The London connection

It was odd seeing some internet opprobrium being meted out to London brewer Partizan when they announced they had created a collaboration series of beers with the Guinness Open Gate Brewery. Craft die-hards taking a pop at the macros and anyone too close to them is not unusual, but I didn't see anyone having a go at another Londoner, 40FT, when it did something similar. Partizan seems to be held to a different standard.

Anyway, that's purely an aside, and the most important thing is to get to the beers. Three collaboration brews were created, two at Open Gate and one at Partizan. The theme of the series was Italian-style aperitifs. The launch evening involved a tap takeover at Open Gate, after which they kindly sent me home with a bottle of all three.

We begin with L'Amara, a saison infused with unspecified Italian botanicals and 5.9% ABV; the only one of this set brewed at Partizan. It's a bright and hazy shade of orange, smelling enticingly of sweet herbs and citrus fruit: all very Mediterranean. The texture is slick, with a touch of bitter balsamic resins, but without the sourness that often comes with. An intensely dry kick finishes it off. I'm sure it's deliberate but this has a lot in common flavourwise with a Campari and soda, though softened by the beer's malt. Although it's a total novelty beer, the complex flavours gel together very well. The orangey notes make it feel more like a pale ale than a saison, but never mind -- style guidelines were never going to apply here. It's a daring recipe but it absolutely works: a superbly refreshing appetite-whetting aperitif.

That's the pale one. Its dark sibling is L'Intensa, brewed in Dublin, which I'm guessing is going for a sweet vermouth vibe. That's good because I'm a fan. It's the appropriate dark red and a whopping 8.2% ABV. The herbal vermouth mix is definitely present -- rosemary and sage to the fore -- but it's definitely still beer. There's a thick dark roasted malt quality, bringing a nuttiness with a touch of cola and finishing on a liquorice bitterness. Again the multitude of tastes mix together well, making it a cocktail in a single pour. Not quite as aperitiffy as the previous one, but still damn good.

In the big bottle is La Brillante, a daring formulation being pilsner aged in Oloroso casks, finishing at 5.6% ABV. The label says to serve in a champagne glass and I could not possibly refuse. It looks slightly darker than a typical pils, and hazier too. The aroma is a weirdly sweet salted caramel thing, which must be the sherry, but dilute. The sherry is realer on tasting: proper oak and juicy white grape. The pils is all but lost, however. When I had this on draught at the brewery it had lots of butterscotch, like a poorly made lager, but that seems to be absent in the bottled version, which is good. The only pils aspect left behind is a pleasant crispness in the finish but that's it, and there's certainly no hops, Saaz or otherwise. It's good, though. If you like sherry and things that taste of sherry.

In parallel at the event, there was a set of Partizan's own beers on the taps. The fantastic Partizan Stout is one I've had before and it still tastes great. Saison is how Partizan made its name, and representing that here was Lemon & Thyme Saison. This is a mere 3.8% ABV, and a very pale yellow -- almost clear with it. Given the fruit-and-herb combination, I shouldn't have been surprised to find it tasting more like a witbier than saison. There's a light and clean lemonade quality, and just a mild oily greenness from the thyme, and that's as complex as it gets. This is nicely thirst quenching but anyone looking for an involved saison experience may look elsewhere.

L-R: Saison, Stock, IPA, Stout

"Session Stock Ale" intrigued, and I'm not sure if it's intended as an historical recreation, or an ironic twist on one. "Pale mild with Brettanomyces" is another way it's described, though isn't mild ale the antithesis of stock? Anyway, it's 5.6% ABV and a hazy orange colour with a matching jaffa aroma. The flavour did not suit me. Harsh aftershave resin comes first, then a rough acrid bitterness, leading to a long finish of sackcloth dryness. I tried to find something pleasant in amongst all this but kept coming out with dry-rotted wood and dusty attics. There's no way I could session this; a third of a pint was very hard work. Maybe it's an acquired taste but I shan't be making the effort.

