Dark times

The depths of winter are still showing little sign of getting shallower so I guess it's time for another assortment of dark and strong beers. Luckily there are plenty around.

Hope starts us off today, with a very rare style for an Irish brewery: old ale. Castanha Old Ale is named for the aromatic Brazilian wood on which it was matured. They've also followed the trend of breweries using old bread as part of the grist, going full craft with "artisan sourdough breadcrumbs", as well as some black treacle for good measure. The end result is 6.3% ABV and what I deem to be an appropriate dark garnet colour. I don't detect anything strong or exotic in the aroma, but there's some very pleasant caramel and roast. That slight burntness is there in the foretaste but then unfolds into something sweeter, with milk chocolate and clove-like winter spicing which I'm guessing is the Castanha. I get a sappy resinous bitterness too, towards the end. Given the strength I would like this to be richer. It doesn't quite do the rounded warming thing I wanted from it. It is to-style, however, and perfectly tasty. I'd be quite happy if Hope had another go at old ale, with a simplified recipe.

From old ale to brown ale and the final Rye River special of 2021: Revelation. This is more ruby than brown, but attractively so, enhanced by a pillowy soft off-white head. The aroma has a definite whiff of bananas with its caramel, making me think of dunkelweisse more than any other style. It smells a bit hot too, all of its 7.1% ABV and more. There's a definite estery quality to the flavour as well. I complained the last one wasn't warm enough, well this has warmth in spades. I don't know that it's necessarily the good kind, though. Turning to the brewery's description I see that it's brewed with a Belgian yeast, so that at least explains the esters. But they also set the drinker up for a "revelatory brown malt experience" and I don't get that at all. I adore brown malt's clean and fresh coffee roast character and this beer gives me none of that. If they wanted the malt to shine they should have used a more neutral yeast. As-is, it's OK, I guess. My initial impression of dunkelweisse hadn't left me by the end, and I would accept dubbel as a possible style designation too, but as a fan of Rye River's other brown ale, Dec's, and of brown malt in general, this didn't do it for me.

Enough messing about, out with the stout. Cave 'n' Castle is from BRÚ in collaboration with Italian brewery Lieviteria. There's nothing more exotic than oats in this 7.5%-er and it smells plainly roasty, with a little alcohol but mostly dry. The flavour too is uncomplex but in a quite delightful way. The oatmeal smoothness is present and correct, and you get a sprinkling of chocolate on your cereal but not too much. The dry side is more restrained than I thought it would be -- roast, but not roastiness in the coffee or hot tar sense, with a slightly glutinous feel preventing it from being sharp. Maybe a little more of a hop bite would have improved it, but that's entirely a matter of personal taste. This is a clean and precise stout, delivering fullness and warmth in a subtle way that's quite unfashionable, completely unlike the previous two, but my preferred one of the three. My only proper qualm is the serving size: for something this straightforwardly drinkable, 33cl at a time isn't enough. Otherwise, well played BRÚ and Lieviteria.

The big finish is another massive stout from Wicklow Wolf. Drumshanbo Distillery has contributed single pot still whiskey barrels for Curious Mind. I really like pot still whiskey and it takes a while to emerge but we get there eventually. Before, there's a lot of oak: a mix of cork and red wine, shading a little to rubber. It's unsubtle and not terribly pleasant, at first. Luckily it mellows out after a second or two. The sweet honeycomb of smooth Irish whiskey swings in to the rescue and it turns into a more regular barrel-aged imperial stout. There's chocolate truffles and oily coffee, and more than a drop of whiskey. The woody side doesn't disappear, but it brings a certain balance to all the sweetness. Subtle it ain't, but I like the boldness here. While perfectly decent now, I think a year or two of ageing would do it the power of good.

Dark beer and style diversity is all fine, but stout remains the daddy. And that's the end of my end-of-year fridge clear-out. Only one post for 2021 remains to be written...