Guests at the Bullhouse

Two beers from Belfast's Bullhouse brewery today, both created in collaboration with someone else.

The first is described as a "bramble sour" and is the latest in the Ár gCairde series that Mo Chara in Dundalk has been doing with various breweries. It's made with blackberry and blackcurrant puree and is dark pink in the glass, with lots of froth. The aroma is on the sickly side, smelling mostly of undiluted Ribena. Thankfully it's more restrained on tasting, being quite drily tart, with a fine cleansing fizz. The jammy berries are present, but without too much residual sugar. As a thirst-quencher it works well, not offering much in the way of complexity but plenty of simple fun.

The next is a collaboration with Leeds's Northern Monk and I picked it because of the delightful name Hallion Battalion. It's a very clear American-style pale ale, attractively amber and 5% ABV. The can promises resin and pine, and looking at the beer I don't disbelieve it. Still, it does it with balance and panache, adding a lighter floral perfume to the sticky pine and grapefruit. None of it lasts long, and an almost lager-like clean finish brings it to a conclusion quite quickly. It's nice to get a break from the haze now and then, but I think I would have liked a bit more punch here. It reminded me of the less-good draught version of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, hinting at bold flavours it never really delivers. Still, I didn't need to spend much time over it.

Nothing too amazing here, though they're decent beers. One might have thought that a collaboration was an opportunity to do something a bit more unusual, but they've resisted that urge.