Untamed beasts

Time for one of my occasional Canvas catch-ups, thanks to a trip over to Blackrock Cellar, the primo Dublin stockist of beers from down the country that rarely make it to Dublin.

First it's a beer described simply as "golden sour", named Bella and 6.5% ABV. It pours quite lifeless and is a dark, orangey shade of barely-gold with no proper head. They've used white wine barrels for ageing, and I get quite a lot of fresh oak in the aroma, with a tarter wine or vinegar edge. I detect something Bretty at work in the flavour as there's a gummy sweetness, akin to tinned peaches, right up front. Light white wine -- cava or prosecco -- hovers in the background before it cleans off quickly leaving a mildly tart acidic bite. I was afraid it would prove as flat as it looks but there's a definite sparkle here, helping it stay clean. The absence of funk makes it a simpler beer than others of this sort. I enjoyed it, though: it's certainly unusual and there's lots to explore in what it does.

It's described as an "amber saison" but Yera is only a little bit darker than that, and it's a little stronger too: 7.2% ABV. Again it's almost flat but not quite, and again the alcohol is extremely well hidden. Here, they say, the yeast culture used includes their abbey strain and I do get a certain plum-and-aniseed Belgian character. There's a mild red-berry tartness and a layer of soft toffee as well. "Saison" is a brave pick for a style because it tastes nothing like one, nor like any other preconceived beer style really. The disparate elements described above don't really gel together into a coherent whole, the way they would were this Belgian. It's fine, but I found myself wanting much more complexity from it.

The next two are coffee-infused, and for a change, Canvas didn't grow all the ingredients for these themselves but sourced the coffee, ethically, outside of Tipperary, in Africa. I began with Radical Rhino, the lighter of the pair at 4.3% ABV and labelled a "farmhouse stout". Soured stout doesn't usually appeal to me, and this one gives that as its first impression, pouring flat and muddy brown, with a concerning vinegar tang in the aroma. That's the direction it picks and so it continues. Unlike the previous ones with their bit of sparkle, this is genuinely and unfortunately flat. The sour tang is at least minimal, but so is the coffee, and that really should be a main feature. There's a touch of funk in the background, but it's a bit plain overall, watery and thin like a lacklustre Flanders red. This is one of the Canvas experiments that didn't work out for me. It needs much more body to be a stout, even at low strength.

I had to follow that with another along same lines: Zesty Zebra, though this is badged as a "dark farmhouse ale". I'm not sure what the difference is meant to be. This looks even worse, a dirty, dreggy ochre colour, though the sparkle is back. Again, sourness covers up the coffee and I would have no idea there was any in here had it not been flagged. It ain't zesty, that's for sure. This has the same basic Flemish red tartness as the previous one, with a little herbal bitterness but not much else. And again it's OK if your demands don't run much further than that. Drinking the two side-by-side was a bad idea as I was bored two sips in. There's actually a third in the series which wasn't in stock when I went shopping. Perhaps that's a mercy as I wouldn't have enjoyed yet more of the same. 

Finally, 99 Brett Balloons, and it was nice to get proper head formation for a change. This one is all of 5.5% ABV and suffers from the same muting of its flavour as the last two. It does taste of Brettanomyces though: a nice mix of funk, spice and tropical sweetness, but I'd prefer the volume to be turned thoroughly up. It is nicely drinkable, however -- light and smooth with just enough complexity to hold one's interest. Raise the gravity, and the gumminess, and this would be a potential classic. 103 Brett Balloons, anyone?

As always with Canvas, the daring experimentation is part of the package you're buying, and sometimes the things you can learn from the beer are more important than whether it tastes good. The likes of these are very much not for the prescriptivist drinker.