The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 8: Hopfully

Hopfully expressed its Christmas spirit this year with two new draught pale ales.

The hazier of them is Trumpet, which is 5% ABV. Lemondrop, Mosaic and Strata ought to give it plenty of fruit, and likewise the addition of real lemon zest, but it turned our rather plainer than expected. The flavour has a fun mix of lavender and juniper, but nothing tropical or juicy. Served cold, it finishes quickly. This is unchallenging fare and doesn't really bring any specific festive cheer.

I hoped for better from Xmas IPA, looking less hazy but still very much a cloudy yellow job, slightly stronger at 5.3% ABV, and hopped with Strata and Azacca. There's a sweetly citric aroma this time, giving off proper amounts of mandarin and satsuma. The flavour starts there and becomes sweeter, suggesting colourful candy. That fades too quickly, replaced by a twang of dry and savoury grains and seeds, before a rapid finish with a pop of grassy bitterness. The badge claimed it's in the west coast style, but it's not really, being too weak, too hazy and not nearly bitter enough nor showing much malt character. It's grand as a pale ale but the description writes much too big a cheque for it.

Also, in accordance with all standards of basic decency, Hopfully has knocked out three new canned imperial stouts for the season.

First up is Bumper, helped out by Blackwater Distillery who provided bourbon and rye whisky barrels. Teething troubles included an overly full can and a lack of head. Vigorous pouring got me a bit of beige foam but it was short lived. The aroma is worryingly sour, with a cloying sweet element, like ersatz milk chocolate. The flavour is fun, though. I get proper milk chocolate, with a jam or fondant fruit filling: red cherry, ripe strawberry or squishy apricot. An unctuous texture helps with the creamy candy effect, and there's an almost-fierce heat from its 10.5% ABV. That sourness from the aroma is here too, as a sort of Flanders red fruity briskness: a major contrast with the chocolate and fruit side, but a complementary one. This is a beer to enjoy slowly while giving it your full attention. Find a quiet winter's evening and switch off your phone.

That is followed by Romance, up at 11.3% ABV. Eleven months in bourbon barrels and infused with cocoa nibs and two types of cherry. It fizzles in the glass, the head quickly dissipating to nothing. Dat bourbon enters the aroma, all guns blazing, with honking vanilla and a lime tang. The texture is light and spritzy, and were it not for the flavour complexity, it would fall into the "dangerously drinkable" category. Instead, you must deal with the heavily sweet flavour from the cherry syrup, a backing of thick and gloopy-tasting chocolate sauce, the curdled vanilla-meets-lime of the bourbon, a tongue-pinching sourness, and a whole heap of boozy liqueur chasing it all down into your belly where the raucous party starts again. It's not a beer, it's an event. On the one hand I love a loud and brash beer, especially when none of it is accidental. With this one, you might like to split the can with someone else in the mood for a blow-out and with nothing important to do tomorrow.

Finally, not all of the Superhero salted caramel imperial stout released last spring was sold at the time. A quantity got aged in bourbon barrels, giving it extra strength, from 9.5% ABV to 10.7%, and transforming it into Super Superhero. This is a very dense pour, looking still and gloopy in the glass, the loose head a saffron yellow. The aroma is sweet and boozy, like a tiramisu. It's not fizzy as such, but not viscous either, having a surprisingly middle-of-the-road mouthfeel. The flavour takes a second to arrive, but is a veritable explosion in a candy shop when it does: milk chocolate, hazelnuts, raisins, toffee, liquorice, Turkish delight and coffee creams all feature, tumbling over each other in a long finish. There's even a little of the salt from the salted caramel. I don't detect much of a contribution here from the barrel, and it's definitely not hot. And it tastes sticky, even if it doesn't feel it. It's an excellent enhancement of the original beer, and I'm particularly impressed by how the barrel plays its part without taking over.

They may not be Christmas-branded but the stouts are ideally suited to big beer season.