Something for everyone

DOT continues to barrel age things that most breweries don't, such as the "micro fruit sour" called Yeah Yeah. It's not all that micro, at 3.4% ABV, and is a translucent pale amber colour. Strawberry, raspberry and white grape are the fruits, and none of them are especially prominent or distinctive. The raspberry is uncharacteristically quiet, while the strawberry is perhaps most noticeable, as a sweet jam or compote effect. The barrel ageing, on the other hand, makes a major contribution, adding notes of shaved coconut and pure vanilla essence. It threatens to get a bit sticky and cloying, sharing a flavour profile with beers which are. The low strength saves it, however, ensuring it's crisp and fizzy. It's certainly unusual, but I deem it an experiment worth repeating. You get the happy elements of a summer fruit beer, but also plenty of serious barrel complexity to stroke your chin about. Yeah Yeah? Yeah.

My recent complaint that the Teeling Distillery giftshop was overcharging for the small cans of DOT collaboration beers at €5.50 has been heeded. The latest addition to the series was €6: For Wheats Sake! This is a 4.5% ABV wheat beer, aged in former white wine whiskey barrels. It's a slightly hazy golden colour with the fine-bubbled head of a quality pilsner. The aroma is strongly fruity, and I don't know how much of that is the wine barrel and how much the hops; grape meets lychee. The wheat performs well in the texture, giving it a lovely silky mouthfeel: refined and sophisticated. The fruit aroma concentrates further in the flavour, turning to perfume, sprayed on with abandon, giving generous amounts of rosewater and jasmine, plus cinnamon and nutmeg spicing and a more serious funky musk. That might be a bit overwhelming were it not, again, for the low strength allowing for a swift finish. It's another bit of sunny summer fun, and fully unique. However, the price tag is an extra bit of spice I could have done without.

By contrast, it was less than half the price for another 4.5%-er, this time in Aldi. Interstate was next in the regular Spin Off Series DOT does for the supermarket. You don't get any barrel-ageing for that, only a perfectly straight American-style pale ale. It's quite an old-school offering too: a deep ochre colour; a little hazy, but not in the New England way. The aroma has tangy citric hops, sure, but a considerable malt component as well, which has become rarer in pale ales these days. The overall effect is of an orange-flavoured cookie or cake. As expected, the flavour leads with the bitterness: sharp to an almost metallic degree. This is where I'd normally say it fades to let the softer fruit through, but it doesn't really. Orange is still the dominant feature, but in a pithy and peely way, infused with oily zest. It's not a million miles from your classic Sierra Nevada, though the lower ABV shows in a lesser intensity and a thinner body. Still, it gets the job done and is excellent value.

Oktoberfest season brought two more Spin Offs. Helles promises the fundamentals: "golden lager with a slightly sweet finish". Slightly is apposite. I like a cuddly, fluffy Helles but this one is more on the dry side, with a crisp mineral rasp, more like you'd expect from a pilsner. Still, 5% ABV gives it a decently dense body, making for properly süffig drinking. The thick and pillowy head of fine foam made me wish I'd poured it into a proper handled mug. Its hops emerge as it warms and are noble to the core, presenting damp grass and green weeds. A certain degree of ester fruit threatens in the background of the flavour but never quite makes it to the fore. It's a pretty decent take on the style, and I don't think Aldi sells Spaten any more, so is filling an important gap.

Alongside that came Bock. In Germany, on its own, that would have suggested a pale beer, but this is no Heller Bock, nor Dunkel Bock nor Doppel. Its dark honey colour conjured the Netherlands rather than Germany for me. That's superficial, however. Dutch bock goes all in for caramel, this is much cleaner, tasting hardly dark at all. It doesn't taste bock-like, really, missing the big syrupy malt and loud weedy hops. Instead it's quite clean and plain, crisp and lagerish even more so than the Helles, with only a smidge more sweetness, from soft-spoken strawberry and raspberry notes. While balanced and refined, it does run the risk of being a little boring. I could have handled a bit more vegetal sharpness or burnt malt tang, especially at the substantial 5.9% ABV. But hey, it's Oktoberfest, and easy-drinking fortified lagers are the whole thing. This may not look like one, but it is.

We finish on the Silk Road, originally a pale ale but subsequently aged in Chinese red wine barrels and with added lactose and sour cherry. It's 6.2% ABV and, obviously, pink. The aroma is sweet and a little jammy, that fruit making itself felt on several planes. And it's there in the flavour as well, though not so much as real fruit, more a candy analogue: bubblegum or sherbet. That's far from the whole picture, however. At the front it's a coconut tang, like in the beer we started on, which I'm guessing derives from oak vanillin, and then a gentle peach-skin bitterness and a light nutmeg spice. I noticed the can was a bit squishy on opening, and the lack of carbonation lets it down. I feel we would have got more value out of the complex production process if it were fizzier. It's good, though, but could be better.

There's some nice diversity on display here, and all at reasonable strengths, if only occasionally reasonable prices.