Gate renovated

Open Gate Brewery has had a makeover, but not a severe one. There's a new kitchen and the museum artefacts on the walls have been replaced with more generic taproom signage. The format remains the same: €6 admission gets you a taster tray from the ever-changing line-up of one-offs. Here's what was on mine last time out:

"Hibiscus Helles" gave me the heebee-jeebies. You don't mess with helles on my watch. OGB did, but I think they got away with it. While this is a disturbing pinkish-orange, and there's a very faint hint of raspberry, it's otherwise a perfect Bavarian-style lager with no bells, whistles or nonsense. Spun-sugar malt sweetness on a candyfloss base; faint noble-hop greenness, and a glass that's empty before you even notice you're drinking it. Job done.

Earl Grey pale ales have never quite been in fashion, they just crop up unexpectedly from time to time. Open Gate's Brew-Tea-Ful Ale is 5% ABV and a hazy golden colour. There's a vague citrus in the aroma, but nothing disturbing. Unusually for this style it actually tastes like tea: tannic and almost raspingly dry. The bergamot and whatnot is relegated to the background, as are the hops. There's enough of a texture and malt character for it to pass as beer, but it's a little lacking in distinctive character overall.

L-R: Hibiscus Helles, Brew-tea-ful, Kiwi Sour, Gooseberry & Ginger Sour

Something called Kiwi Sour is third in the line-up, Kiwi hops rather than fruit. Or birds. It's only 3.7% ABV and a clear pale yellow. The aroma is pilsner-grassy, in keeping with many of the New Zealand hops' origins. That's there in the flavour too, but languishes in the background behind a sharply tart lemon-juice foretaste. That settles to a gentler sherbet twang, then fades completely. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that it's not watery, the way low-strength soured beers like this often are. Not the most complex of profiles, but properly flavourful and thirst-quenching.

The second sour beer in the lineup is Gooseberry & Ginger, a 4.5%-er, and a hazy amber colour. Ginger: check. Gooseberry: yes, though the berry tartness and underlying beer sourness meld together seamlessly. And once again we get a big and fluffy ale texture smoothing out any sharp edges. Sour Open Gate beers are almost a style to themselves at this stage, soft and accessible but without that proper smack of jaw-pinching tartness.

Next is Ghost Roast, one of those white stouts created by adding coffee and smoked malt to a pale beer. They never work. This one has its aroma game down: though a wan greenish yellow it smells wholesomely dark and roasty. The texture is creamy, so that's two points up. But it falls apart on tasting. There's a cream-ale adjunct thinness and an acrid smoke, like cold cigarette butts. Stout is supposed to be rich but this tastes every bit the lacklustre pale thing it is. All the ghost and not enough roast.

We conclude with Open Gate's take on the style of the moment, black IPA. Like many of these, Dark Side is more brown than black. The roast level is enjoyably low, though the fried level is high: specifically onions, and some green peppers too. It's an odd flavour but I'm sure it's all hop. Each sip brings a powerful oniony twang, part fried, part raw, and then a chlorophyll bitterness. It's 6.2% ABV but a bit thin for that. Subtle it ain't, nor complex, nor offering what black IPA does best. It's inarguably fun though. Black IPA is supposed to be silly. This one is just silly in a different way.

An interesting set, this, but the classically clean Helles is the pick of the bunch for me.