Tropic of chancer

Time for another round-up of the pale ales of Ireland. Here, randomly, is what's new over the last couple of months.

Hopkins & Hopkins has spread its wings a little, though still strictly local, with a new pale ale which went on cask at The Porterhouse in Temple Bar, the first employment that beer engine has had since Covid. It delights in the pun-tastic name of Sitric and is quite a deep amber colour once it's settled. Though definitely citric, the aroma is English to my mind, smelling of orange peel and marmalade. This intensifies in the flavour, adding fresh and zingy satsuma and a crisp cookie base. After the English oranges fade, there's a much more American lemon and lime bite. And while I'm describing these elements separately, really they're all perfectly integrated into a single harmonious whole: bright, clean and expertly balanced, smoothed out neatly by the gentle carbonation. It's a magnificent work of understated beauty, a superb advertisement for cask beer done with a proper buzzy hop character, and I hope it gets further afield. Though within walking distance from the Smithfield brewery which produces it, of course.

It's been a while since we had a canned special edition from Ballykilcavan, and I think we can blame the new deposit return scheme for that. Here at last is Clancy's Cans #14: Batchelor's [sic] Day IPA, named for having been brewed on 29th February and nothing to do with baked beans. It's described as a "tropical IPA": a light 4.8% ABV and contains top-notch hops Citra and Nelson Sauvin. I was apprehensive when I found it poured an unattractive murky ochre, and prayed that the oxidation fairy hadn't come calling. The aroma assuaged that worry, giving some lovely fresh white grape and general fruit salad notes. The flavour isn't anything quite so clean. There's a distinctly untropical toffee malt taste, and a savoury earthiness from the thick pall of suspended proteins. Not that the hops get buried: there's still the high-octane fuel oil side of Nelson and a certain amount of pithy citrus, but it's not the best use of these varieties I've encountered. I guess if you're looking for something along dark English bitter lines, this would fit that better than it fits new-world IPA. What it's definitely not is tropical.

Wicklow Wolf celebrated its head brewer's 40th (aww!) with Barberhop Quartet, an IPA with Amarillo, Bravo, Galaxy and Strata CGX, the latter of which I believe to be a kind of motor oil. It has WEST COAST IPA in all caps on the label and then pours yellow-orange and hazy. Lads. There's a fun peppery spice in the aroma, which was unexpected, alongside the standard gentle citrus fruit. In the flavour, that spark is still there: a strange mix of cap gun smoke, lemon meringue pie, earth, funk and toast. It doesn't really have any brightness, however: neither zingy grapefruit nor softly slick juice. Everything seems a bit processed; at a remove. The ABV is only 5.5% ABV, so maybe I'm being unfair by expecting fireworks. I would have wanted something brighter and bolder for my 40th birthday, not that I'll be seeing it again.

With Sidechain, Wide Street is offering us two beers in one. It's a West Coast IPA fermented with Brettanomyces, and they say that fresh it shows off the American hop character, while ageing will bring out the Brett complexity. My can was a fresh one. In the glass it's quite a dark murky orange, suggesting an extended ageing in the brewery, perhaps. The aroma is a tangy orangeade and sherbet thing, calm and subtle. It's big bodied, and doubtless the 5.7% ABV has something to do with that, but maybe some of it is the thick gummy character that goes with Brett. Flavourwise there's nothing terribly special: more of that orangeyness and a waxy bitter side, making me think, again, of English hops rather than American ones. There's no deeper complexity and the finish is quick. Fine but unimpressive is the verdict here. I'm sceptical about the idea of ageing it to see what happens, but I may just give that a go: look out for it on the other blog.

A malt-driven pale ale variant next: White Hag's Mullán, an Extra Special Bitter, for once not referencing the Electricity Supply Board, which most Irish beers in this style do. It's Extra Very Special at 6% ABV and is a dark mahogany colour; almost, but not quite, garnet-clear. The aroma suggests treacle, Black Forest gateau and just calories in general. Early summer seems an odd time to put it out. Hops barely feature in the flavour, present in the background and very English, offering a mere tang of flowers and minerals. For the rest, it's rich and sticky dark malt: more treacle, burnt caramel, and a growing cocoa character as it warms. The hops make their biggest contribution to the finish, adding a cleansing bite that balances the sweet malt nicely. I was dubious about that high strength but by the half way mark I understood why they did it that way. There's an extra complexity deriving from it; a bigness and boldness that wouldn't feature with a lesser gravity. While, yes, this would be a classic on cask, in the can they've captured a lot of what I think it would be. Buladh bos, Mullán.

I've reached the stage where the word "tropical" on a beer label gives me the fear. There are lots of beers that do taste of tropical fruit, but somehow the ones which put the word front and centre rarely do -- see Ballykilcavan above, for example. Lough Gill is the latest to try their hand, with Gone Surfing, a hazy IPA created in collaboration with Dutch brewery Baxbier. It's the sunset colour of mango flesh and does smell of a mixed fruit purée, incorporating guava, cantaloupe and tinned peaches. So far, so tropical. It's a little more dry and pointy on tasting, bringing peppercorn spice, oily garlic and peach skin rather than flesh: bitterer than the aroma promised. All of this is heavy and dense, feeling all of its 6% ABV and more. Final assessment: not tropical. This lacks the smooth and cooling effect that the word implies. It's absolutely fine as yet another hazy IPA, but unless they're your favourite thing in the world (which might explain their ubiquity) this doesn't have anything new to offer.

