On the lash

Whiplash puns. They're running short. But the beers keep coming. Five today, the first three with a Belgian angle.

The previous trilogy included a grisette and this one starts there too, with Grisette Traminer, 4.1% ABV and intriguingly including lychee, orange zest and rose flower among the ingredients. It's the sickly pale yellow of wallpaper paste and smells like a full-on saison: peppery, funky and floral, all at once. It's quite fizzy, which interferes with the desired white-wine effect, but that emerges once it settles on the palate. I think it's the combination of Hallerau Blanc hops with the rose which gives it a convincing Gewürztraminer perfume taste. It's fun, and the saisony funk prevents it from turning silly or gimmicky. Though light bodied, there's plenty of complexity to keep it interesting, while it also manages to be thirst-quenching and palate-scrubbing. An all round good time, then.

Belgian Pale Ale is not an en vogue style for fashionistas so fair play to Whiplash for taking a punt. Always Half Strange is their contribution: Hallertau Blanc (again), Azacca and BRU-1, 5.7% ABV and hazy as you like. Or don't like, but it's hazy. It smells Belgian, all farmyard funk and rough yeasty waxiness. The flavour also has that raw and very Belgian unfiltered quality; a little bit saison and a little bit tripel, but nothing of British or American pale ale. I get fuzzy apricot skin, straw-strewn barnyard and a pinch of grapefruit. It's heavy, chewy even, and built for sipping. As it warms, a more floral side unfolds, all rosewater and lavender. I could well believe this came from one of the more modern and progressive Belgian breweries so I guess it passes the style test, and it's actually enjoyable even if I was hoping for something cleaner and sharper. Adjust your stylistic expectations and you'll be fine on it.

A tripel brings this first set to a conclusion. The USP for Backdrifts is that it's brewed with oats. There's no half measures with the ABV, clocking in at a sizeable 9%. They've used orange zest, which had me expecting a degree of citrus bitterness but it's surprisingly tropical, smelling and tasting of pineapple, coconuts and cantaloupe. There's a Belgian complexity behind this sunny fun: white pepper plus apricot esters. I think I prefer my tripels with less fruit and more spice, but this is still a damn good example. I'm especially impressed by how it uses the alcohol heft to push the multifaceted flavour without turning hot or any way difficult to drink. There's an elegance to the architecture here that's better than many a Belgian example.

Whiplash isn't just about New England IPAs, then. This set may be an aberration, but I'll take them. I was left wondering what are the chances of something clear or dark next?

My answer came not long after with two new hazy pale ales.

First up was Honest Promise, brewed for UK retailer Honest Brew but on sale here too. It's the familiar pale yellow of pineapple juice and smells nicely tropical to match. It goes all in with that on tasting. Pineapple indeed, but lots of mango and guava as well. A juicily thick texture suits the flavour, though the finish is quick and clean. I don't miss the lack of bitterness -- it doesn't try to complicate matters unnecessarily. Only a mild dry and gritty bite, presumably from the unfiltered murk, bugged me a little. Otherwise, this is a happy little number, easy drinking and flavoursome. Maybe it would have been nicer to have it under the 5% ABV mark, but never mind. Good job.

I'm sure there's a story behind Sophie De Vere's graphic for Jupiters but I don't mind not knowing what it is. I'll take weird-for-the-sake-of-weird. This is another pale ale, a tiny bit stronger at 5.1% ABV, and a denser eggy yellow. Galaxy and Denali are the hops. It's another dry and gritty base, this time without the sunshine-saturated hopping to offset it. I found it rather serious. There's a strange sort of rotten-fruit funk in both the aroma and flavour. Suspecting Denali, I went looking for previous reviews of beers using the hop and found myself describing it a few years ago as "sweaty". That's it. It's a sort of stale musky, musty thing; the opposite of fresh. This was not the transcendent celestial experience I had wanted. At the risk of sounding basic, I prefer my hazy pale ales to be juicy, not dry.

Whiplash has been a standalone brewery for a year now. Though they have a strong international reputation for cloudy double IPAs, it's nice that they give the local market plenty more besides.