By return post

Look who's back! I can't believe it was 2018 when Post Card last featured here.  The brand is owned by drinks industry veteran Jonathan Spielberg and was originally brewed at his Craftworks/Select Batch brewery. When that closed it disappeared, of course, but Jonathan is now involved in a new start-up brewery in Co. Kildare: Farringtons. With production under way, Post Card has cuckoo'd its way in. I spotted two of the cans on my last visit to Martin's of Fairview.

Ha'penny Bridge was one of the beers they brewed before but the recipe has changed so I'm giving it another go. Having previously been 5.2% ABV, this is now 4.4% and quite a deep amber colour, in a way that's far from fashionable these days. It looked a bit flat as it poured and the carbonation is very faint, the aroma suffering as a result. Still, there's plenty of flavour and it's a resolutely old-fashioned one: American pale ale in the Sierra Nevada mould. You get a jangling pine and grapefruit bitterness, spritzy at first, turning dank and resinous at the end. That sits on a base of crystal malt, from which comes occasional flashes of toffee. It's all good, solid fun, but the poor conditioning does let it down a little.

The next one is much more en vogue: Poolbeg Haze, a New England-style IPA with Mosaic, Citra and Idaho 7. First impression is... it's barely hazy at all. Still, it smells like a NEIPA: juicy and slightly unctuous. Again the carbonation is lower than it should be, but again the flavour manages to present itself well despite this. Satsuma, mango and pineapple suggest the hops are doing their jobs well, though the Citra is a little quieter than I'd expect. There's a certain vanilla sweetness, but not so much that it makes the beer cloying. And of course it's clean: no murk = no grit. This is quite an easy-going affair and doesn't taste the full 5.8% ABV. Still it has plenty of character and offers everything you might expect from a hazy IPA except, y'know, the haze.

There are more in the revamped Post Card range and I'll be keeping an eye out for them if they ever cross to my side of the Liffey. Carbonation issues aside, the revival is promising so far.