Home and Garden

In the summer of 2019 I spent a pleasant sunny afternoon in the taproom of Garden Brewery in Zagreb. Their beer does get out and about as well, and today I'm at home getting reintroduced.

I've had most of the core range, though the India Pale Ale has eluded me for some reason. Until now. "West Coast" is in small print on the can but writ large on the beer as it pours: an almost-clear amber colour with a lovely grapefruit-on-toffee aroma. There's a pleasing softness about the texture, though a continent away from New England fluff. This is 6% ABV but feels like it could be more. That emphasis on malt dampens the hop impact a little and it lacks the initial zesty sharpness of the best west coast IPA. Give it a minute, however, and the pine and citrus gradually rise, eventually coating the palate in classic American resins. We're not told what hops are used but I would fully expect that Cascade is the driver. Anyone in search of the proper American IPA experience will not be disappointed by this.

At the other end of the spectrum, Milkshake IPA is Still A Thing™, though it's not a beer style I go running to. Garden's looks to be taking the IPA part of the equation seriously, using six different hop varieties, plus lactose, of course. It's quite a deep orange colour and 6.2% ABV, smelling sweetly of strawberry and kiwifruit. No syrups are involved so I'm guessing it's the Summer and Hallertau Blanc hops bringing that fruit effect. Still, the hops don't prevent it from seeming like a milkshake on tasting. The texture is horribly sticky and the lactose gives it an intense and cloying sweetness. The realistic fruit in the aroma isn't delivered in the flavour and instead it's gummy and artificial. My brief moment of thinking that maybe milkshake IPAs aren't so bad ended abruptly with the first sip. This is one for the MIPA purists alone.

Bière de Garde is a style which doesn't get messed about with as much as IPA does, but Garden has had a go, in cahoots with Brooklyn's Stillwater. The result is a Peach, Nectarine & Camomile Bière de Garde. It looks like orangeade in the glass: sunset orange and pouring with a head which instantly crackled away to nothing. It smells normal for a BdG: cracker-dry and crisp with a light peppery spicing. The flavour too is clean and unfussy, adding in some apple to the grain and spice as it warms. The fruit add-ons are detectable, however, though they're subtly done, bringing a zesty spritz to the grain dryness, one that's entirely complementary. There's a floral side too, which I'm guessing must be the chamomile though it tastes more like elderflower to me. It's all done at just 5.5% ABV and served in a tall can, making it a great summer thirst-quencher. I always think of old Bière de Garde as a somewhat stuffy and serious kind of beer, but here's proof that it can be fun while also staying true to its essence.

We wrap things up for today with a simple Imperial Flat White Coffee Porter. I sneer at the name, and at the cacao nibs and vanilla pods, but it looks gorgeous: a rich velvety brown as it cascades into the glass, forming a decadent café crème head. The aroma is all about the coffee, and more like raw roasted beans than the finished drink. And while that's a big part of the flavour too, the chocolate gets heavily involved also, for a tasty mocha effect. The vanilla shuts the hell up, as it should do. At 8.4% ABV, this is a finisher, a nightcap, but it's also beautifully smooth and effortless drinking with no excess heat or cloying sugar. The sweet chocolate is balanced perfectly by the dry roasted coffee: both highly unsubtle yet working together in harmony. All sneers were gone before the glass was a quarter empty.

No surprises that the milkshake one wasn't for me, but the others have raised Garden's standing in my eyes. I had thought of them as experts in sour and little else, but from this is appears they have chops across the beer style spectrum.