A whip round

Today I have a selection of beers from Whiplash. I've been making good use of their Dublin bar, Fidelity, which has made finding some of their more esoteric output easier to find than hunting in shops.

Allta Dark Sour is first, created as a house beer for Dublin restaurant Allta but available elsewhere too, like Fidelity where I found it. It's dark: at the brownish end of garnet; and it's properly sour: the classy balsamic vinegar tang of Flanders red ale. Any more? I thought I detected some sweet bourbon vanilla in the aroma but it turns out it's cognac barrel aged, so that's the oak component. I can't say it tasted like brandy, though. From the dark malt there's a little caramel and a crisp roasted edge, then we're back to the sourness and the typically Flemish cherry and raspberry tartness with sweeter date and tamarind. It's an odd choice for a restauranty foody beer, but maybe they're pitching it as an aperitif. Regardless, it's rather nice, especially when allowed warm up and round out.

Staying in Fidelity, a new lager called They Reminisce Over You, in the still-sort-of-fashionable "Italian" style. The board shys away from calling it a pilsner and I'm not sure why that is: it's properly crisp and even a little creamy in the central European way. The hop profile is not what it could be, however, and I didn't get a whole lot of that character. In both flavour and aroma there's a mild summer fruitiness, of honeydew melon and white grape, but almost imperceptible. For the most part this is dry: clear and clean but avoids feeling thin or overfizzed. On a sunny summer evening it worked well as a refresher: 4.5% ABV and served at 3°C, numbers fans. I could have let it warm up to see if more flavour emerged but I doubt that's the brewer's intention.

My mantra of don't muck about with classic German styles has been observed with Don't Call Me Uncle, as straight a dunkel bock as you like. It's crystal clear and a gorgeous shade of cherrywood red. The aroma is a perfectly balanced mix of caramel malt and herbal noble hops, and there are no surprises from that in the flavour. It's 6.5% ABV and full bodied, which means the malt is foremost in the taste: bourbon biscuit, hard toffee and a little burnt breadcrust dryness. The hops take a back seat and, as someone who has occasional difficulties with pungent German hops, I'm glad of that. Here, they're limited to providing only a minor tang of acidity, preventing the sweet profile from getting cloying. It works, in that effortlessly refined German way, which I'm sure is not easy to do. Usually, bock fails to push my buttons but this example is spot on.

The brewery's can labels have become rather less engaging since they changed designer. The new one doesn't even have their name on it. Anyway, this is Desire Lines, a 6.8% ABV IPA, opaque as you like and hopped with Azacca, Galaxy and Motueka. There's a lovely fresh tropicality about the aroma with maybe just a hint of naughty dank in the background. The texture is nicely creamy, with low carbonation for enhanced suppability. I was a little let down by the flavour after that. There's rye in the grain bill, and the main thing I get from the flavour is a savoury, almost smoky, bitterness, which tastes very like rye to me. The fruit side of the hops, suggested by the aroma, doesn't really come through. It's certainly not juicy, though does have a stimulating hard bitterness in the finish. Ultimately I think it's a bit bland. With all the named varieties of ingredient I think I have a right to expect more complexity than was delivered.

Its ABV twin is Embracing Facts, another hazy IPA, this time with Hüll Melon and El Dorado. There's an annoyingly generous head and the standard Whiplash beaten-egg body. The aroma is sweet, fruity and crisp, like Skittles, and again we get that creamy meringue mouthfeel. But also again the flavour disappoints. Here it's standard haze problems: a rough and savoury grittiness, too much heat and a garlic or spring onion effect which drowns out the mix of grape melon and stonefruit which I can just about detect hovering in the background. The fun side of the off-flavours is a spicy nutmeg character, but I wanted fruit, dammit, and it didn't deliver. Whiplash used to be the one reliable brewery when it came to hazy IPA but they seem increasingly to be making ones that aren't to my taste. That's not on.

Let's regroup for a pale ale, one at 5% ABV called Slide. It's hazy, of course, and hopped using Strata and Galaxy. They give the aroma a pleasing mandarin juiciness, which is promising. There's a surprising amount of bitterness in the flavour; a hard resinous quality which isn't unpleasant but isn't what I was expecting either. The orangey fruit side sits behind this, though isn't strong enough to make the beer taste juicy or sweet. Once I had adjusted my expectations, I enjoyed it. They haven't skimped on the hops, and the bitterness builds, tasting almost like raw cones by the end. There's a very slight haze sharpness, but the hops prevent it from doing anything seriously problematic. It's not an easy drinker, but I like its sheer uncompromising wallop. Strap in.

At the same ABV but calling itself an IPA is Note To Self. It also says it's "West Coast" and it's the translucent gold of Sculpin and friends. I had been expecting grapefruit, though the aroma is sweet mandarin, which is lovely, but where's the bitterness? It's not really in the flavour either. There's a certain pithiness, but that's being charitable. Zest is as intense as things get, and there's certainly no resin, all of it finishing quickly with little to no aftertaste. We're in accessible-quencher territory here, rather than Whiplash hop fireworks. It's in a small can and sits comfortably beside the brewery's core offerings Rollover and Body Riddle -- built for the six-pack, or indeed pints at Fidelity. 

Finally, it looks like Chimes, the lovely lime-flavoured pale ale that Whiplash made for Dublin burger chain Bunsen, has been retired and replaced by the more plain-spoken Bunsen Pale Ale. This is 4.8% ABV and, as you might expect, fully hazy. There's a balance of sweet and bitterness, lemon juice meeting soft vanilla. I was served it very cold, in a chilled glass, and it's probably best consumed this way. There's a grittiness which begins to make its presence felt as the beer warms, accompanied by unwelcome oily garlic. But when cold it's clean and zesty, and does an excellent job of scrubbing burger grease off the palate. There's certainly no indication that they've skimped on hops, just because it's not pitched at hardened beer enthusiasts.

It seems Fidelity is definitely the place to go if you want Whiplash beer that isn't a hazy pale ale of some sort, although it does sell lots of them too.