Have it your way

Last time I drank their beers, I complained that Dublin contract brewer Outer Place only releases hazy IPAs and nothing else. Clearly they've treated that feedback with the seriousness it deserves and followed up with... three more hazy IPAs.

That begins on Mini Mini Disco, a hazy IPA of the session kind. It does look well: pale yellow, only slightly hazy, and topped with a handsome fine white mousse. The aroma is pleasingly tropical, giving up mango and guava in particular. Azacca is bringing the sweetness, so what are the Columbus and Cascade doing? It's not bitterness because there's very little of that in the flavour. Fruit candy opens it but then fades very quickly to almost nothing, leaving only a rubbery, soapy twang on the finish. It's very thin too, beyond what I think is necessary for session IPA and certainly more watery than 4.4% ABV would suggest. They seem to have gone all out for drinkability but missed the mark on making something actually worth drinking. A session on this would get very dull very quickly.

We go up to a full strength IPA next: Perpetual Dawn at 6% ABV. Simcoe, Citra and Cascade do the honours here. That said it's not a wildly different flavour profile to the previous one, though worlds away in terms of the flavour's depth. The body is full and has the oaty creaminess that hazy IPA does well. Tropical fruit is at the front again, bigger and rounder, and while there's still not much bitterness there is a certain spiciness, an edge, which helps balance the sweet side. Sweet it is though, leaving a sugary, boozy residue on the tongue after swallowing. I deem this one for strict haze adherents only; it has little else to offer the neutrals.

Finally, a sort-of style variation: double white IPA. Say A Little Prayer is 8% ABV and utilises orange peel and coriander as well as Amarillo and El Dorado. Both of the witbier add-ons are apparent in the aroma, and there's no sign of the hops and alcohol, so it smells like a witbier. Fair enough. The flavour is strong and doesn't sit right with me. Savoury green herb -- more rosemary on a roast than coriander -- clashes with puckeringly bitter citrus peel, this bit more lemon than orange. The jarring flavours are heightened by an almost syrupy mouthfeel. I can just about detect El Dorado's fruit candy struggling to make its presence felt behind all this but it doesn't stand much of a chance. I don't really like white IPA at the best of times; the only other double one I've had didn't suit me, so the odds were against this one from the start. Fair play to Outer Place for doing something a tiny bit different to their usual, it's just not for me.

More O/P hoppy haze will be along in due course, no doubt.