Own-label

It's another selection of beers from the three-headed beast of Bluebell, still churning them out like there's no tomorrow. Maybe they know something we don't.

Last month, Third Circle gave us Catching Sunshine, landing on a suitably warm and bright day in early June. They describe it as a "New World Pale [Ale]", hopped with BRU-1 and Mosaic. Alas, it's the wrong Mosaic. This looks like a witbier -- hazy and yellow -- and it tastes like a wheat beer too. That dry, husky savoury quality that Mosaic sometimes imparts in lieu of soft tropical fruit is the centrepiece of the flavour here. Coupled with the big fuzzy texture you get something that closely resembles an American wheat ale. The can says it's slammable, but it's too dry for that, almost to the point of acridity. Only as I finished the glass did I find a tiny dankness lurking in the dregs, but literally too little and too late. For something claiming to be double dry hopped it just doesn't bring the hop party. I demand a hop party.

A 3.1% ABV mite comes to the rescue: It's the Little Things, a micro IPA, also double dry-hopped, this time with Vic Secret and Citra. It's a lively chap, foaming up busily with a giant quiff of foam at the end of the pour. The strength is a smidge high for the micro badge but it's put to good use: that plus oats in the grist mean there's plenty of body, completely avoiding the telltale thinness these often show. And that gives the hops more space to play. There's a serious oily funky dankness in both aroma and flavour, livened up with sharper lime zest and damp grass. There's an impressive malt backbone underpinning this, giving it a balancing fruit-candy sweet side. Very impressive, all-in-all, both for what it is, and as an IPA of any kind.

I wasn't going to get any hop party from a cherry and coconut imperial milk stout and Third Barrel's This Is An Outrage! is one such: 9% ABV and a very dark red colour. Amazingly the cherry trumps the coconut in the aroma, smelling quite hot and spirituous. Coconut catches up in the flavour, though the cherry is still plenty loud, the two joined by their affinity for chocolate, of which there is also plenty. A surprise roasted bitterness finishes it off after all the sticky sweetshop silliness has ended. This is an unashamed novelty beer and it was a brave move to put these flavours together but it absolutely works. 

We get back on a hop kick with Nelson from Stone Barrel, although it is an India Pale Lager which too often means the hops don't get a fair say in the taste. Enough prejudice. This is 4.7% ABV and looks deliciously clear. The aroma gives us that mineral kerosene punch of concentrated Nelson Sauvin hops, and I'm on board for that. The flavour is much softer but still pure Nelson. White grape is a typical characteristic and here it's bitter like the skin. That settles into a juicy but still tart gooseberry and cranberry effect. It doesn't have the sudden curtain-down quick finish of a lager and I don't miss it. The hops are oily enough and the malt body big enough to let it sit on the palate a while and smoulder. In regard to a previous release, Third Barrel's Mr Blue Sky, I said that Nelson Sauvin enthusiasts in particular would like it. That goes double for this guy. It's fun, characterful and absolutely worthy of that swaggering mononym.

Beer five is under the Third Barrel brand itself, Random Act of Hopiness [sic], brewed for Martin's Off Licence. While only 5% ABV it claims to be "triple dry hopped", getting separate charges of Citra, Galaxy and Citra again. It's a pale and hazy orange, and with unusually excellent head retention for this sort of thing. There's a concentrated orange cordial aroma, Galaxy getting the better of the two Citras, I reckon. That turns to a fun chocolate-orange oily sweet thing on tasting, with a tangy lime boiled-sweet effect in the background. It's very unusual, but completely successful. I was half expecting another humdrum hazy job and was very pleasantly surprised to discover it's not one. There is a slightly savoury white onion kick which I didn't care for, but that's easily ignored. The modest strength makes it light and quaffable, and on a sunny day it wasn't long disappearing.

The big guns are unleashed first with Why Always Me?, an IPA hopped with Simcoe. It's double dry hopped, which of course somehow means hazy, and smells super dank and resinous in that signature Simcoe way. 7.2% ABV gives it plenty of body, and it's only slightly full of New England fluff. Vanilla and orange juice flash briefly in the foretaste before it returns to the serious business of crisp cabbage leaf, black pepper oils and high-octane marijuana. It's a lovely example of how to bring east coast sensibilities to grown-up IPA hopping, or how to sneak proper bitterness into the haze-drinker's diet. This beer has plenty of great stuff for both sides of the divide. Cast aside your preconceptions, dive in and enjoy.

The final flourish for now is And We Have Lift Off, an 8% ABV whopper from Stone Barrel, with Mosaic, Enigma and El Dorado. That'll be fruity, I thought, but it's hot and dank in the aroma; heady and sharp. There's an early bitterness on tasting, followed by savoury raw onion and sesame paste: not my sort of thing really. I drank it cold which gave the flavours a clean distinctness which didn't endear it to me further. Only in the aftertaste do you get a light buzz of soft tropical fruit which was too little and too late for me. Even though it hides the alcohol well, in the flavour at least, I found this tough going. The hop combination, and in particular Mosaic being all dry and naughty, wasn't for me. Lift Off is immediately followed by a near miss.

This post was originally meant to include a selection of third-party beers also brewed at Third Barrel but it ended up far too long. So tomorrow you get a special bonus Tuesday post. Lucky you.