One and one

There's something quite cute about how many of O Brother's beers are hazy pale ales of one kind or another. They must genuinely like the genre; I refuse to believe it's solely a commercial decision. And there must be plenty of room within it to get creative because they're not samey, and today's is a case in point.

This is Singularity, an IPA of 6.3% ABV and brewed with Mosiac, Sabro and Talus. It's quite dark: orange rather than yellow, and there's a weightiness to the aroma, giving concentrated tropical cordial and Sabro's unmistakable coconut oil. This all takes a pleasing about-face on tasting, where it's light and sunny with very little sign of the alcohol. The first impression is fresh mandarin, equal parts juicy and pithy. The coconut is back for the middle part before the arrival of pineapple and mango in the finish. It's a tremendously fun combination of tastes, each clean and distinct, and it's not something I recall encountering before. This makes me glad the brewery is still putting IPA recipes together, and that they happen to be very good at it.

So that's the IPA. Barrel-aged imperial stout is much less of an O Brother thing, but here's one: Opus One, the first of a series perhaps? The barrels are single malt ones, supplied by one of the local distilleries, Ferncullen at Powerscourt. They've done the whiskey justice by making it a big beer to start with, totalling 12.5% ABV by the time it went into the can. There's a significant bite of sappy oak in the aroma, which isn't very subtle. But big stout to the rescue and that gets thoroughly buried in the flavour. It's beautifully smooth, with a mixture of sumptuous chocolate sauce and Irish-whiskey honey. Vanilla cream and a dusting of chopped hazelnuts completes the impression of something that usually comes as a dessert, in a cute little glass with a tiny spoon. Happily also, the hops are still there, adding a herbal bite that's different, but fully complementary to the rest of the picture. This is an all-round class act. If you're generally unconvinced by barrel-aged imperial stouts, or just how Irish breweries do them, here's one to change your mind. When's Opus Two out?

O Brother have really hit their stride with these two very different beers. Long may that continue.