Hello and goodbye

Today's brewery is the ever-prolific Wicklow Wolf, and five new special release beers.

First off it's the second in the 2021 Locavore series, a Foraged Gorse Saison, the shrubbery augmenting hops from the brewery's own farm. At 6.5% ABV it's not exactly light summer fare, despite the sunny yellow appearance and zesty lemon aroma. There's a considerable heft to the body, feeling almost thick in the mouth, which isn't how I like my saisons ordinarily. Luckily the flavour is very well constructed, preserving all the earthy spice and stonefruit of easy-going saison and setting it beside a strong and real gorse coconut taste which doesn't overpower it. I still think the gravity could have been dialled back to make it more refreshing and less of a fruit salad, but it works well as-is, and definitely not compromised for want of imported ingredients.

Pete, head brewer at Wicklow Wolf since day one, is leaving. They've marked the occasion with a rebrew of one of the original line-up from 2014, their American amber, re-named For Pete's Sake. Although it's the same 4.8% ABV I detect a certain extra nuance that comes of seven years' experience and a fancier kit. The old one was punchily bitter up front: all the American-style first-gen WW beers were. This allows the malt much more legroom and is smoother as a result. It begins on caramel and fudge then spices things up with grass and pine, finishing sweetly and dank. And that's it. It doesn't try to do anything extreme -- just a classic American style, executed pretty much perfectly. An appropriate send-off. Happy trails, Pete.

Rounding out this set, and very much the sort of thing Wicklow Wolf made its name on, is a west-coast style double IPA under the prog-rock name of Vortex Illusion. It's 8% ABV and a mostly clear amber colour, smelling of course of grapefruit with a backing of toffee. The hops get lost a bit in the flavour. That emphasises the big malt in a way typical of old-school American double IPAs and it's almost sickly with the sweetness. There's no fruit nuance from the hopping (the can doesn't tell us the varieties) and there's just a hard mineral bitterness arriving late. A warming aftereffect suggests something considerably stronger too. It's a bit of a bruiser, all told, and my preference runs to the cleaner and sharper sort of double IPAs. This certainly offers a contrast to all the fluffy hazy stuff, just not the sort I'm usually in search of.

The next two just made it over the line in time for the publication date, quaffed swiftly earlier this week. The first is an IPA with grapefruit called Grapefruit Season and is a beautiful, clear, sunset amber colour. Fresh and fizzy citrus candy arrives in the aroma, only grapefruit in a Lilt sort of way, with shades of pineapple and mango coming out as well. It's light-bodied at 5.3% ABV, and the overactive carbonation adds to the soft-drink effect. It isn't distinctively grapefruit, the fruit more like generic fruit-flavoured chews and lacking in bitterness. The first sniffs and sips were fun but it got quite boring after that, finishing quick and lacking complexity. I was in a hurry so didn't mind. Enjoy this in the summer sun if there's any of that left, but don't take it too seriously.

We conclude with one definitely not made for hasty guzzling, a triple IPA of 10% ABV, brewed in collaboration with Boundary and titled Underwater Welding. It's another prettyboy: deep orange with a handsome, loosely-formed head. The aroma is not strong but still quite extreme, mixing a herbal bitterness with harsh citric pith, and achieved with Idaho 7 and Talus hops. Whatever didn't come out in the smell was saved for the flavour, because that is big. First impression is of a liqueur, more like Aperol or triple sec: a spiced-up and concentrated orange booziness of the sort you're meant to soften with something else. It's extremely sweet and quite fuzzily textured, making it something you have to take your time with. Nevertheless there's a cleanness to it which I found charming, the massive citrus, spice and booze all distinct. It might be one to share, however: 440ml was hard work by myself.

Since day one, Wicklow Wolf cannot be faulted for variety. And they usually can't be faulted for doing big hops correctly too. Maybe the post-Pete era will be all about the Belgian yeasts and gorse flowers.