Thiols and barrels and bears, oh my

"Does it have thiols in it? I'm not drinking anything without thiols." This appears to be what brewers are banking on their end users demanding these days, because there's a lot of thiols-as-marketing around. What's a thiol? I don't know, I've never seen one. Third Barrel's Electric Eyes has them, though, according to the can. It's a hazy IPA, though modest at just 5.6% ABV. The thiol-optimised hops are Idaho 7 and El Dorado and they come through quite intensely in the aroma, especially El Dorado's tropical-flavoured chew sweet impression. There's tropical juice aplenty too, and a mild bitter spicing. The flavour is an odd mix of bitter and sweet, presenting aniseed, jaffa pith, garlic and orangeade, set on a light and fizzy body, missing the fluff of most sweetly hazy jobs. Oddness aside, it's quite good, brightly fresh and enjoyably complex, showing off aspects of its two hops I'd hadn't found before. That's because of the thiols, you know.

No thiols are listed on the session IPA Day Drinkin 4: The Dank Knight. It might still be worthwhile, however. Like the previous three in the series it's 4% ABV and hazy yellow, but this time we get Idaho 7, Mosaic and Columbus for hops. Dank? Not really. That word implies resinousness to me and this is precisely as light as the ABV implies. There is a slight herbal spice thing, however, which could be classified as dank if it showed up in a weighty US-style IPA, but this ain't one of them. Enough on dank. What you do get is lots of fun citrus zest, lemon in particular, with touches of orange and grapefruit. For a session IPA that's perfect. It's fun and flavoursome while unfussy and very drinkable. No complaints here.

There was another new one from Third Barrel client Crafty Bear in mid-November called Colour Change. This is a very hazy pale ale, its opalescence putting me immediately in mind of Trouble's iconic Ambush, though it's a tad stronger at 5.4% ABV. Once that was in my head there was no escaping it. The aroma, too, sang of mandarins and vanilla, though with perhaps more of a bitterness than the Kildare lad. The flavour, it turned out, didn't swing that way, and instead it's a beautifully smooth and sweet affair, piling in the fruit and brushing it with just a cheeky hint of savoury garlic on the end. Overall it's very good, though. Crafty Bear is a sporadic producer and I don't know how permanent any of its beers are, but I could see this one being a steady seller, just like Ambush.

Loose on the Juice has been around even longer, and the fact it was still around in January and was tasting banging-fresh on draught in UnderDog suggests I wasn't drinking the first batch. The ABV goes up to 6.3% ABV and the body is quite dark for something hazy. While the previous one smelled of mandarin but didn't taste of it, this follows through fully on the same promise: bags of juicy mandarin, though not a lot else. A tiny hint of coconut in the finish is its only nod to complexity. There's very little heat for the strength too. Again, this is a great example of how to bring out the good side of hazy IPA, and could also be a go-to if it sticks around.

A late add to the Crafty Bear set is Shape Change, a session IPA.  It's a sort of a beige colour in the glass topped by plenty of loose white head. The aroma is fresh and very New-Englandish, showing lots of lemon curd with a rub of garlic. This is no weakling at 4.5% ABV and the body shows off that full-sized gravity, being round and fluffy, carrying the flavour all the way through to a long finish. Said flavour is an uncomplicated mix of citrus and candy: not quite juice, but definitely fruit-based and sweet. It doesn't do much, but you do at least get plenty of it. Though designed as a session beer, this hits pretty much all the points required of a bigger American-style IPA. I'm not a huge fan of this flavour profile in general, but I think they've made a great job of it here.

Back to Third Barrel for some stronger stuff to finish on. First up: Dubbel Impact, only about the 13th commercial beer to use the name in recent years. Like Van Damme himself, it's a big boy: a full 8% ABV and looks a darker brown than most dubbels. The head is half-hearted and doesn't last long, somewhat spoiling the appearance of what should be a foamy, hearty ale for jolly monk types to quaff. Without the froth it looks a bit Calvinist. In the flavour, the Belgium factor is quite low: not much by way of fruity esters; no plums or figs, and surprisingly little heat. What you get instead is a rich cakey chocolate effect with a little clove spicing, some sugary toffee and floral topnotes. A dry roasted edge finishes it off neatly. It's good, but not exactly what I'm after in a dubbel. I really miss the dark fruit. Far be it from me to ding a beer purely on stylistic grounds, but this is one of those. Close your eyes and think of porter.

Lastly a stout with salted caramel called Set To Smooth. Set to fizzy, more like: lots of foam on this as it poured, and quite an actively sparkly mouthfeel. The beer behind the bubbles seems a little thin too, given the not-insubstantial 7% ABV. Still, the salted caramel is absolutely there in the flavour, sweet with a mildly sweaty tang. There's a bit of complexity with that as well: hazelnut, coconut and a dab of hop resin. While it tastes good, as long as sweet is your thing, I find the thinness hard to get past. It really ought to be bigger and stickier, and just seems a little vapid without it; a pastry stout for slimmers. Them's the breaks, I guess.

I should be grateful that Third Barrel is turning out more than an endless stream of hazy pale ales, but that does seem to be what they're especially good at, on this showing at least. Maybe the dubbel needs more thiols? Just a suggestion.