The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 11: Rascals

Circumstances changed the annual release of the Rascals Social Hops Project beer. No jolly night out for the hop growers this year; instead we got a minikeg each of the fruits of our horticultural labours. Social Hops 2020 returns to its roots as a straightforward and sessionable pale ale. It's a slightly hazy autumnal gold and smells crisply grainy: Dublin hops are not known for their aromatic qualities, in fairness. There's a candy and golden syrup base, with a touch of brown breadcrust. The hops are... subtle. An old world bitterness just about manages to balance the sweet side, and there's a slightly oily lemon-skin flavour. A tannic dryness finishes it off. At this stage I haven't had an English brown bitter in quite some time, but this reminded me of that solid, sturdy format. As always, Social Hops is more about the process than the sensory merits of the finished product. I enjoyed my five litres with the appropriate air of georgic smugness.

Something less wholesome to follow: The Candyman, a chocolate salted caramel stout, decked out in the appropriated Wonka-esque branding. Rascals doesn't muck about when it comes to mucking-about beers like this, and the aroma is powerfully sweetshop, packed with chocolate, peanut, coconut and raisins. The first surprise is that it's not thick and sticky, but light to the point of thin. 5.5% isn't an unreasonably low ABV for a pastry stout and I expected more heft from it. Sweet chocolate and caramel are at the centre of the flavour, and quite intense, a bit like how the bitterness turns out overdone in a heavily-hopped but thinly-textured pale ale. The roasted peanut character comes in at the end. It's all a bit efforty. I suspect it's hard to get pastry stouts to work well at this strength; there's a reason that the breweries who made their names on it did so at much higher ABVs. This beer makes a promise of sumptuous luxury which is not delivered upon. 

We conclude with a hazy IPA of 5.2% ABV. Space Hopper is an "interstellar juice bomb" -- sure aren't they all? -- using Galaxy and Enigma. It meets all the New England specs from the get-go: hazy yellowish-orange topped with a tall head, a relatively full mouthfeel, if not quite full-on fluffy, and a strong tropical aroma. Okay, maybe they were serious about the astronomical juiciness factor. To taste, there's more sweet tropical fruit, mango primarily, with a backing of pineapple, passionfruit and guava: all the big-hitters. And nothing from the naughty list: no grit or garlic. That very slight thinness is the only kind-of let-down here. Though the flavour is highly enjoyable, it doesn't last long enough. I drank it indecently quickly, but maybe that's by design. Well played, Rascals.

And with that we're nearly done. See you tomorrow for the big finish. Big.