Promise kept

I told you that when DOT completed the launch of its core range, first presented in the media in June of last year, that I would let you know. Easy Amber was the straggler, featured in the press coverage but only available to drink from March of this year. Better late than never, of course, and I snapped one up as soon as I saw it.

It's an even 5% ABV and quite murky in the glass, more a muddy brown than amber. The aroma is an enticing mix of sweetness and spice, like ginger cake. On the palate it's quite subtle, presenting a complex mix of cherry, raisin and chocolate up front, with a cedarwood spicing peppered through it. The murky look leads to a murky mouthfeel and I can't help thinking it would be better if cleaned up more. Still, the essentials of amber ale are well represented and it's nice that having one as a go-to is now an option.

A single-beer DOT post is of course impossible, so what else we got here? Victory in a quiz at 57 the Headline resulted in a bagful beers from the pub's beer brand, Two Yards. In that were two versions of Over A Barrel, a barrel-aged milk stout created in collaboration with DOT. I covered the original, Cognac, version in late 2020. One sequel uses Recioto dessert wine barrels and is a percentage point stronger than the first one at 9.2% ABV. I'm not familiar with Recioto itself, but this beer smells extremely herbal, more like a vermouth than a sticky. The wine side comes out more in the flavour, although it's very much oak and cork over fruit. There's also a brisk sourness which is very strange for a milk stout. Despite all the weirdness this works very well. As with many of DOT's more involved beers, style designations aren't much of a help in determining what you're going to get. This one takes you all over place but the destination is still delicious.

The strongest one in the set is Over A Barrel Bourbon which is 11.2% ABV. We're back to stouts that present as stouts, and this one has a lovely coffee aroma, pure and unadulterated. The texture is creamy and the flavour is smooth, with no jags of spirit or booze, possibly even risking an accusation of blandness, at least next to the Recioto one. It's not bland, though. Espresso coffee is at the centre of the flavour, accompanied by significant lactose-derived creamy sweetness, but there's also a malt whisky aspect which tastes mature and classy, not the crash-bang vanilla I associate with bourbon. While definitely sweet, this is a no-nonsense beer which keeps all of its different elements balanced and in check.

What's particularly interesting from drinking the stouts side-by-side is what a difference the barrel makes. The base recipes may be the same but the results are very divergent. Being able to find this out is one of the things that makes the DOT project so worthwhile.

At the tail end we have Verjus. This very experimental small batch arrived on draught at a bijou beer event in Lucky's on Meath Street just before Easter. It's a mixed-fermentation sour beer of 4.4% ABV with added raspberry, cherry and the titular ingredient, verjus, which is made from squeezed immature grapes and supposedly adds a zesty citrus taste. Of course, raspberry tends to dominate anything it's put in, and so it goes with this hazy pink emulsion -- sweet candy hitting up against a buzzy sour sharpness with a hint of redcurrant jelly. I liked it but didn't really get the novelty factor, or much indication of what the special ingredient brought. I guess there'll be more verjus in the next one. Let's be having it.

A full core range is all well and good but it's the off-kilter ingredients and processes that I come to DOT for.