Boutique beers

I finally ran out of excuses and had to go to the Midlands Craft Beer Festival in Moate, Co. Westmeath. Veteran beer blogger turned industry mainstay Simon has been running this gig in his hometown since 2015. The line-up has changed over the years, but good beer and live music in a relaxed al fresco atmosphere has always been the offer. And it's only 90 minutes from Dublin. Why did it take me this long?

Ten companies were represented at the bars and I got round most of them in the five or so hours I was there. The beer that travelled the least distance came from Dead Centre in Athlone. They have a special which is made specifically for the event: Moaterboat. It's a bright pink, raspberry-infused ale of 5.9%, which is strong for this sort of thing. It's very casual drinking, offering simple dessertish fun in lieu of any complexity. Once I stopped looking for any, I enjoyed it. It's a bit like drinking a pavlova.

It seems that Moaterboat's persistent success has meant it spawned a variant for the 2023 event. Passionboat is lighter on its feet at 4.7% ABV, though tasted thicker and fruitier to me: I guess that's in the nature of passionfruit versus raspberries. There's a slightly metallic twang underneath, which I sometimes get from fruit concentrate in quantity. It's not too disturbing, however, and this is another simple and slightly daft beer, one which you have to appreciate on its own jocose level.

And the same can be said for Disco Ain't Dead. Dead Centre created this in 2018, at the height of the short-lived craze for glitter IPA, for it is one such. They're extremely rare in Ireland and this is the first one ever to come my way. I was excited! And then very disappointed when it completely failed to sparkle. You had one job! Since it provided no visual entertainment, I had to make do with tasting it. It's a fairly typical hazy IPA: 6% ABV and sweet, with almost ice-cream levels of vanilla, plus a burn of savoury garlic and a slight rubbery burntness in the finish. I doubt I would have picked up anything remarkable about it without knowing what it was. I will expect better from my next glitter IPA, whenever that appears.

Tagging along with Dead Centre was its client brewer The Format, dormant for several years as owner Mark tried his hand outside the beer business. Thankfully he's back now, and Loungin' was the first new Format beer since the beginning of 2020. It's a hazy session IPA given a fruitsome hop combination of Strata, El Dorado and Centennial. The vanilla was the first thing I noticed, but it's no one-note murk-bomb. There's a pinch of jaffa orange bitterness and then a surprise clove spicing late on. It's smooth and more thickly-textured than one would expect for 4.5% ABV. When he says session IPA he means it, and I would have liked to have spent some more time on this one.

The Midlands were further represented by Wide Street, down from Longford. They were pouring Cuvée Prestige from the tap, an arrangement which owner Seán regarded as sub-optimal. I never got a chance to go back and try the bottled version against it. In general, though, I wasn't overly keen. The proposition looks great: a Brett-fermented saison aged in Chardonnay barrels and with gooseberries. It definitely has a berry tartness, but I thought it went a little too far in this direction, the sour side shading into spirit vinegar territory. There's a heaviness here too; a sense of thick and sweet German white wine, which was a surprise. While this does hit lots of the correct flavour points for a mixed-fermentation saison, it's not in the upper echelons for me. One for ageing in that all-important bottle, perhaps.

Time for some more session IPA. Brehon Brewhouse brought Good Times, another 4.5%-er. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of The Format's offering but it was still pretty good, mixing bright and fresh citric American hops with that typical New England base of smooth, sweet vanilla cream. Fun, easy-drinking, and very appropriately named; no further comment necessary.

Galway Bay are at this game as well. Their new session IPA is called The Good News, and the good news is that it, too, is 4.5% ABV. The visuals were a little off, it looking quite sickly in the glass, thin and yellow. The taste is spot on, however, thanks to what the brewery calls "a criminal amount" of Nelson Sauvin and Motueka. That gives it a delicious white grape juiciness, plus a mild dusting of coconut. This is set on a clean base, with none of the murky grittiness I thought I would get. It works as a down-the-hatch sessioner, if that's what the occasion demands. I liked savouring that classic New Zealand hop flavour, though.

The Bay had another new one for us as well, a Catharina sour, the Brazilian-style fruit beer that surprisingly few Irish breweries to date have tried their hands at. It's called Lagoma and is a collaboration with Rascals. Blood orange, guava and passionfruit give it the strong and unsubtle tropical hit which the style demands, at least initially. The fruit fades after a moment or two, and the finish is a little thin and plain. Normally these have a pulpy richness, delicious but not very beer-like. This one, while good, is more basic and approachable. It's fun in its own way, but doesn't offer much of an education in what makes Catharina sour distinctive.

Back to the IPA, and a cold one from Third Barrel, called Vulture Culture. This is 6% ABV and almost completely clear. The early hop flavours are a delightful juicy mix of stonefruit: apricot and peach in particular. A precision crispness in the texture helps accentuate this. But then it unfortunately reverts to type for cold IPA and delivers a rasp of raw white onion, one that becomes sharper and more pronounced as the beer warms. It's not ruined by any means, and this is a very decent interpretation of cold IPA. If only there were a way to expunge the onion, it could be perfect.

We finish on DOT's beers, beginning on another 6% ABV IPA. DOT has done a fair few like this, and here the distinguishing feature, which will do for a name, is Citra + Mosaic (edit: this may be the same beer they've been selling at other festivals as "Stage Left"). No haze here; it's clear and mostly quite clean. I detected a tiny rub of garlic but that's in second place behind a raft of cantaloupe and guava, the Mosaic doing exactly what's required of it. Yes, IPAs tasted of tropical fruit before anyone thought to make them hazy. Thanks to DOT for this reminder.

Dark beers were in short supply, but I get to finish on one from DOT, another of uncertain name. It's a version of the barley wine called Beastly and is a beast indeed at 17.8% ABV. The barrels in which it was subsequently aged previously held oloroso sherry and pot still whiskey. For quite some time, I'd say. This tastes mature, of old leather and marinaded beef, with more than a hint of the date and tamarind of brown sauce, and a peppercorn spicing to match. The texture and heat leave one in no doubt as to the strength. A sample on the way out the door is probably the best serving for it. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I would fancy a full measure of it.

And that's all I drank. Huge thanks, of course, to Simon for putting on a great show; to Don's Bar in Moate for hosting; and to all the brewers who brought beer. While it's quite possible that I was the last beer drinker in Dublin never to have made it along before, if there are more out there, it's well worth making a plan for next year.