A long Laois

An overdue catch-up with Ballykilcavan today, still sporadically popping out beers in its Clancy's Cans series. Taking these from the fridge I noticed they were all a bit soft, making me suspect something might be up with the conditioning.

Clancy's Can #9: Strata IPA was first. Indeed, there's nothing fizzy about this, but it does sparkle and form a head. The mouthfeel isn't exactly cask-like, but it's along those lines. I'm so used to IPA being yellow that this one's carrot colour threw me a little. There's a powerful raw hop aroma, suggesting the Strata has been dumped in wholesale. Unsurprisingly it's very bitter, rendered more intense by a body that's very thin for 6% ABV. Hard lemon rind and dry grass are the main features, with none of the promised tropical fruit. It's quite harsh, and while the low carbonation was fun to begin with, I think the hop concentration needs more fizz to lift it. It's certainly not how most small breweries make IPA these days.

I figured that Clancy's Cans #10: Sabro IPA, released simultaneously, would be along the same lines, and sure enough the sealed can is springy and the beer inside is 6% ABV, murky orange and lightly carbonated. However, Sabro should be a more suitable hop to pull this kind of trick with than west-coast-or-die Strata. As it turned out, it makes better than usual use of Sabro, a hop which can get a little harsh with its pith and coconut but here is soft and desserty. The aroma is a gentle coconut buzz while the flavour adds a juicy mandarin element to this -- real tasting, showing the citric oil and zest and juice side by side and all at once. This one works. It really tastes like one of those beers where a casking brewer on this side of the Atlantic has decided to go all-in with American hops. I may have said before that Sabro has enough complexity by itself to avoid the one-dimensional problem of most single hop beers. If so, this backs that up; if not, you heard it here first. Anyway, top work, and a marked contrast to its sibling.

Clancy took a whole different direction next for Clancy's Cans #11: Maple & Pecan Brown Ale. Still a squashy can and still a gentle carbonation, but it suits soft brown ale much more than brash US IPA. I wasn't expecting the pecan to be prominent but it really really does taste of actual pecans: that oily, earthy, roasty kick. There's a bitterness that's more hops than anything else, which is another element in something that's almost busy but stays just on the right side of complex. That doesn't leave much room for the maple though there's a non-sweet woody character which I'm guessing is that. There's a lot going on. I like brown ales to be smooth and chocolatey, and this is much spikier than that. It's still good though. Bitter and earthy brown is a new concept but I think I can accept it.

Somebody at Ballykilcavan likes a brown ale, because there's another one next, this a Barrel Aged Brown Ale. We're back at 6% ABV after the lofty heights of the last one being 7.5%. It's a deep chestnut colour and smells surprisingly fruity for a bourbon-aged beer, all raisins and plums. That's how the flavour plays out too, in a fruitcake combination: smooth, sweet and more than a little boozy. Though it definitely says bourbon on the label (I double checked, like a drunk in a cartoon) it's phenomenally vinous, the oak vanillins melding with macerated red grape for something very much in the ruby port, oloroso sherry and madeira wine end of the spectrum. Once again we're far beyond what I understand as brown ale so purists will be disappointed, but it's still a triumph: using that dark malt base to build a fortified wine confection upon. Yum.

Special edition beers are all about giving the punters something a bit different from the core range, and Ballykilcavan has really done that here. It would be a bit too on-brand for me to say that the dark beers have the beatings of the pale ales but... there it is, I'm saying it. Play to your strengths, like.