couple of sips so it could simply be one of these beers your palate adjusts to as it goes.

I went for the brut IPA, Juno. This is yet another example of the style that doesn't really do much different to normal IPA. It's very fruity, showing a candy sweetness that should be an absolute no-no for something trying to be dry. The texture is watery, so it is at least attenuated, and the finish is bitter and waxy. None of it really hangs together properly, I thought. It's another OK but not brilliant IPA.

Walhalla has a numbered series of strong dark beers called the Daemons. Daemon #6: Balor was on when we were there. It's an imperial coffee porter at 9.2% ABV, pouring a reddish brown colour. The aroma is a mix of fresh coffee and smoke. A roasted bite is the first flavour to emerge, followed by a long and smooth oily coffee taste. A very slight metallic edge creeps in on the finish but otherwise it's a class act making great use of the coffee to add a luxurious richness.

And with that our north Amsterdam adventures were over but there was still more beer to be had. Before leaving Borefts we'd staged a quick raid on the De Molen bottle shop, and with our flight home looming, these needed to be disposed of.

In search of something for casual refreshment, I had picked Not For Sale, De Molen's craft lager. Expecting bland and crisp, I was shocked by the immediate blast of sweet lemon candy in the aroma. The flavour is just as sweet, the lemon turning to thick-shred marmalade before tailing out on more gentle orangeade. There's not much lager character here, but there's no arguing with that fresh citrus tang. A solid toffee malt base is the final feature which doesn't fit the style but tastes great. Poured cold, this was just as refreshing as a pale lager, but in a different way.

Põhjala has an intriguing forest-themed black IPA called Mets, using blueberries and spruce tips. Though only 7% ABV it pours much more thickly, topped by a dark tan head. The aroma is dark chocolate and strong coffee, though I think I detect a slightly tart berry note too. It's much clearer on tasting, coming across like chocolate raisins, all sweet and juicy. For bittering balance there's a kind of tobacco effect, but no subtle flavours from the hops or spruce. I liked the punchiness, as well as the gentler complexities; a thinness being the only point on which I'd ding it. This is an interesting twist on the style and proof that black IPA is still worth playing with.

To Yorkshire, and De Molé, an imperial stout De Molen collaborated on at Magic Rock. The ingredients list is eye-watering, incorporating four types of chilli pepper, cocoa, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and pumpkin seeds. It smells like a peaty scotch (yes, there's smoked malt in here too) while the flavour pushes the Christmassy cinnamon to the fore. A more typically stout-like rich chocolate follows, and then the chilli: sharp and powdery, rasping the back of the throat and inducing a sneeze or two. Like the previous one, it was a little light-bodied, this time for 10% ABV, but still offers a fun mix of unusual flavours, especially after the chilli calms down to a more comfortable warmth. While very much a novelty beer, it does integrate its various aspects into a coherent piece.

Going big before going home, we finish with Bommen & Granaten IJsbock, De Molen's powerhouse barley wine concentrated to 21.1% ABV. It's still the same dark maroon colour and has a sharp alcohol spirit: herbal, like gin or pastis. Otherwise it's not terribly different to plain old B&G: the same chewy toffee, floral rosewater and dark chocolate. It just tastes like it'll rot your teeth slightly faster than the regular version.

That's it for this trip. The takeaway being I should probably spend more time exploring the taprooms around Amsterdam's edges. A project for another day.

The less exotic

My final post from the 2018 Borefts Beer Festival at De Molen concerns the beers from the brewery, its compatriots, and the others from north-west Europe.

We'll begin with a new binomial stout from De Molen: Different & Unusual. It's a substantial 10.4% ABV but seems even stronger from the thick texture. It has an intense bitterness, all sappy resins, switching quickly to sweeter red wine and finishing on dark chocolate with a nutmeg spice. That sounds charming now that I read it back but it was a bit of a chore to get through, largely because of the density. It doesn't really reward the effort required to drink it.

There were four different versions of De Molen's #3000 black barley wine on the go, and I got to try the Sauternes-barrel one. Cake and wine is the long and short of it. The ABV is 14.6% and a lot of hot sweetness comes with that. It's accompanied by a strong red wine flavour that intensifies to cream sherry and leaves an aftertaste of rum-and-raisin ice cream. Another intense one, then, but much more fun than the stout.

Staying strong, Dutch and barrel-aged, Kees! had a bourbon-aged Caramel Fudge Stout on the go. This was 11.5% ABV and really lays on the fudge in its aroma. Chocolate and coffee are the main feature of the flavour: a rich and warming mocha. The smooth and creamy texture lends it a luxurious feel and gives the overall impression of an Irish coffee. I had been expecting a noisy, jangling pastry stout but got something much more integrated and classy instead.

