SMASH mouth

Self-proclaimed Single-Malt-And-Single-Hop beers were all the rage in the early days of Ireland's current beer boom but fell out of favour, perhaps as breweries grew up and found their feet. Not that White Hag hasn't already learned the ropes thoroughly, but here they are with four new SMASH IPAs badged the "Union Series".

With the first pair, I considered a blind tasting to see which I prefer, then decided I'd rather just enjoy them like a semi-normal person. It happens occasionally. All are 5.5% ABV and lightly hazy, with Strata being the first I opened. The aroma is a bright mix of citrus and spice: mandarin and incense, mango and cut grass. There's a fun funky side to the flavour, tasting of ripe and mushy tropical fruit pulp. A different sort of sweetness comes from a mild marzipan element. This is balanced by a dry rasp of cap-gun smoke, finishing on a sterner lemon-peel bitterness. Most of all it tastes fresh: the flavours loud and distinct. Single-hop beers often lack complexity, and while this isn't a multi-dimensional wonderland it has two individual sides to explore and enjoy.

Looking identical, but made with Galaxy, is SMASH IPA Galaxy. The aroma is less punchy, but there's a  similar mix of soft fruit and firework spices, with the latter's brimstone waft being most prominent. Once upon a time, Galaxy was the last word in juicy hops, spilling oodles of mandarin and satsuma. Maybe the goalposts have moved because I didn't get any of that from this. The sulphury spice thing is the main act, and I'm guessing that's more a yeast residue characteristic than hops. There's a faint orangey tang behind it, fading to a metallic buzz before finishing on a harsh watery fizz. This is much less impressive than the Strata one. It's tolerable, refreshing even, but not the Galaxy showcase I was anticipating. Funny how these things work.

Round two brought Idaho 7 as the first of the pair I opened. There's quite a dry and pithy aroma here, suggesting it'll be a little severe to taste. It's not really. The flavour is more marmaladey orange and lime rind, with plenty of balancing sugar. You get a little oily dank with your hard citrus, but not much else by way of complexity. It tails off on fizz, like Club Orange or Orangina: something with bits in anyway. This isn't an exciting piece, and suffers from exactly the one-dimensional quality I feared I would find in the Strata. There's a certain modern-hop ennui from the punchy bitterness and weedy resins. American hops have been doing this for a couple of decades; we didn't need Idaho 7 to come along and start doing it too. It's far from an unpleasant drinking experience, but doesn't offer anything new.

Neither was I expecting anything new from Citra: we all know what that stuff tastes like at this stage. Or so I thought. There's an almost smoky buzz to the savoury aroma here -- not what I normally get from Citra. This is elaborated upon on tasting, with fried onion being the first flavour to spring to mind. Lemon and lime arrives later, but it's soft, not sharp, and the fuzzy murk taste is loud enough to make itself felt through it. Much like the Galaxy one, this brings a hop I thought I knew, but presents it in an understated and slightly disappointing way. There are better Citra beers around than this, though I'll admit not all of them are single hopped.

Despite only one proper hit out of four beers, I hope White Hag keeps the Union Series going. Aside from the soundness of the concept -- 440ml of 5.5% ABV IPA is the Goldilocks Zone for trying out a hop -- there just isn't enough of this kind of educational experimentation on the beer market these days, and there are so many new hops to try. Bring them on!