Confounded expectations

I've been enjoying Third Barrel's 4% ABV session IPA series, Day Drinkin and I notice they have abandoned the numbering system for iteration five, simply telling us it's Strata, Citra, Simcoe. As usual it's a hazy yellow in the glass. There's a decent whack of juice in the aroma, though a little chalky grit as well. The flavour is not so much juice as citrus flesh: the spritzy zing of real mandarin and satsuma. Not much happens beyond this, and it finishes quickly, but that's to be expected. This is for warm-day drinking, built to quench thirst rather than provide content for stuffy beer reviews. I have no idea if they have plans to stop messing with the recipe but I would be perfectly happy if they did so here.

West is West, a collaboration between Third Barrel and Beer Hut, makes a pretty unambiguous claim. We're talking clear amber, pithy and piney with plenty of bitterness and, above all, clean, right? This is none of those things. Instead, it veers haze-ward, being a murky pale orange colour. The mouthfeel matches that, soft and fluffy, and it was only as I was assessing this that I found a pinch of bitterness at the back. Beforehand it's marmalade and chew sweets; not juice, but not far off. You need to let it warm to grow the bitterness into lime rind and and something leafier and more vegetal. That shouldn't be necessary. In general, I don't particularly object to cryptoNEIPA of this sort, but calling it what they did feels like rubbing in an injustice.

New from Third Barrel's lodger Crafty Bear is a cherry milkshake IPA, which is not something I've encountered before and was a bit apprehensive about. Othello is the name, 6.2% ABV and a dense orangey-pink colour. The aroma is more milkshake than IPA and short on fruit, offering only vague vanilla. Luckily the flavour is altogether more engaging and succeeds in putting the cherry syrup front and centre. Vanilla backs it and I was braced for a jarring bitterness in the finish but none came, only a very faint leafy green buzz. As an IPA it doesn't really pass muster but as a happy, chewy, summer fruit beer it works. I've had much, much worse milkshake IPAs.

A stout to finish, and Third Barrel becomes the second Irish brewery to release a tribute to the late popstar Prince, after Rascals in 2017. But while that was a straightforward lager, Rainin Purple is much more involved, being a milk stout with added raspberry, lychee and rosewater -- although none of those flavourings appear on the ingredients list. It's a substantial 7% ABV and dark brown in colour with lots of unexpected busy fizz. I'm sceptical about the benefits of putting anything else in a stout with raspberry: it does tend to cover everything else. But while this is indeed raspberry-forward throughout, the other features are discernible, particularly the sweet and unctuous lychee in the aroma and the exotic, Turkish-delight, rosewater in the flavour's finish. They are subtle, however, which means the different elements don't jar with each other, presenting a harmonious picture. At the centre of the taste is a candybox confection of raspberry and chocolate, smooth and sweet after the carbonation subsides. The alcohol is very well hidden. It's perhaps not as complex, or busy, as I thought it would be, but it's still very enjoyable and ideal dessert fare.

Adding fruit to IPA and stout wouldn't normally be my thing, but here are two examples of it done well. There's no excuse for not cleaning up that IPA though.