Can you dig it?

The Bronze Age archaeology of Ireland gave Lough Gill branding inspiration for a series of barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stouts released in late 2021. Boann provided the barrels and the specs of each beer look quite similar to each other with only minor tweaks. 13% ABV is the standard, so I guess you're not meant to chain-drink them in one sitting and complain that they're too similar to each other. Oh well.

Spear is numbered 1 in the sequence and doesn't have any embellishments listed: just a straight imperial oatmeal stout aged in whiskey barrels. It's an orthodox black colour and there's a gentle brush of dark sherry on the nose. Boann's flagship whiskey, The Whistler, is very sherry-forward and I'm a big fan, so that bodes well. A silky mouthfeel leads on to an explosion of flavour: there's the sherry again, this time bundled up with pralines, plus a fruitier Marsala wine effect and a strange but charming twist of thyme and dill on the finish. It is, more than anything, luxurious. I'm not a presentation fetishist by any means, but this tastes like something that should come from a corked nip bottle with a ribbon on it, signed by the brewer. I almost typed that the balance of whiskey and stout here is perfect, but it's not: the whiskey is quite dominant, but I really like that about it. And the oatmeal is definitely pulling its weight with the texture. I found it hard to believe any of the others could be as good as this. So thought I'd better check.

Here we go, then, with Torc. There's no reason to suppose the base beer is any different to the above, but now we have the addition of toasted coconut and Madagascan vanilla. You'd wonder what was wrong with the vanilla they grow in Sligo. The coconut makes an early appearance in the aroma, covering any sherry, so I'm immediately wary. And yeah: coconut flavoured, a little bit of coffee but not too much. The whiskey peeps out timidly as it warms but is far from the headline act. Overall, it's balanced, nuanced, well-made, enjoyable, but nowhere near as good as the beer above. I'd be perfectly happy with it had it not been part of a series, but taken like this it just seems inferior. Of course, the brewery is the winner in this: I bought two cans not just one, but won't somebody think of the beer?

The decider for this experiment is Lunula, and this time we have hazelnuts and cocoa nibs to deal with. Go on then. I think I get actual whiskey in the aroma this time: it smells barrel-aged, though not novelty-infused. There's more of a burn to the foretaste here: it's still 13% ABV, but that the massive strength wasn't manifest in the others is a testament to them. It's not obtrusive here, though. Oil from the nuts and and add-on chocolate flavour can be tasted, but I don't know if I'd have noticed them unprompted. That's a good thing: it shows that the various elements are well integrated and nothing clashes. Other than that initial burn, I get the least amount of sherry/whiskey from this, but I still preferred it to the last one. The add-ons here are subtle and don't interfere with the big stout being a big stout. Still I don't think they make this an improvement on the original.

This is a pure classy set of beers. They may look pitched as a novelty, but there's nothing that doesn't work about any of them. I would like to give specific praise for not making me deal with a waxed bottle cap. I was suspicious of the €5.50 price tag on each small can, but there are plenty of breweries doing not-as-good beer for a higher price, so these are good value too. The "enhanced" ones aren't as good as the original, but there's not much in it. I thoroughly enjoyed all three. And there is a fourth. If I find Shield I will review it separately. I'm reasonably sure it's lovely.