Grabbin the 'Hut

Beer Hut is one of the exciting new wave of Northern Irish breweries. My previous experience of them was only a share of a can suitcased down by Simon. At last, however, a selection has arrived in Dublin via a more capacious distributor.

The début began inauspiciously with a botched tap takeover at BrewDog, but that at least got me off the starting blocks with Peach Slush, a fruited sour ale. This is a pale orange colour, hazy like a diluted cordial and with an element of that kind of sweetness in the flavour. It's only 4.5% ABV and there's a thinness attendant with that. Not impressive so far but the sour side is pretty good: tangy and stimulating; complementing the fruit sugar, not drowning in it, yet far from overpowering vinegar either. I'm not sure I would have picked out peach as the fruit, tasting blind: there's more of a tangerine or satsuma vibe to me. This is very decent. No moulds are broken nor paradigms shifted, but it's clean, fruity and refreshing fun, and that's plenty to start with.

The canned selection I picked up at Stephen Street News commenced with El Dorado / Columbus Pale Ale. No indications here of it being "DDH" or New England-style, but I guessed from the pastel-coloured label that the contents would be hazy, and so they were. Not full-on opaque, mind, and the choice to use a standard neutral ale yeast rather than a New England one might have something to do with that. There's a lot of fruit flavour in here, a concentration of ripe tropical essence, to almost perfume or lurid chew-sweet level. Though the texture has been bulked out with oats and dextrine, it's light enough at 4% ABV to be quaffable. Still too sweet for my liking, though, turning a little sickly by the end.

IPA The Bruce takes its name from a hop blend used for dry hopping. It poured a quite washed-out orange colour with the head fading quickly to nothing. Both aroma and flavour are savoury, with a lot of fried onion character in particular. This sits next to a citrus sweetness, like lemon barley water, finishing on a sticky note caused by the frankly unnecessary use of lactose. This is another quite sickly one; brimming with fresh hops but they're not used to give clean flavours or bitterness. On trend, perhaps, but not for me, and not at over €5 a can.

Lastly, Sparks Will Fly is one of those beer names that writes a biiiig cheque before the can is even opened. It's a 7% ABV chocolate and vanilla stout, so I would guess sparks will only fly if the drinker is pre-disposed to that sort of thing. Me, I'm not, but: this doesn't really taste of them, or at least not simplistically. Yes it's sweet, and more unctuous than the strength might suggest, but there's a proper depth and complexity here; a rose-petal note, a rasp of toasted grain, a jolt of espresso and even some vegetal hopping. It's a proper stout, in short. As with the Peach Slush, the novelty elements pay respectful tribute to the base beer and complement instead of overpowering.

More than anything, this lot left me feeling like a grumpy old curmudgeon. I'm reasonably sure they're all as the brewers intended and are without inadvertent flaws. However, they're all very much aimed at current beer fashion, and I have a feeling that there's talent going to waste here. I'd be interested to try Beer Hut's takes on the styles of beer that have been around longer than a wet week.