Two sides and three barrels

The busy beavers of Bluebell, Third Barrel, provide today's septet of beers. They're a prolific lot with the specials and one-offs, though I notice something of theme among these: a bit of tinkering with the recipes of previously released beers.

The first example is Day Drinkin Part Deux, switching the Simcoe of the first version for Citra and Strata while keeping it as a 4% ABV hazy session IPA. It smells pithy, in a way that beers like this mostly do, but it's quite an understated aroma. The flavour offers a pleasant mix of tropical grapefruit, mango and coconut, before finishing quickly. The low strength leaves it a little watery, which is slightly unpleasant as regards the flavour, the tasty hopping stopping abruptly, but I can see how it helps its session credentials: no lingering aftertaste means you're straight back for the next mouthful. Much like its predecessor, it delivers the proper hazy profile in a highly quaffable format. I have a slight preference for version one, but with nobody else making beers like this locally, I'll take what I get.

The franchise continued in very short order with the arrival of Day Drinking Part III: Revenge of the Hops, now with Mosaic and HBC 630. It's one of those beers that smells hazy, with a combination of earthy, gritty bits and hot concentrated garlic: striking, but not exactly enticing. There's a hint of that in the flavour but mercifully not too much. Instead, Mosaic tropical juiciness is to the fore, finishing with a greenly bitter rasp of pine. Here, the flavour elements are bold and long-lasting and there's no sign of the thinness which bothered me in the previous one. This tastes like a bigger beer than it is, and despite that aroma is my favourite of the three.

I'm never sure what's meant by "modern style pils" but I see it a lot. Maybe it's because pilsner is so established as a beer style that brewers feel they have to flag any attempt at twiddling with it. Anyway, in Counter Culture it appears to signify that it uses American hop variety Lorien alongside the more traditional Saaz, as well as oats in the grist. At least it's clear, and quite a dark amber colour. Despite that apparent weighty malt, it's light and dry. The grassy Saaz bite is preceded by something fruitier and summery; strawberries maybe, or sweet cherry. It's OK but I think it gets in the way a bit. There's enough green bitter hopping to remind one of what pilsner does best, without delivering the full effect. As modern experimenting goes it's far from a disaster, but nor does it improve upon the fundamentals.

There needs to be a proper IPA as well, and today that's represented by Outside The Lines, described as a west coast IPA. It's rather pale and hazy for that, while the strength seems a little low at 6.1% ABV. The hops are a classic combination of Simcoe and Amarillo, and the latter's orangey quality comes through in particular in the aroma, giving it a lovely but not-west-coast juicy smell. That doesn't hang around for the flavour. While it is fuzzily-textured and with some sweet fruit attributes, there's also a sizeable west coast aspect too -- though not enough to justify claiming to be such. The Simcoe gets busy with a dank and resinous spicing, as well as a harder pine bitterness. Amarillo, meanwhile, is back on the orange thing, almost hitting the grapefruit level of citrus bitterness. Most of all, this brings sunshine in a typical Third Barrel way. That's how it captures California and brings a little of it to west Dublin.

Back to the reboots now, and the Two Sides brand has had Third Barrel amend its summer seasonal Two Yards to feature Citra & HBC 586. I've long been a fan of this beer so had every expectation that the new version would live up to the old one. It does. It's bright and zesty and fun, packed with mandarin and cantaloupe, needing only a pink cocktail umbrella for the full poolside experience. Though fairly hazy, there's none of the serious haze features/flaws -- no vanilla, no allium, no grit -- leaving room in the modest 4.3% ABV package for all the fun fruit effects. Yet again Two Yards delivers perfect beer garden quaffing fare.

Next, a thematic sequel to last year's Now That's What I Call Mosaic, named Wake Me Up Before You Simcoe. This one is hazier; in fact it's about as hazy as IPA gets: a dense opaque orange. The aroma mixes fresh-squeezed citrus juice with a suggestion of harder rind or pith to come. Sure enough, the juice is relegated to an aftereffect with a strong kick of lime up front, plus a resinous burning hop napalm which can make Simcoe a difficult one to deal with sometimes. Here it's softened with a New England vanilla sweetness which arrives just before the juice kicks in. I wouldn't call the flavour balanced, exactly, but it does have two contrasting sides which help keep the beer drinkable. As does the very faint carbonation: big hops and gassiness would have been a serious problem. In theory, both NEIPA fans and IBU-chasers should find something to like in this. I enjoyed the overall boldness of approach, in both directions.

Finally and most recently there's a new lager called Stairway to Helles. There's not much room for messing with these, and no messing is in evidence. It's perhaps a little drier than I was expecting, giving it an almost sharply crisp bite. As the noble hops gradually kick in it becomes more like a pilsner, and I'm perfectly happy with that. Maybe a softer texture and more malt sweetness would improve it but I simply closed my eyes and thought of Pilsen.

Pilsner and Helles aside, the set does go quite heavy on the haze theme. I guess that's what sells. Still, with winter closing in I'm sure it won't be long before the dark recipe book comes off the shelf for another round of tweaking.