Our week in Irish beer concludes with a pair from the busiest outfit of 2019 thus far: O Brother. Their current arty series continues with Time Waits For No One, a saison at 6.1% ABV. As usual, UnderDog was the first place I spotted it. The first sip told me this was going to be the fruity sort of saison, all tropical juice on a soft texture. But just as I was settling in to that, along came a dry and dusty bite of yeast. This turned out to be two beers from a single pour: the fun juicy one and an acridly bitter dreggy mess. It's the very definition of a curate's egg in beer form, flashing with moments of brilliance alongside literal bitter disappointment. I found myself too discomfited by the contrasting tastes to enjoy it and deemed it actively unpleasant. The unrealised potential here saddens me a little; it could have been wonderful.
Onwards to Networking, this one a brut IPA. Whereas the previous beer had too much going on it, this was simpler and more integrated. It's lightly dry with a spritzy orange flavour; minerally, like Orangina. A stronger, more tangy, grapefruit juice element arrives late but doesn't make the taste too dramatic. I don't know that balance is supposed to be a feature of brut IPA, but at the same time I don't see why not: they don't have to be enamel-strippers. This is just dry enough to qualify as true to style and makes really good use of the hops' fruit notes. I would certainly take this sort of thing over a murky vanilla-and-garlic hop soup.
And with that, it's into the long weekend. Those of you who'll be at Alltech today or tomorrow, have a fabulous time. Otherwise, celebrate St Patrick's Day in whatever way works for you (or don't) and I'll be back on Monday with more of the usual.
Porterhouse Barrel Aged Celebration Stout
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*Origin: Ireland | Date: 2011 | ABV: 11% | On The Beer Nut: *February 2012
This is the third version of Porterhouse Celebration Stout to feature on
the blo...
3 months ago
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