Haze pays

Sligo brewery Lough Gill is today's subject. They've quite busy of late with regular new additions in a variety of styles. Hazy IPA does tend to feature a lot, however, and I'm starting with three of them.

The monochrome cans they did for Aldi passed me by last year, selling out fast it seems. I was happy to be able to grab them this time around, though they were disappearing just as quickly. First is Rough Wave, described as a New England Session IPA and a mere 3.8% ABV. It looks like less: a scrawny pale yellow in the glass, watery and unattractive. The aroma of vanilla and spices is where it starts getting into my good books, and the flavour follows through with a pleasant citrus dessert: lemon tart or meringue pie. The downside is that it's very faint, tasting as though it has indeed been watered down. I'm not entirely sure that's a flaw, though. This delivers proper New England flavours in a light package at a discount supermarket price. Unlike many of this sort, you could happily drink several in a row and feel quenched. While it's completely free of off flavours, I would prefer a bit more of that fluffy east-coast body. There must be an audience out there for this sort, however.

Its twin is called On The Other Side, an "east coast IPA" at 4.6% ABV. It's quite a dark take on it, an ochre orange shade but properly opaque. There's a sweet jaffa flavour: all cordial and concentrate with a little sherbet zing. I don't know where that disappeared to on tasting because the flavour is very plain: what's there is quite savoury, led by a tang of fried onion. Then there's a little of that orange sherbet, with both fading indecently quickly leaving a dull wateriness behind. I don't remember exactly what I paid for it but it tastes cheap. I looked forward to something more premium to follow.

That came in the form of Haze Potato Chips. In the early days of the New England IPA craze there were rumours of trend-chasing breweries creating the effect with flour. Lough Gill, based on an original collaboration with Thin Man Brewery of Buffalo, wears its shortcut up front: the added haze-inducing potato starch gives the beer its name. For all that, it's a bit dull looking, a wan witbier yellow. It's hopped with classics Citra and Mosaic, and there's a lovely mix of lime and mango in the aroma. Citrus is in charge in the flavour, however: it's mostly a fresh and zesty lemon effect, bright and refreshing despite 6.4% ABV. Add to that some harder pine bitterness and a layer of oily dank. There's a slight savouriness too, which I might have put down to the potato were it not for the Mosaic which often brings this taste, unfortunately. Overall, it's only OK. I liked most of the flavour but felt there should be more of it. There was a much higher price tag on this than the Aldi pair, and I don't think it did enough to justify it.

The finisher is a pastry stout, a genre where Lough Gill has excellent form so I expected to be wowed. Specifically, Chocolate Ox is a "chocolate mudcake stout" of 9.2% ABV. They double down on the chocolate by using cocoa nibs and pure cocoa in cholaca form. It smells like a warm slice of rich chocolate fudge cake and is as thick as you might expect. That velvety density really helps the flavour. Chocolate of course, but not harsh or bitter, nor sweet and artificial. The complexity is almost vinous: the chocolate effect you sometimes get from big red wines, with hints of black cherry and tannin around the edges. The alcohol heat adds to the effect, bringing an impression of tawny port and coffee liqueur. Lactose features in the ingredients yet there's none of the simplistic vanilla flavour it often brings. In short, it's a masterpiece, and up with the best of the strong sweet stouts Lough Gill has produced over their four years of existence. I haven't seen it since I first bought it, but if they're auditioning for new core beers, this is a very worthy candidate.

Funny, when I first wrote about Lough Gill, I noted they did dark and malty beers much better than hop-forward ones. Looks like they're still in that space now.