Here comes the sweeper

My five-week, 25-post focus on Irish beer comes to an end today with this bumper round-up of items I couldn't fit in anywhere else. The usual eclectic mix of beer from all over, including here, starts again on Monday. But first, the headlines:

Dublin has a new brewery. Dublin City Brewing had a long gestation, beginning as "Dublin Beer Factory" with the contract-brewed Dublin Blue Lager. When a banner went up to announce that their future premises on Parnell Street was under construction (opening Summer 2019) it was as Dublin Beer Factory. Now with the taproom doors set to actually open they've gone for a last-minute rebrand, as Dublin City Brewing Co.

A Parnellite influence sees Dublin Blue become Liberator Irish Lager and I was kindly gifted a preview can from friends in the trade. According to the can this was "brewed and bottled (sic) by Dublin City Brewing Co" rather than their former contractors in Dundalk. It looks well -- a spotless polished gold -- while the aroma is dry, crisp and enticing. The flavour is a little bit lacking, however, being quite sweet and a little estery. Hallertau Perle hops get a billing on the description but I couldn't taste any hop character at all. I would forgive it if it had the fluffy breadiness of a Helles, but this is only 4.2% ABV and quite thin. I'm sure it's all deliberate; that this is designed as a plain and unchallenging lager for the unadventurous visitor. To this lager-drinker it's a missed opportunity to do something more interesting. Following it we will get Parnell Porter, Renegade Red and Patriot Pale Ale. As a line-up that's very '90s-looking, but if they're well-made beers you won't be hearing any complaints about fashion from me.

Staying in Dublin, the second 2020 new release from Four Provinces is Fad Lae, a 4% ABV session IPA. It's pale and hazy, the colour of pear juice. The aroma is fresh and juicy but also dank, promising stonefruit and resins. From the first mouthful I was impressed by the body: full and rounded, moreso than many stronger pale ales. There's a balance in the flavour between sweet and peachy soft fruit against a harder, drier, grapefruit which lasts into the finish. On the downside, that bitterness melds with the gritty murk creating a certain off-putting harshness which the beer would be better without. All told, though, it's pretty good, bringing a lot of punchy complexity in a small package; big enough to satisfy yet light enough to be genuinely sessionable.

And they're not the only Dublin brewery with a new hazy sessioner. Stone Barrel's latest is called Small Joys and is just 3.5% ABV. I caught it as it went on tap in 57 The Headline last Wednesday. Its aroma mixes kid-friendly orange sherbet with a more adult herbal dankness. The texture is a little thin -- no surprise there really -- but it still manages to carry plenty of flavour. Lemon meringue pie filling is front and centre, leading to a white-pepper spice and finishing dry and chalky. That dryness, while shading towards the severe, does help the drinkability so once again sessionability is not an idle boast. For all of Stone Barrel's heavy metal branding, they perform well in this category of light-but-hoppy pale ales.

Hopfully travelled to Black Donkey to brew, of course, a saison. The result is Roam Free, quite a dark example, swampy looking with little head. But while it looks mucky, the aroma is clean, giving a gentle waft of ripe apricots and hay. I was thirsty when I came to it and found the prickly scrub of bubbles delightfully refreshing. The flavour is understated, mixing hints of banana, pepper and gunpowder. There's less fruit flavour than in a typical saison, but it makes up for that in crispness and spice. I really enjoyed it, finding just the thirst-crusher I needed. And getting a whole half-litre of beer at once feels like a decadent luxury in the era of the 440ml can.

A new England IPA in a half-litre bottle with a Comic Sans label is already not true to style, but I gave Brehon's Imagine the benefit of the doubt. It rewarded my optimism by foaming up mercilessly while pouring, settling to a dun-coloured glassful. The aroma is a happy mix of lemon sherbet and lime jelly and the texture is properly New-Englandy: soft and smooth, if a little busy with the fizz. It's strong too, at 6.2% ABV. In further contravention of the style parameters it's quite bitter, opening on a harsh marmalade shred. Fruit candy follows and balances this to some extent, though the edge stays all the way through. This is a little rough, and quite different from what NEIPA usually indicates. It's passable though.

Galway Hooker initiates a new series of limited editions with a New England IPA called Mango. It's a new departure for this brewery, which was doing west-coast on the west coast before "west coast" was a thing. Pale and hazy: check. I don't get much from the aroma, though, which isn't a good sign. The flavour also is really lacking. This is odd. It's like they thought "these things shouldn't have bitterness" and knowing hops = bitterness removed all the hop character completely. I turned to the can for an explanation. Not only is it supposed to be "bursting with tropical fruit flavours and juicy hops", but they've also used raw mango pulp in the recipe to put some tropicals on the tropicals. It hasn't worked. The resulting beer has a faint butane-like ester taste, the sort of thing you might find in the background of a weiss, but no hop flavour even when I try really really hard to find it. I'm wondering if they relied too much on those silly mangoes and skimped on hops, only to find mangoes mostly just ferment out. I'm on-board with the texture -- it's properly creamy -- and I can be super-charitable and say there genuinely aren't any off-flavours. There just aren't any on-flavours either, unfortunately.

