The festival fringe

Today's post is an addendum to the previous two this week, covering a pair of beers from the UK that I met on my visit to Cork for the Cask Ales & Strange Brews Festival at Franciscan Well.

I caught The Linen Weaver on a good day when I called in for breakfast. The staff were in a chipper mood and there was a respectable selection of cask beers on. I opted for Proper IPA by Broughton. It didn't looked the Mae West: quite a murky amber colour with a fast-fading head. The aroma was promising, however, offering a waft of tropical fruit of the kind you rarely find in a cask British IPA. It's 5% ABV so I was fearful of a hot and soupy texture next but it passed that test too, being light, clean and refreshing. The flavour delivered perfectly on the promise of the aroma: gentle mango and passionfruit, a sterner lemony bite, and backed by a quenching tannic dryness. All the hallmarks of a good bitter are here, while the use of American hops has given it an added dimension of flavour. Very nicely done.

On the way home I picked up a selection of beers at No. 21 on MacCurtain Street, including Hunter, a helles from Gipsy Hill. It certainly looks like a helles, being pale and clear. It smells of toast in a champagne sort of way, which is promising. So it goes with the flavour: a dry white-grape effect that definitely says "posh wine" to me. It fades after that, so if you don't like your craft lager clean and simple, this one isn't for you. There's little by way of complexity but I liked the way it goes about its business. It's a craft take on a classic German style, and while it may not be 100% accurate, it is is nice, and I give it a pass for that. This is one of those UK beers that would work well in big cans for an unfussy market that doesn't know how good it has things. The other recently-imported Gipsy Hill beers are on my to-do list.

I think I did very well picking random beers under limiting circumstances. Some days the beer karma is just good for no reason.