Strolling the Boundary

Continuing my overdue exploration of the beers from Belfast's Boundary. Let's see what's in these particular arty cans of murk.

Forever Ago I bought with a fried chicken sandwich when having a nosy at Dublin's new Korean chicken-and-beer place, Chimac. This is a pale ale, and an especially murky one, looking exactly like orange juice. That's very in keeping with the rest of it, as it's a raving juice-bomb. A huge hit of mandarin on the aroma leads to peach, tangerine and mango in the flavour. There's just a touch of savouriness -- caraway and red onion -- but nothing serious. The 6% ABV takes a while to build into real heat; before that's it's pure summery fun. I probably should have told you that when it was still summer.

I came to A Berliner Vice #2 in the mood for something sour. There was a moment of horror when I read the smallprint and saw it's brewed with raspberries and lactose, and that it's an unreasonable 5.1% ABV. Some measure of relief followed when I found it didn't pour out looking like an electric pink cocktail, though the hazy orange body isn't exactly singing to me of Kreuzberg. A decent pinch of real sourness greets the nose, backed by just a hint of raspberry. On tasting, it's all very balanced. The raspberry does a good job of softening the base beer while still leaving its dry and grainy tartness intact, much like a small squirt of syrup might do to the real thing. The added sugar and big alcohol have made it thicker and heavier than these would normally be, and it only narrowly avoids turning sickly by the end of 440ml. Overall, I quite liked it, even if it's not the palate-scrubbing refresher I was after.

I do love a bit of self-realisation in my beer, so was instantly attracted to a Boundary double IPA by the name of Travelodge Painting on the Can, because they all do have those (a redesign is coming soon). That must have distracted me from checking the date, because I didn't hoard this for long but it was two weeks past its official best when I opened it. There was still plenty of aroma from the headless juice-looking glassful, though: peach and pineapple, plus a harder garlic buzz. Peach is the predominant flavour, while behind it there's a slightly dull malt graininess. I suspect I may have missed the best of the hops in this. As-is, it's fine: inoffensive and still quite flavourful. The sizeable 8.1% ABV is well concealed. This is one to look out for again when it's fresh.

Also from the Scandinavian school of long beer names is Don't Ever Think Too Much: a kiwi-hopped session IPA. It's a milky boy, pouring an anaemic shade of greenish yellow and completely opaque with little effort at a head. It presents an interesting mix of flavours; one I don't think I've encountered before. I'm guessing some sort of New England yeast variety was used, and that plus the oats give it a creamy custard sweetness. Where New Zealand's hops tend to be sharply grassy or vegetal, here they're mellowed out to a kind of mint and honeysuckle effect. It's rather pleasant. The finishes brings the harder burn that old school IBU-chasers prefer, as well as a dry mineral chalkiness. As with the best session IPAs, one can sit and analyse everything going on, or chug it back happily and open another.

Boundary is still pretty much on form, then. The Fine Ale Countdown team also had a jolly time with Yeboah stout this week. Further explorations will follow from me.