I'll be quirky

Two whimsical special editions from St Mel's today. Distribution of these is sparse in Dublin but luckily 57 the Headline had me sorted, still holding on to its shop function while reopening as a pub.

St Mel's was the first Irish brewery to use Neomexicanus hops, in a highly limited edition back in 2015. Since then, the wild American variety has been tamed and hybridised, and this IPA has three sorts: Zappa, Sabro and Talus. Double Neo Zappa is the name. The savoury fried onion quality I associate with Neomexicanus is very present in the deep orange number, though even more prominent is a dry lemon-peel bitterness. It's light for 6.5% ABV, and I think a bit more body would have settled the hops. As-is, it's a little severe, but I did get used to that by the half way point. This was a fun experiment and the result is very distinctive. Something darker and heavier with these hops would be interesting.

Shortly before that, St Mel's released their Spice Bag Saison, something that has the potential to become a uniquely Irish beer style if more local breweries get on board. This is 7% ABV and a similar hazy orange colour. The ingredients are listed helpfully on the label and feature coriander, orange peel, grapefruit peel salt, black pepper, fennel, cayenne pepper and thyme. Corainder is actually listed twice and I can see what that's about: the aroma is pure coriander -- avoid if you're not a fan. I'll admit I was expecting something daftly gimmicky but despite the laundry list of spices this is primarily a clean and crisp saison in the classic vein. Coraiander again looms large in the flavour but the spicing behind it is entirely in keeping with saison yeast qualities. I might have been disappointed that it really doesn't channel the taste of a spice bag, but in its place I got an absolutely bang-on saison, so no complaints.

So there's room for a more involved spice bag saison, if any other producer wishes to step up to the mark.