Roll out the Barrel

That pub I go to celebrated its 7th birthday recently, and seems to have hired Third Barrel to bring the party favours. That took the form of a tap takeover, which included a couple of beers that my diligent hounding of the brewery had hitherto missed.

New out was Wish You Were Here, an IPA of 5.7% ABV with no further information provided. It could be anything. It was, it turned out, a very west-coast style job, hopped with freezy Citra and Cascade and fermented with a thiol-boosting yeast. The bright polished-copper appearance was a pleasant surprise, and it really does maximise the hops in play. Dank resin is present in abundance, with added sparks of lime, pine and pith. That bitterness is almost difficult, though luckily there's a softer side too, with fruit chews and strawberries to offset any harshness. The substantial gravity gives it a helpful soft texture, while retaining the crisp west coast bite in the finish. Lovely. Perhaps it's a little on the severe side, but in a world dominated by sweet haze, counterpoints like this are necessary from time to time.

The next beer has been around a while but only gets rolled out on special occasions. This was, apparently, the last ever keg of Le Chic, an imperial stout aged in Chardonnay barrels. It's getting on for two years old, which is fine for an 11% ABV stout, though I was expecting some sort of oxidation or autolysis off-flavours. Nope. It tastes bang fresh, with no signs of age in the flavour. It's a gentle giant, offering smooth milk chocolate and soft caramel, balanced against an old-school bitter hop tang. Also ticked off on the imperial stout checklist are coffee roast and hazelnut. It was a bit of work to find the wine barrel's contribution, and I thought for a moment that the heavy black beer had simply drowned out the white wine. But after a minute or so, a new complexity emerges, tasting to me like ruby port or Madeira. It seems the white wine has been turned red and fortified. This probably would still have been superb without the barrel ageing, though that does lend it a unique and subtle extra character. A reminder that barrels, when used, don't have to be the beer's whole personality.

Belated birthday greetings to UnderDog, and time to get the second batch of Le Chic into the barrels in Bluebell, if it's not already.