Turn on the dark

The clocks have gone back and winter is barrelling down on us at a pace. Time for a few dark beers, then.

Let's start at Kinnegar and Brewers At Play 19. For this they've gone for American Brown Ale, one of those tough styles like witbier where there are very available examples of how the style should be done. Dogfish Head's Indian Brown is the archetype but Rye River's Crafty Brewing American Brown is a superb local example. Challenge accepted, I guess. This is a biggish 5.6% ABV though the texture doesn't really reflect that; it's a little on the thin side, which isn't a great start. It makes up for it, though. The aroma is crisp and roasty with a floral on hint in the background. That becomes more than a hint on tasting when it starts chocolatey but quickly develops a strong Turkish delight character, the rosewater and violet infused jelly dusted with a little coconut. It's great fun but finishes too quickly, on a sharp carbonic bite. This needs to be a little more creamy and sweet to do itself justice. I'm sure there are ways of achieving that without resorting to the dreaded lactose.

Mescan has given brown ale a Belgian twist by souring it. The result is their first oud bruin, called Seven Virtues Old Brown. We're up to 7.1% ABV here and it smells strikingly dark and sour, like mushed black cherries. It's another thin and fizzy one, but that's much more forgivable in a highly attenuated Belgian style like this. The sweet side of the cherry effect arrives first in the flavour, then a rich and Bretty funk. After that it's down to serious sour business: balsamic, berries and crumbly, bitter dark chocolate. It's a workout but a superb sipper with new dimensions unfolding in every sip. If all the fruited pastry-sour beers are making you yawn, here's a very serious antidote.

Meanwhile BRÚ has given us two classic dark styles. The first is a smoked brown ale called Fire Starter. It's a dense dark brown in the glass, perhaps reflecting a high gravity, finishing up at a bruising 6.9% ABV. The smoke gets busy right from the aroma, with a rough kippers-and-Savlon smell -- fish and disinfectant is not a winning combination. It doesn't go away on tasting but it's less shocking, less harsh. There's a lovely base beer here, rich of texture with lots of soft caramel and café crème: exactly what I was looking for in the Kinnegar one. The smoke sits honking on top of this, adding nothing positive, and thankfully not drowning out the sweeter nuance. On balance I quite liked it but there's still plenty of room on the market for a straight brown ale at this blousey strength.

To follow, a 10% ABV Baltic porter called Night's Watch. Full marks for the visuals here: a dense cola red-brown body with a lasting head the colour of old ivory. The aroma is primarily dry and roasted, but there's a hint of something else; sweet/sour dark berries with herbs and spices. It does a great job of inviting you in to find out more. Unusually for a Baltic porter it's very chocolate-centric, but that's acceptable. More orthodox sweet caramel and dry wafer accompany this. That's kind of it, though. The proper bittering never really materialises, and while there's a lager crispness, there's also a lot of heat too, bringing overtones of sticky, tramp-strength pale lager. That's an unfair comparison to leave it on so I will say it's an enjoyable sipper, if not hugely different from a run-of-the-mill, warm-fermented imperial stout. If a rebrew or variant is on the cards, drying it out more is my amateur recommendation.

It's heartening to see this level of variety in dark Irish beers that aren't stouts. I hope some more breweries will be contributing their own tawny takes in the coming months.