Fleeting Hopes

Three beers from Hope today, beginning with numbers 27 and 28 in their limited edition series.

The first is a style I'm sure they've tackled before: Munich Helles. It's a high-spec one too, amber rather than golden and a smidge over standard strength at 5.3% ABV. The extra gravity is apparent in the texture: it's thick almost to the point of being syrupy. Syrup is also what's served in the flavour, a much intensified version of the light spongecake that Helles usually shows. It doesn't dispense with lager pleasantries completely -- it's still nicely crisp despite the density -- but it's no casual easy-drinker either. 440ml was enough to chomp through.

28 is a Double Rye IPA and 8.5% ABV. It's a deep amber colour and smells fresh and spritzy, all clean west-coast grapefruit and pine. The flavour is clean too, but in a very different way, packed into a thick and sticky malt bomb. This is double IPA as it used to be, a decade or more ago, where doubling down on everything was the key, resulting in big and heavy bodies with accompanying chewy malt flavours while also packing in intensely citric and dank hops. In short, it's mostly subtle as a foghorn, though the rye adds its own thing, bringing a relatively understated grassy bite. If you're in the mood for something daftly 2010, then here's the entertainment. On its own merits it's rather fun and delivers everything it promises.

Roll forward a couple of months and deckchair guy is back, with this year's winter seasonal: Dublin Porter, a 6% ABV job using smoked malt. It's quite a dense black, with the requisite topping of ivory foam. There's a faint twang of phenols in the aroma, though nothing too severe. In the flavour that represents as a mild acridity, sharply dry to begin. It mellows quickly, however, rounding out into an almost creamy texture with notes of charred oak, burnt sugar, dark chocolate and well-done toast. It's nothing fancy but very nicely done. There's just enough weight for it to be satisfying and just enough smoke for it to be interesting. Neither of those elements interfere with the easy-going drinkability, however, and it still shows all the essential characteristics of daycent porter. A sequel is promised, and I look forward to it.

I don't know if Hope deliberately keeps track of the styles it puts out in limited runs and seeks to keep them varied, but if they do, it's appreciated.