The value of nothing

Five euro and thirty-five cent for a 440ml can of a 2.6% ABV table beer. I says to the fella "Do I get the table as well for that?"

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but the price of beer is something fierce these days. Anyway, this is Ephemeral by Whiplash. It wouldn't want to be too ephemeral says I, to nobody in particular. It's a pale and translucent yellow colour and smells delightfully fresh and zesty, like the dream of a cool refreshing witbier outside a Belgian seafront café. I start to feel my pockets loosen already. The texture is, I guess, unavoidably thin -- the oats failing to bulk it out. On such a watery base the flavours sit uneasy. The lemon effect is achieved with actual lemon, and what I took for a yeast-derived Belgian complexity is just plain basil. Both of these simply float on the surface of the taste, obvious and unintegrated. There are some pleasant ripe-pear esters and it's refreshingly drinkable as I guess is the point of table beer, but this isn't a style that's meant to wow anyone and this version doesn't wow me, beyond that price tag.

A mere €0.90 more upgrades me to a double IPA at 8.3% ABV. Let Your Love Grow is made with Citra and Nelson Sauvin and is a little darker than I'd expect for one of these from Whiplash: definitely orange rather than yellow, and totally opaque, of course. Now here the ingredients are integrated. The aroma carries both Citra's sharp lime and Nelson's mineral grapes, but blended beautifully into a summery wine cooler. The texture is rounded without being heavy, carrying the alcohol so the beer doesn't taste hot. That hands the flavour back to the hops and it really makes great use of both, with elements of fruit cordial, chewy candy and sharper pith. Only a very slight mucky grittiness interrupts the experience, but otherwise it's Whiplash at their best. You can pay several more euro to buy less good, less fresh, imported versions of this. And there's no need.

You never know if a beer will be good value until you buy it and drink it. Both of these were tasty, but one justified the price asked and the other did not.