Clouded issues

A couple of offerings from Manchester's Cloudwater Brew Co. today.

Cairde Gan Teorainneacha ("Friends Without Borders") is a collaboration with our own White Hag brewery. It's a black IPA, the almost-dead but increasingly-common beer style, and is 6.2% ABV. The aroma is mildly citric, showing a gentle cabbagey greenness. A bitter-first flavour follows, with more of that acidic boiled veg, tailing off into pithy grapefruit and lime rind. Beside this is a fun chocolate note, complemented by a creamy texture. The finish is dry and a little sharp. It's not spectacular by any means, but it's decent: one of those black IPAs that has tuned the balance between big hops and dark malts just right.

Cloudwater has a new numbering system for its beers, and A•W 18 IPA is its IPA for the autumn and winter just past. It arrived in October and I caught up with it at UnderDog in late March. 6.5% ABV and in the New England style, it's an opaque orange-yellow colour, bright rather than beige, which is pleasing. The foretaste offers an equally bright sherbet or sorbet effect: sparkling tangerine and mandarin. A harder grapefruit bitterness balances this afterwards. While unspectacular, this is very well made.

Cloudwater's moment in the limelight seems to have passed. They don't appear to get the same level of attention as they used to. But, like many a high-profile UK brewery before them, they've continued making solid beer after the hype has faded. This is as it should be.