The last chance for something really good was Ekuanot & Amarillo IPA. There's a massive floral aroma from this: fields of lavender as far as the eye can see. That's enjoyable to begin with but turns very intense on tasting, concentrated by the beer's thick texture, despite a relatively modest 6.5% ABV. Beside the thick perfume there's a gummy meringue sweetness which does nothing to balance it. This is another brave recipe, going all-in with the flavours, but it just didn't suit me.

I spotted one new beer from Open Gate's regular rotation: Dublin Common. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this pale yellow job. I expected a straightforward lager but got a strange mix of savoury herbs, white port and cork oak. It could be my palate was beyond use after all of the high-flavour beers that had gone before. Still, it was refreshing if not really cleansing. One glass and I was gone.

...and returned a couple of weeks later when I was invited to the annual Meatopia barbecue festival. Three special beers had been created with the help of the exhibiting chefs to match with the food. Of course I'll be assessing them on their own terms.

First up, the Jerk Spiced Brown Ale. It certainly sounded intriguing, combining a rare style with odd ingredients. The reality was rather more prosaic. This deep chestnut-red beer has a light touch on the spices, not mustering more than a burst of meadow flowers and a dusting of cedar. And this wasn't because the base beer overwhelmed them -- I would have expected 5.5% ABV to supply plenty of caramel and fudge and other brown ale goodness, but that's on the downlow too. This is one of those beers where you can argue about whether it's "subtle" or "bland". It certainly didn't interfere with the flavours in the tasty jerk lamb it was paired with.

Keeping things weird, next up was a Singaporean... Pilsner? Oo-er. This innocent lager has had oolong, jasmine tea and vanilla added to it. It retained its attractive gold colour and its clean refreshing crispness. Added to this was a pleasant berry sharpness: summery hints of redcurrant and raspberry. That's unexpected, but quite nice too. The hopping is not where I'd expect a pilsner to be, although it's probably wise not to go for hops in a big way in this sort of recipe. It gets fruitier and sweeter as it warms, the vanilla becoming an unwelcome addition. This is another one which takes it easy on the special ingredients and their non-standard flavours, and to be honest I think it would likely be a better beer without them.

To pair with the mussels, Open Gate had created a Maritime Stout with seaweed and whole oysters. This was much more distinctive than the other pair, mixing together the tangy Guinness dryness with a sweetly meaty oyster taste. A briney finish brings it in. The aquatic novelty flavours are loud at first but when you settle in to the beer there's a solid 5.5% ABV stout behind it, showing dark roast coffee and very dark chocolate. I'm not sure I would have guessed the oysters were present, but this does share some flavour characteristics with the excellent Porterhouse Oyster Stout so their influence must add something.

To the main bar, then, to see what has joined the Dublin Common in the regular ever-changing OGB line-up. Sorachi Red is on the left, there: the muddy brown one. It's rather rough and unfinished-tasting, opening on a nasty twang of burnt plastic and showing the pithy side of Sorachi with very little of the softer coconut. Definitely not a patch on the more polished Wicklow Wolf beer of the same name.

The orange one at the far end is an intriguing Honey & Fig Ale. There's no question about at least one of the ingredients: the honey flavour is huge and real, balancing its own sweetness with an edge of bitter wax. Definite mead overtones here, which I'm sure was the point. It's questionable whether the fig is discernible in this: I won't say it's not, but I definitely wouldn't have named it without knowing in advance. Not exactly easy drinking, but absolutely packed with unique character and enjoyable for that alone.

And last of the set, in the centre, is called Here We Gose Again but it's not gose as she is generally brewed in Craftonia. This is a clean and snappy, unadorned, authentically Leipziggish version. A salty tang, a sour pinch and a clean finish. Extremely drinkable and the sort of light sour beer it would be very easy to settle into. I really wish there was more beer like this around.

An outsider to finish the post. Up on stage, Melissa Cole gave an educational talk on non-alcoholic beers and the different methods used to achieve them. New to me in the line-up was No Worries from Lervig. This is a very pale yellow colour and is one of the ones where they've avoided wateriness by making it super thick and creamy. There's a sharp lemon aroma and a metallic bitterness, but then a strange buttery quality, presumably related to the body. As these things go, it's so-so: plenty of character but not really to my taste. More gose please.

A big thanks to Padraig and the Open Gate team for the invitation.