I made a beeline early on for Tommie Sjef's stall to see what was on before it ran out. The Dutch sour beer wizard had a grape ale on the go, called Cuvée. This is 7.8% ABV and a hazy pale orange colour. There's a very strong lambic component to the flavour profile, a delightful brick-and-nitre spicy cellar dampness. A sweet and sappy raw oak flavour arrives as the initial sourness fades, followed by heavy white wine. I'm not sure the grape component adds anything positive to the picture. I found myself continually looking past it at the lovely geuze character beneath. Still a magnificent beer, though, and much too exciting to photograph in focus.

He had another fruited one called Opal-Jubileum, named after the two types of Dutch plum used in it. This was more like a Flanders red, dark pink and headless, with that uncompromising vinegar tang they often show. After the hard sourness there's a gentler fruit quality -- raspberries and redcurrants more than plums, I thought. A peppery spiciness added a pleasant unexpected twist to the finish. Though a modest 6% ABV it's a little on the heavy side, but the unusual combination of flavours makes it very interesting and enjoyable drinking. Well played, Tommie.

Perhaps surprisingly I had just one beer from Uiltje: the Cucumber Sour. This is only 3% ABV and a pale hazy yellow with a fine foam on top. It's sharply tart and lightly salty without very much contribution from the added fruit. Quenching, I guess, but rather plain and boring, which is not something I normally associate with this brewer.

New to me among the Dutch cohort was Brouwerij de Natte Gijt from Limburg. They had an apricot-flavoured gose called #5. It's a lurid orange colour and has a horrid sickly yoghurt and fruit juice flavour. This is barely recognisable as a beer, never mind as Leipzig's iconic style. Not a good introduction to a brewery's wares.

They also had a session rye ale of just 2.5% ABV called 7e Gijtje. It looked attractive: a deep and warming shade of ochre. The flavour was rather soapy at first, the sharp herbal tang of floor cleaner and urinal cakes. This mellows later to damp grass and lemon zest. The recipe certainly has potential but it was really let down by the watery texture. I suspect they were overambitious with that ABV.

It seems a bit strange that an international beer festival in the low countries would have just one Belgian representative in attendance, and that was Alvinne. Their 12% ABV Cuvée d'Erpigny barley wine was present in a Sauternes-barrel form, making it the second such in today's post. How did it match up to the De Molen one above? There's a deliciously sour and spicy nose, with lots of cedar and sandalwood. The sweet, red-tasting, wine is very apparent in the flavour and is matched by a clean and waxy bitterness, growing in intensity until it becomes a lambic-like sourness. Imperial geuze is born! The richness of a barley wine is missing, making it a very different proposition to De Molen #3000, but no less enjoyable for that.

To the right of it in the picture is something called Sour'ire de Mortagne Smoked Peaches, an 11% ABV Flemish sour ale with, yes, smoke and peaches. It starts off promisingly with a bricky lambic aroma. Peated malt seems to be where the smoke comes in as there's a powerful punch of smoky phenols up front in the first sip, then a long crisp bacon taste. There's no peach that I could detect, the smoke followed by an intense but clean sourness. The two sides of this beer are perfectly palatable by themselves but don't work very well in combination.

Another sour Alvinee beer? Go on then. Naakte Elf is a relative lightweight at 6% ABV and is an unboiled ale with unspecified fruit. I'm guessing something red as it's pink in colour and has a cherry liqueur aroma. The flavour offers a pleasant mix of cherry and raspberry with a touch of marzipan. It's tart but chewy, with the slightly artificial fruit sweetness of throat sweets. A bit of an oddball, this, but I liked it. They got value out of whatever berries they used in it.

Two English beers for last orders. North Brewery were at Borefts for I think the first time, bringing their core regulars and one I hadn't seen before: Island in Space sour IPA. This is a pale yellow colour with substantial haze and is centred on a delicious fresh lemon sourness. It's light without being watery, the ABV a respectable 5.5%. I'm a fan of this sort of thing in general but this is an especially good example, the hops and sourness in absolutely perfect balance and harmony. While it may not be very complex, it really knows how to slake a thirst.

One final imperial stout, then, and it's Wylam's Feasting With Panthers. This has been flavoured with liquorice and they must have really stuffed the bootlaces in there: it's very liquoricey. The thick tarry consistency and 10.5% ABV only serve to accentuate this. The end result is quite one-dimensional, but tasty with it. You get what you're promised.

So ends another Borefts. As I said on Monday, I'm in two minds whether this is still the festival for me, but a decision on next year is still a few months away. I did get to try some more beers on this trip to the Netherlands and I'll cover them off in tomorrow's post.