Four beers from three brothers

Four beers from O Brother today, a brewery which seems quieter than it used to be but is still turning out the product, and across a range of styles too.

First up, a sour ale brewed in collaboration with Bierhaus in Galway, called Lionn Buídhe Bhríghde. The can is low on information but tells us it's 4.3% ABV and dry hopped with Mosaic. In the glass it's an almost-clear bright yellow and smells deliciously lemony, with an enticing mix of citric sourness and bitterness. The flavour is calmer than the aroma suggests, the sourness more of a gentle mineral sort than highly acidic fruit. It's not puckering, but very clean and refreshing, aided by a texture that's light yet not watery. Mosaic's tropical side is present, with notes of cantaloupe, mango and apricot. It's a little two-dimensional, and not in any way unique: lots of breweries make a beer like this. It is a great example of it, nevertheless.

The second one is called Counterfuture though looks very much of the present, being a custardy wan yellow colour. At 6.4% ABV it's medium-weighty but I got little sense that the body was being used to propel hop flavours. While the aroma has some distinctive lime and grapefruit character from the Citra in particular, aided by pithy Cashmere, it doesn't carry well into the flavour. There's a broad oranges-and-lemons bitterness and some New England vanilla sweetness, but all quite muted and even slightly dull. I didn't drink this at its freshest, but I don't think that a big hop effect could have faded out in just a couple of months. Anyway, it's not the best example of haze that we've had recently.

They did much better with Conn=cted, badged as an oatmeal IPA but very much in the haze zone, being that almost greenish shade of cloudy yellow. Although it's a relatively modest 6% ABV, the flavour is intense, piling in pithy citrus and savoury herbs. I complain about the garlic taste from beers like this, but more because it's a predictable cliché than because it's unpleasant. Here the garlic is properly odiferous and punchy, but enjoyable too, contributing to the overall bang from the flavour. My faith in the brewery's ability to do haze well is restored.

We finish on a stout, a chocolate and oatmeal one. It's only 4.5% ABV but they've given it the high-drama name Dark of Heartness. There aren't many new stouts coming out these days so I was looking forward to this one when it showed up at UnderDog. Alas, it left me disappointed. All the things one associates with chocolate and oatmeal in stouts -- the hefty and smooth body, the sweet and calorific flavour -- are missing from this. Instead, it's very dry and very thin-textured. It's as though the yeast has overextended itself and consumed parts it was supposed to leave behind for the drinker. By way of complexity there's a little summer-fruit tartness and a strange cork or wine twang, but nothing to make up for what I wanted. They could have badged this as a dark mild and it would have fitted the style better. It does not deliver as a stout.

A bit of a 50/50 situation with this lot, then. I'm hoping for better luck with the brewery's next releases, whenever they arrive.