A date with density

I'm hearing that Hopfully has been doing well for itself locally since setting up in Waterford as its forever home. That's good news, both for the drinkers of the sunny south-east, and for me as a regular consumer of their canned special editions. I have four such for today's deliberations.

The first is a micro IPA, only 3.2% ABV, called Dive In. Although it's very pale, the haze and froth does at least give it an appearance of substance. The hops are a Pacific combination of Strata, Citra and Motueka, which I feared might be a bit harsh but smells deliciously soft and tropical. So goes the flavour, conjuring mango and mandarin in no small measure, plus a cheeky diesel minerality from the Motueka. Only the quick finish gives away the strength: the body is properly full, the flavours rounded and balanced. Naturally there's not much malt character, but it's a hazy IPA so that's to be expected. Overall it's a very clever trick -- successfully getting all the good features of a well-made hazy pale ale into an extremely modest package. If it's still around in the summer it could make for excellent sessioning in the sunshine.

Something similarly suited for that purpose is witbier, and Hopfully released a new one of those, called Fountain. The ABV is a smidge low at 4.9%, and it's a deeper more serious orange colour compared to the sunny yellow of mainstream ones. Orange and coriander are included, as is a bit of lemon zest too. It smells deliciously spicy, the herbs and Belgian yeast doing what they're there for. To taste, it's quite sweet, piling in the citrus to concentrated cordial levels. It's not overdone, however, and the coriander does help balance it well. The carbonation is atypically low, and while I think it still would work as a sunny-day refresher, a little more sparkle would have helped it on that front. In general it's that rare example of a microbrewed witbier which is as enjoyable as Hoegaarden.

For St Patrick's Day they released a hazy IPA called Between the Ditches, and it is very hazy, looking just like beaten egg. I feared grit but it is very clean tasting. It's maybe a little plain for a big IPA at 6.5% ABV but there's complexity discernible if you take your time with it. Mandarin juice and lemon peel are at the front of the queue, and then there's a background spicing: a little peppercorn and a little gunpowder. A weighty mouthfeel helps carry all of this through to a decently long finish, while the aroma offers an enticing preview of the fruit and spice to come. As someone who drinks a fair few beers like this, and not because I especially appreciate the style, this is a good one and has something for everyone to enjoy.

The script flips for Superhero, this one a powerhouse imperial stout with salted caramel. It's 9.5% ABV and brewed with caramel and sea salt, as you might expect. Here too there's no danger of thinness: it is properly viscous and could pass for even higher gravity than it is. This is definitely built for dessert, and to me tastes predominantly like tiramisu: you get a solid jolt of coffee with your dark and sticky boozy sugars, all down to the combination of dark malts the brewery has employed. As well as the oily bean flavour, there's a strong roasted component, a bitterness that goes some way to balancing the intense caramel sweetness, without actually interfering with the beer's headline feature. It's no one-note pony either, adding in cherry and raisin elements for bonus complexity. This one isn't one for the summer sessions but is a very good example of what it is, and on a par with the big stouts produced by the European continent's finest.

Superb work from Hopfully here, and Waterford is lucky to have them. All four of these are testaments to the importance of mouthfeel to the good-beer experience. Get that right and rest is easy.