Best of British

The days of hyped-up English beers seem to have passed. There are certainly plenty of breweries who have excellent reputations, but those are at least as likely to be decades old than new start-ups. Maybe everything exciting in beer has been done. I doubt it though.

As a veteran of the hype era, I still get a frisson when beer from The Kernel passes my way. So it was downright thrilling when UnderDog held a tap takeover of their wares last month. The list was unfortunately quite light on the dark beers, but I made do.

First up, something called Kernel Pils. I'm sure they have lots of beers with this name, but this one was specifically brewed using Nelson Sauvin hops. It's 4.6% ABV and the low strength comes with a light touch on the Nelson, adding very Marlboroughesque melon, gooseberry and white grape, rather than anything sterner. The mouthfeel is wonderfully full, though it also retains a beautiful clean crispness. Overall, it channels the fundamentals of great German pils -- hello Keesmann -- but with a new-world hop used just how a precision-focused German lager brewer would. The hype may be gone but The Kernel is still turning out quality.

Next was the Small Pale Ale, and again I must specify the hops: Columbus and Centennial, in this instance. How very 2010. At 4.2% ABV it's not actually all that small, and most breweries would call such a thing a session IPA. It's rather basic and hazy, and not very interesting for something being sold at eight euro a pint. There's a broadly citric lemon icepop flavour, and it's refreshing and easy drinking, except on the wallet. While it's fine as a beer, I'm not sure it was worth shipping across the Irish Sea.

Something more interesting to finish this set: Brett Pale Ale. This one is 4.4% ABV and hopped with a Transpacific combination of Mosaic and Taiheke. The hops are very much a secondary feature here, however, adding only a small pinch of lime peel to the finish. In front of that it's Brett all the way, here manifesting in male-toiletries mode, all spicy pepper and sandalwood, with a musky perfume and earthy resins. It's a little bit much, but it's still fun and accessible. You never know what you're going to get with Brettanomyces, and I liked what it brought here.

Beer from another once-hyped English brewery was also circulating: Stef brought a can of Cloudwater's Persistance Is Utile, the sixth version of this coffee imperial stout. It smells strongly of peanut and hazelnut but the foretaste is surprisingly floral, all rosewater and lavender. I felt the coffee was a bit lost under this, and while I welcomed the lack of astringency or sharp bitterness, some smooth coffee richness would have been appreciated. 11% ABV is a big alcohol kick, but it is deployed wisely, adding warmth, not heat. It is at least a mellow and mature-tasting beer, not at all the loud and busy stout of an upstart brewery, but the work of one which has honed its craft. 

If the road through hype leads to refined and high quality beers like (most of) this lot, then perhaps it's tolerable. And I'm glad that both of these breweries are still turning out great stuff even when their praises are no longer being sung hourly on social media.