Those dreaded words appear too on the label of Tiki Trail, brewed for Aldi, again by Lough Gill. It's a pale yellow colour, fairly clear, and a sizeable 6.3% ABV. The aroma is quite pithy, reminding me of peach skin and mandarin peel. I suspected I was in for a bit of bitterness and indeed I was. There's an almost smoky savoury element before it reverts to pygmy oranges: satsuma, kumquat and the like. And that's your lot; a rapid finish ensues. It's not a bad beer for a supermarket cheapie, and those familiar with the tall cans of IPA the brewery does for Aldi will find it has a lot in common. It's real middle of the road stuff, the name and concept seeking to lure punters in, but then giving them none of the fruity party fun they might have felt entitled to expect.

Also via Aldi is Nasc, a session IPA of 4% ABV from O Brother. Dammit, I shouldn't have read the label: it does say it's tropical, though also citrus. It's quite hazy in the glass, a pale shade of orange and topped by a handsome stack of white foam. The aroma is certainly more citric than tropical, a sharp kick of lime suggesting that Citra herself might be in the house. They've added oats and got great value from them, giving it a lovely smooth body and greatly enhancing the sessionability by removing any sharp edges. The flavour is quite simple, but enjoyable too: a clean zestiness, of lemon and jaffa orange, delivering just enough bittering to pinch the side of the tongue. There's a certain lighter juiciness as well, but nothing I'd specifically call tropical. At least they didn't put it in huge letters on the front of this one. As a straightforward session IPA in the softly modern style it works well. Am I imagining the existence of IPA tropicality?

Third Barrel seems to be persisting with the terrible can artwork. I don't know what thought process gave rise to the prompt which rendered six-digit zombie brewer Dolly, but I know shite when I see it. One might think that Cup of Ambition should be a coffee beer but it's a hazy juicy IPA of 6.5% ABV. And it's a very good one, a demonstration of why even the most ardent of haze sceptics should give one a go now and again. The brewer says it tastes of wild berries, passionfruit and mango, and it's the last of these I get most: definitely and delightfully tropical. It's all (unspecified) New Zealand hops, but subtly done, adding side notes of tart gooseberry and rich coconut to the fruit. There's a tiny scratch of grit in the texture but mostly smooth and juicy prevails, as it should. I found it delightfully gluggable, and neither the high ABV nor woejus label would put me off opening another.

Is O'Hara's trolling me by calling their new one Sub Tropical IPA? Ahhh, we never said it was tropical. It's a 4% ABV session job, draught only at time of writing, and a lightly hazy golden. I don't think it's sweet enough nor full enough to be properly tropical, but there is fruit. There's a kind of dankly bitter feature in the aroma and at the centre of the taste so it's not lacking in character. A soft citrus -- tangerine and candied lemon peel -- follows. The herbal bitterness is solidly enjoyable and lasts into the finish, longer than might be expected with so light a beer. Overall, it's a jolly, punchy thirst-quencher, arriving at just the right time of year.

Dead Centre does not say Machine Learning is tropical. They do say it's a New England-style IPA, and it's one of the clearer, oranger ones, which is rarely a good sign. And it tastes fantastically tropical. Idaho 7 and Eldorado give it a multicoloured flavour of mango, guava and pineapple. On a different run-through I might bemoan the lack of bittering balance and the indecently quick finish. Not today though. I was happy to welcome the sweet and tangy fruit, as well as the soft base they've set it on. Maybe 5.4% ABV is a little on the high side for something so quaffably undemanding, but I'm not complaining. Dead Centre is a brewpub and is therefore well within its rights to produce this sort of pintable beer. It was a pleasant surprise to see it turning up in Dublin on draught.

There's also a new double IPA -- unapologetically West Coast -- from Galway Bay. It sets out its stall with the name Beyond the Pines. Pale and golden, it smells more dank than piney, with an almost sweaty sort of funk. It is oily, however, with lots of tongue-coating resin. I don't know that I'd call it piney as such: there's a lack of sharpness. The flavour sticks, literally, to the leafy, sticky dankness, adding a softer peach or apricot juiciness. I was never a fan of the more extreme sort of dry and bitter American IPA -- hi Sculpin! -- but now that they're a rarity I have a better appreciation of the novelty. This is one of those, and it doesn't quite sit right with me. I need a bit more citrus or else some balancing crystal malt. By going all-in with the dank they've produced something too cheesey for comfort. Fun for one, but I'm glad I turned down the upselling opportunity to buy a pint of it.

That's all for now. Tropical-watch will no doubt continue indefinitely. Be vigilant!