Don't play the hits

A welcome new development at Whiplash is the re-brewing of selected parts of their beer repertoire. Trying to keep up with everything they put out is exhausting, and their dedicating some of their energy to beers I don't feel obliged to seek out and tick is a welcome respite. Normal drinkers might get a thrill out of seeing favourites return, too, which is nice for them.

That said, I was very pleased to see Emerald Rush, specifically, make a return to the roster as I missed it first time out. This is a 6.8% ABV hazy yellow IPA hopped with Riwaka and Ekuanot. I'm coming to realisation that minerally, grassy, Kiwi hops are great for this style, offsetting the soft sweet side with harder flint and herbs. So it very much is with this one, the Riwaka spewing vapours of kerosene and lawn clippings like the underside of a jet-powered lawnmower. A proper serious bitterness follows in the flavour: hard and acidic boiled brassicas with green medicinal notes of eucalyptus and star anise. Anyone looking for juice will be sorely disappointed. I should be gleeful about the audacious iconoclasm on show here, but... there's a gritty harsh element behind the hops, something of a stereotypical flaw in these, but one that Whiplash usually avoids in theirs. There's a charm to its boldness, but one can was plenty.

It's off to Fidelty next, to see what's on tap. The Joyce theme evidenced by The Dead is continued with Nausicaa. This is a quadrupel at 10.6% ABV and bourbon barrel aged. As such, it's one of those bourbon beers, and not my first, which tastes of red wine more than American whisky, of which I wholeheartedly approve. Beyond that it's a deep brown colour and on draught has a wonderful smooth mouthfeel. The pub's high tech temperature control gave it to me several degrees above cold which really helped bring out the complexity. Because it is also a proper quadrupel, with biscuits, treacle, raisin and all that good stuff. And despite the barrel effect it doesn't taste harsh or hot, though it is perhaps a little sweet in the finish, with a spoon or two more of brown sugar than is necessary. Still, it makes for excellent, relaxing sipping fare.

"Bruges Rouges" is how Whiplash describes Alcoves. It's a red ale served on nitrogen and is 5.6% ABV, and I'm a bit flummoxed by what they mean. Bruges isn't even French-speaking. Anyway, I bought a pint: always the best way to figure out what a brewery means. There was nothing Belgian about the willibecher it was served in, looking like a posh pint of Kilkenny. That's not how it tastes, but it's not far off either. Of hops there are none, and I think the nitrogen has deadened the malt too, leaving only a vague breadcrust dryness. Searching for more to write about I could only find a strange fishy tang which wasn't offputting until I noticed it and then couldn't ignore it. As it warms there's nearly a little white pepper and stonefruit which suggests that without the flavour-killing gas mix, this might be interesting. For me, though, it's not far enough away from the Kilkenny-Caffreys axis of awful. Is it meant to taste like De Koninck? Could be, as I don't particularly like that beer either.

On to collaborations, and Left Handed Giant co-produced something that sounds very like a Whiplash solo run: an 1840s-recipe decoction-mashed porter. It's called, prosaically, Keeping Porter and is 6.1% ABV. It's obsidian-black in the glass and smells of coffee and caramel, suggesting that brown malt is a major part of the recipe. That's also the foretaste, one which is followed by softer milk chocolate and hints of flowers and summer fruit. A light dusting of ashen roast ensures that the sweetness doesn't get everything its own way. For all the perceptible complexity it's still nicely easy drinking, and doesn't quite taste the strength, though the mouthfeel is suitably full. Overall it's a tasty and unfussy sort of porter, with any gimmickry strictly confined to the production process. Perfect for when the potato crop fails. Again.

It's a bit out of character for Whiplash to brew something as prosaic as an extra special bitter but that's what Post No Bills is, a collaboration with American brewery Bonn Place. And I detect this is very much English beer seen through an American lens, it being all of 5.6% ABV, for one thing. There are some echoes of English brown bitter's black tea and caramel, and likewise the clear garnet colour, but it rapidly veers off into strong ale territory, including toffee, banana, ripe strawberry and squashy plum. While I enjoyed the near-barley-wine vibes, and the general depth of the flavour, its banana side is a bit too loud for comfort. More booze would help. It usually does.

The old palate needed a bit of a scrub after that and luckily there was a new west coast IPA on tap at the same time: Another Light. I knew I could trust Whiplash not to mess with the fundamentals here, and sure enough it arrived a clear pale copper shade, as nature intended. The two-strand aroma offers zippy zesty lemon and then a harder pine-sap resin. I got a bit of malt weight here too, turning it somewhat sweaty. Any related worries dissipated on tasting: it's magnificently clean and absolutely classic with the grapefruit and the pine. The body is strangely full and soft, which isn't a bad thing but means you don't get a sharp assertive bitterness on flavours which suggest it. It's only 6.3% ABV too, despite exuding double IPA characteristics. Regardless, it's delicious: a reminder of why American-style IPA came to such prominence in the beer world.

A last minute saison brings us out: The Climb is a collaboration with Mayo's Mescan, not an immediately obvious choice for Whiplash to work with but I will absolutely take it. It's a densely opaque yellow fellow, smelling saisonly of lavender and bergamot. It's big bodied, 7.1% ABV giving it a chewy fruit gum effect early doors, turning to white pepper and rye bread after. This is no classically dry saison and certainly isn't built for the session, but I liked having the proper saison character in a strong sippable job. Saison, but chewable, is a style I can get on board with.

I set out to write a short post about the welcome dearth of new Whiplash beers. I think both me and the brewery got a bit carried away.