Here a DOT, there a DOT

It doesn't feel like there's been a rush of DOT beers recently (Big Grill Festival notwithstanding; I wasn't there) but I seem to have amassed a collection of tasting notes; enough to put a dedicated blog post together.

Around the time of UnderDog's second birthday last month we got DOT's Beer 100 which is described as an "eis-stout", the first beer I've encountered labelled as such. Freeze distilling what was probably already a plenty-big imperial stout brought it to 16% ABV. Collaborators Proper Chocolate added an ingredient which made it very chocolatey indeed. Amazingly there's no sign of all that alcohol so it ends up tasting like a liqueur without the heat. You need to really like chocolate to enjoy this, and not be bothered by the absence of beer flavours. It's good fun, though, and I'd say the chocolate folk got a kick out of it.

Pouring alongside it was Mr Paddy D, a blend of double IPAs aged in bourbon and Irish whiskey barrels, and created in honour of one of UnderDog's proprietors -- I don't know which one. It's 9.2% ABV and a dark orange colour. Coconut was the predominant flavour I found in it; the toasted variety, specifically. There's a very bourbonish vanilla sweetness too. Though the alcohol is apparent, it's quite lightly textured, creating a kind of bourbon-and-Coke effect. My notes say a Vermont yeast was used to create it, but I doubt there's anything of New England left here after the three months in oak. This was one to be savoured as a barrel-aged rarity, not as an IPA.

It wasn't around long, but if you missed it you might still chance on its fraternal twin, Walk In The Woods. This is constructed from the same base beers but blended in different proportions. I didn't get to try them side-by-side, but I still think they have a lot in common -- presumably there are only so many places a whiskey-aged double IPA can go. For the record, lots of limey bourbon and a salted caramel tang, with increasing banana esters as it warms. Again stupidly easy drinking for 9.2% ABV.

DOT's Portrait Project for Martin's off licence reaches number IV, a white-wine-barrel-aged saison. It's a clear pale amber colour and smells stickily of oak vanilla. Though it's only 5.9% ABV I felt from the outset I was in for something heavy and serious. It is serious, but not heavy. The oak becomes no more than a spicing in the flavour. There's some substance from the white grapes, a jammy sweetness with overtones of mead. And at no point does it lose its basic sense of saison: there's an underlying dry earthy quality to balance whatever sugars the fruit throws in. It's maybe too intense a flavour experience for more than 33cl in a single sitting -- I think it might get a bit cloying after that. Can't argue with what it delivers though: wine barrels coming through loud and clear.

On DOT's other strand there's a new canned IPA called Detour. It's a murky orange colour, spiked with oats and rye, and hopped with Idaho 7, Amarillo, Hüll Melon and Galaxy. That's a fruity combination and it gives the beer a lovely mix of peaches, grapes, apples and plums: the dessert section in the baby food aisle. I imagine. Unfortunately, mixed in with this, there's all the dreggy murk one fears from hazy IPA: a throat-scorching savoury burn, fading to a lasting plasticky note. "Clean it up" says the broken record which masquerades as my critical acumen. It's OK overall, but there's a great beer in here, begging for a bit of a polish.

 Once again, DOT's barrel efforts eclipse the fresh IPAs. Expect more from both programmes in due course.