North coastin'

Given how eagerly I had been anticipating the arrival of Lacada's beers to Dublin it took me a stupidly long time to get around to buying any, and came close to missing one of the range by the time I did. Anyway, here's the first set of (official) down-south exports from Portrush's finest.

A Citra pale ale of 4.6% ABV starts us off: West Bay. It's misty in the glass; not full on hazy but far from pin-bright either. The zesty aroma is just what one would expect, though there's little carbonation to propel it. In the mouth, then, it feels like a cask beer. That might not be to the taste of some when it comes to American-style pale ale but for your cask-starved correspondent it was a lovely piece of nostalgia. The flavour behind it is clean and simple, and more sweet than bitter. Satsuma or mandarin pith is about as citric as it gets. Though light-bodied there's a decent malt balance too, enhancing the juicy side of the hops. A smidge more bitterness might be nice, but as-is it's a perfectly acceptable fruity quaffer and hard to fault.

I'm curious as to why they have two US-style IPAs of 6% ABV in the range. Let's see how they differ. The brewery describes East the Beast as the fruity one so I started there. It's another hazy orange job, this time properly foggy. There's a very assertive juice aroma: mandarin and apricot, with a gentle cedar spicing as well. That spicing is the first hint that things are about to turn savoury, and they really do. A sort of fried potato effect is at the centre of the flavour, followed quickly by sulphurous rubber and a twang of zinc. A twist of jaffa rind, faint in the finish, is the only trace of the promised fruit that I could taste. I can't pick out any common technical flaw here; I suspect the recipe just didn't get on with my palate. I wish you better luck should you try it.

Although Malin is also 6% and also US-style (Strata hops), we're on the west coast of the north coast here. It's an almost-pure clear amber colour, showing only a faint mist. Juice appears again in the aroma, this time a bright and sunny pineapple with ripe mango and tinned peach. There's a fair bit of that fruit salad in the flavour, especially in the long finish, but the foretaste has a savoury side too: tannins, rye cracker and a little of whatever that burnt rubber thing in the previous one was. So it's not perfect, but the summery tropical aspect comes through strongly enough to counter any downsides. A little bit of cleaning up and it would be a beaut.

The finisher is Blue Pool. My tardiness meant this was a little harder to track down than the others. I trust that its popularity with the Dublin drinking public is more to do with the taste than it simply being the strongest, at 6.4% ABV. "NEIPA" is the style designation, though it doesn't look especially different from the others -- a similar pale orangey shade. It took a few sniffs to get a handle on the aroma as it's quite subtle: a little vanilla, some candied orange peel, and a worrying note of that burnt savoury quality that ruined East the Beast on me. In the flavour that translates to a mild fried-onion edge, but nothing severe or off-putting. Although it's sweet, with vanilla ice cream and sherbet, there's a generous squeeze of citrus too; a lemon juice acidity that brings a modicum of balance. The most striking feature is its texture: huge and chewy, feeling like a higher strength than it actually is. There's a significant warmth as well, giving the whole thing an air of double IPA at a relatively modest ABV. That's an achievement. 

As much as I enjoyed three out of four here, I don't know that we really needed a slew of new IPAs on the shelves. Here's hoping the initial set gives Lacada enough of a foothold to send something more exciting our way.