Token Vocation

It's quite a few months since I've featured any beers from Great Britain on here. That's not deliberate; I think it's just a reflection of the sort of British beers we get imported: a lot of very samey styles, often at very high prices. I don't actively avoid them; it's more that they've blurred together and I've stopped noticing them. So today I'm making a conscious effort to check in with what's happening in English beer as available to Ireland, and I've picked the usually reliable Vocation from Yorkshire, largely because their €6-7 cans of haze are about a euro cheaper than their fellow countrymen.

A New England pale ale is first up. Perfect Storm, at 6.6% ABV, seems a little strong for this sort of thing. It looks light enough in the glass, however: a translucent pale orange. Lots of weedy resin comes out early in the aroma; a deeper sniff softens this to a more playful lemon sherbet effect. The resinous sharp side again comes into the flavour early, and I thought this was going to be a tough drinker but the bitterness takes a break in the middle, before returning as a leafy green tang on the end. The centre, instead, is filled with juicy tangerine and kumquat citrus. It's clean and decent; balancing neatly the two aspects of its hopping while avoiding any haze-related unpleasantness. The hefty alcohol is hidden away too, though I question its right to be there in the first place. This could have been achieved at a more sociable strength. Anyway, moving on...

Loose Leaf is only a tiny bit stronger at 6.7% ABV though they call this one an IPA. The name comes from its use of Earl Grey tea in the recipe, and I'm a tad apprehensive about that. It looks very like a New England IPA, though nothing on the can leads one to expect this. A dense eggy yellow, it has little truck with top foam, while the aroma is all stonefruit and vanilla. The flavour shows more of that hard leafy bitterness found in the last one, suggesting dry hopping that's gone on too long. Maybe some of that is the tea but I honestly couldn't tell. This is a very average NEIPA. Whatever they thought the tea would bring has been buried under very typical, and not especially jolly, New England IPA stereotype. This is designed for the haze true believers yet not pitched to them on the label. That's frustrating. The beer isn't unpleasant but that it comes without a meaningful description is tiresome.

We get a slight boost to 7% ABV for the next one: Citra Five Ways, named from its use of five different formats of Citra pellets and extracts. It seems more of a novelty than an experiment as I don't see what can be learned from bunging them all in together. The visuals aren't great either, the hazy body studded with big floaty gobbets of something. Whether hop-related or not, it's deeply unattractive looking. For all the hop tech, the aroma is quite mild, a vaguely pleasant lemon-and-lime ice lolly effect. Although again it's not badged as New England style, there are oats in the grist and a resulting thick and creamy mouthfeel. For a Citra showcase it doesn't excel in the hop department. There's more of that leafiness, turning a little harsh in the finish; before it you'll find softer citrus fruit and a certain dankness. None of these features really dominate or bring anything distinctive to the beer. I expected a crash-pow of big Citra but it's a bit of a damp squib, leaving room for an out-of-character vanilla sweetness late on too. You could say it's subtle and balanced, and it is enjoyable to drink, but it's nothing special. You would need to be a hardcore NEIPA fan to get value out of it. I'm beginning to suspect that that's a market Vocation is trying to serve.

Staying at 7% ABV but putting a sour twist on the style is Double Sherbet. I like sour IPA but am a tad sceptical about a strong one. It's quite dark too; a dense and unfriendly orange colour. The aroma is more welcoming, all freshly squeezed jaffa with pithy bits in. Unsurprising it's quite thickly textured and that really concentrates the sourness. This is a serious face-puckerer, literally making my eyes water with every mouthful. I quite enjoyed that. The IPA side of the equation is understated, with only that pithy orange to indicate the presence of hops. Although the finish is clean, from the sheer weightiness comes a warming, filling quality. I still think sour IPA works best when it's low strength and built for refreshment. This one definitely isn't but I liked how big and assertive it is; making it strong has turned it into something altogether different -- a sippable beast, challenging but fun.

The grand finale is Double Snowball, a pastry stout brewed to 11.4% ABV. Chocolate, coconut and marshmallow says the label, admitting that it's "sweet and sticky" so at least you know what to expect. I guess it's the marshmallow that dominates the aroma: it smells sticky, but in a very pink artificial way, more like a Ruffle bar than a Snowball. Given the strength and the claim to stickiness it's surprisingly light textured, almost a bit thin. But there's no time to concentrate on that because the flavour that comes with is enormous. I get dark chocolate, milk chocolate, raspberries, cherries, raisins, eucalyptus, aniseed, liquorice, blackstrap toffee, espresso coffee and, oh yes, your actual candy-fluff marshmallow. It's a workout and I'm very glad I was sharing the 440ml can. I enjoyed the silliness, and that it didn't go full-on stupid or unpleasant. Do split the can if you decide to go for it, though.

I won't be leaving it so late for the next lot of British beer reviews. The White Hag Boxtravaganza beer-festival-in-a-box gave me a bunch of them which I'll be running through next week.