Friday, bro

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.