Oranmore's other brewery, Galway Bay, released the second in its Lux series of fruited sour beers. Lux Peach follows its raspberry predecessor by being 5% ABV and taking on the colour of its titular fruit. There's a little jammy fruit in the aroma but the sourness is very much in charge of the flavour. It's clean and dry with a snappy tartness, though that's about all you get. A tiny note of farmyard is the only other complexity. I liked the simplicity and loved the absence of cloying sticky syrup. Seekers after novelty may be disappointed but seekers after refreshment definitely won't be.

Hope's latest limited edition is a Raspberry and Gooseberry Sour, 4.7% ABV, a deep cloudy red and headless. Raspberry + Gooseberry turns out to = Watermelon, it seems. This has that light yet tropical crisp fruit flavour, and even a sense of its fibrous texture. There's a tartness too, which may be from the souring yeast but adds an unmistakable fresh and real raspberry flavour. As a fruited sour beer of no specific sub-style it's rather good. Too many of this sort pile in the sweetness and thickness; this is light, sharp, brisk and refreshing -- if it were a cocktail it would be a Sea Breeze. It's not a classic beer but it's not a contrived artificial mess either.

More New England IPA? Sorry, you don't have a choice. YellowBelly is next, with Around the World in an 80's Haze, 6.9% ABV and brewed with Amarillo, Belma, Cascade and Meridian, the latter I don't think I've encountered before. It's another orangey-brown one but has a fresh and juicy aroma of mixed fruit. That fruit punch effect is central to the flavour, the strawberry overtones of Belma loud and clear. However, there are some slight unpleasantries circulating in there as well, including a harsh alcoholic heat, some earthy yeast dregs and a savoury note of sesame seed. I'll call it a draw. This is no classic of the style but works OK while avoiding all the major pitfalls.

Strata is one of the hops-of-the-moment but, as part of that, tends to get used in super-saturated double IPA monsters which end up making the hop's essential characteristics difficult to ascertain. Thankfully Larkin's single-hop series has our back, with the 5.5% ABV Larkin's Strata. Like the superb Mosaic and Citra ones before it, it's a hazy orange colour. The aroma is all bright and fresh mandarin, and that goes right through into the flavour: tangy tangerine beefed up with a squeeze of grapefruit zest and just a twist of black pepper. Now I know what Strata is and I approve. There's a beautiful, effortless smoothness here; a juiciness that's not overly sweet or pumped full of vanilla. For the third time in a row the Larkin's single hop series has produced near-perfection. I was very pleased to discover that it's going to keep running. Stand by for Idaho 7.

The latest offering from Carlow Brewing is a 7.2% ABV whopper called Tropical IPA. Tangerine, mango and papaya are all promised by the label, purely from the hops as no fruit additions are listed in the ingredients. It's a foamy beast, that huge candyfloss head well retained throughout proceedings, topping an opaque yellow-orange body. The light citrus of tangerine is present in the aroma, fair enough, but the flavour was a complete surprise. The fruit it tastes of primarily is tomato, a warm savoury quality, like soup or purée. There's maybe a hint of tropical fruit -- mango and pineapple -- in the finish, but also quite a harsh solvent burn. This is a bit all over the place and I found it hard to relax with.

Just when everything is looking irredeemably hazy, Brú steps forward with King Nelson, a single hop IPA created for Dublin off licence Craft Central. It's a deep orange colour and pretty much completely clear. Both sides of Nelson Sauvin's personality come through in the aroma: cool white grape and a harder diesel minerality. The flavour is big and blousey, starting on a bitter jolt with a slight rubbery harshness. It settles down quickly, however, fading out on notes of mango and passionfruit. Low carbonation and a heavy, almost sticky, mouthfeel help boost the hop impact. Like with many single hopped beers there's a certain lack of complexity, but it does show well what Nelson Sauvin is and does. I've missed it since it fell out of fashion.

At Whiplash lately they've mostly been bringing back former one-offs but did release one brand new beer. It's a hazy IPA of 8% ABV, so maybe only sort of a new beer. Apocalypse Dreams is single-hopped with retro hop Amarillo. It's pale yellow and fully opaque with an aroma of sticky pineapple juice and orange cordial. Oats, wheat and the high gravity give it a big density but there's no discernible alcohol heat. It's not easy drinking by any means, but that's not because of the booze. To describe the flavour I need to work backwards. The finish is quite gritty, a harsh rasp of murk at the back of the throat. Before this there's a dusting of savoury garlic and onion while the sweet fruit concentrate rides up front: oranges in particular but with a little guava and passionfruit if you look closely. It's a chewer; one to savour, and I think on balance I enjoyed it. The flavour plods along stickily rather than exploding in a burst of exotic fruit, and that's OK. Take your time to get the best out of it.

Upping the ante from there is O Brother with Neon Twisted Love, this double IPA being 8.1% ABV and hopped with on-trend varieties Azacca and Strata. It smells concentrated and sweet, like pineapple juice, and despite all the bubbles is a little flat and lifeless in the mouth. Azacca's trademark colourful-candy flavour is there, rendered even more Skittle-like by the heavy, chewy texture. Then there's a savoury side too; a dry buzz of poppyseed in the finish. And that's it really. There's a lack of zing, of zest, of juice, and all you're left with is the weighty booze. There aren't any off flavours but nothing about it endeared it to me either. Double IPAs should be thrilling but neither of this final pair did that for me.

The rate at which Ireland's breweries have been turning out new beers lately has been impressive. If they want to keep that up then I'm absolutely game. For now though, I have a queue of other stuff to get through.