Pull the other one

The JD Wetherspoon Autumn Beer Festival arrived in mid-October. I managed to spend some time at it, both in the central Dublin pubs, and abroad. Here's what I found, beginning at The Silver Penny on Dublin's Abbey Street.

Adnams brewed a version of Central City's Red Racer Session IPA for the event, identical in strength to the Canadian original, and a charming clear copper colour. It's thin and unfortunately rather soapy. There's a bright fruity flavour that's a little like candy but a lot like a bath cosmetics shop. That makes it a trickier to drink than I'm sure was intended. It's not fully offensive, but whatever the Adnams process has done to the Mosaic hops didn't suit me.

Siren was a surprise to see in the line-up. I didn't think JD Wetherspoon was their bag. Anyway, they'd sent Mesmerist, looking every bit like a New England IPA -- pale and cloudy -- but only 3.4% ABV. The aroma is lightly lemony, and although it's light-bodied, it's not unpleasantly watery. In the flavour there's the rather aggressive bite of low-ABV heavily-hopped beer: a herbal, mineral bitterness with a solid dose of dank resins, despite it not feeling at all oily. Malt isn't much of a feature, but there's a dry crisp base behind the Citra, Eclipse and Mosaic hops. I rather enjoyed it. While it's a bit of a one-dimensional hop explosion, it remains drinkable and fun.

I was wondering why the name of the Hogs Back beer, Notorious PIG, was familiar, and it's because Bullhouse used it for a porter back in 2017. This is a bitter, broadly, though badged as east coast IPA: 3.8% ABV and a crystal-clear medium gold in the glass. The flavour doesn't give up much, but what's there is good: tropical mango and lychee. In keeping with the advertised style, bitterness is not really a feature, although it cheats slightly by having a super-quick finish where it's not really given a chance. The wateriness grates a bit after a while, so this may be a bit too dull to have a session on, but a half was rewarding.

"Brewed at Banks's" was never an especially encouraging thing to see on a collaboration pumpclip but it took on an extra poignancy with the announcement of the brewery's permanent closure. For their last bow, Orihime, with Japanese brewer and Wetherspoon festival veteran Toshi Ishii. It's a pale ale, 4.3% ABV, and while there are some pleasant and exotic fresh hop notes of soft peach and zingy lime, there's also plenty of distinctively English tannin and dried orange peel. There's also an unfortunate soapy bitterness which doesn't sit well with any national characteristics. In toto, it's assertive, punchy and distinctive, but not terribly enjoyable. Bye Banks's. I'm sorry we didn't part on a happier note.

I don't think I've seen Yorkshire brewer Rudgate at the festival before, and I definitely didn't think a fruit beer called Mango in the Night was their sort of thing. Here it was, though: a 4.5% ABV pale ale with mango. There's a very slight haze to the orange colour and a nonspecific funky ripe fruit aroma. The texture is thin and the condition lacking, for an overall watery mouthfeel. No mangoes explode on the palate, nor any of the promised Citra hops. Instead there's a vague candy fruit effect and what tastes to me like a rasp of papery oxidation. It would appear that yer da has attempted to do something cool so the young folk will be impressed, but has failed. Give him a pint of ruby mild and take him home.

St Austell is also being adventurous, with Fresh Pot. Disappointingly, the name references only coffee (1970s drug puns? Really?) It looks well: jet black with a proper stout head the colour of nicotine-stained teeth. No freshness manifests in the aroma but the flavour is beautifully caffeinated, tasting rich and oily, perhaps more akin to a luxurious coffee cream confectionery than the actual drink. While it's mostly sweet, there's a perfectly poised balancing roast and I genuinely can't tell whether that's the underlying stout or the coffee additive. Fine coffee complexities of cherry and raisin emerge as it warms. This is a marvel of the genre, bringing together all the great stuff about coffee and stout, and staying true to both.

Session 1 ended with Salem Session IPA from Batemans. This was the first not to feature Mosaic, but still goes all-American with Cascade, Amarillo and El Dorado. It's clear and amber-coloured, 4.1% ABV and has a decently full body and proper bitterness. In fact, you wouldn't know American hops were involved at all. To me it tasted like a classic English bitter, leaning towards the brown side of the spectrum, with notes of tea, fruitcake and jaffa orange peel. The tannic bite is its signature feature and makes it well worth seeking out, especially if such things are not part of your normal drinking life. If Batemans wanted it to taste American they have failed abysmally, but it worked for me.

Over at Keavan's Port, it was apps not taps on day one: only Townshend Dinner Ale was listed online but more was pouring. Townshend, from New Zealand is not a brewery I know, and the beer was brewed at Hook Norton. Despite the historical style name it's a bitter: golden and 4.2% ABV. Presumably bored of kiwi hops, they've gone all English with Challenger, Northdown and Target. And yet there's quite a new-world vibe about it, with fresh and zesty lemon, building to a grapefruit bitterness with a little softer peach and melon for balance. While not a powerhouse of flavour by any means, it has the soft-spoken decency of good English bitter. I would expect as much from Hook Norton.

The big surprise for Wetherspoon-watchers this time around was Burning Sky's Aurora, a pale ale of 5.6% ABV. Straw-coloured, said the booklet but my pint was distinctly amber; rose gold at best. There was a certain saison-ish quality to it, which shouldn't really be surprising as it's what the brewery is known for. Pear, dried fruit mix and, oh yes, straw all feature in a dry flavour profile. The strength gives it a nicely long finish, still propelling the goods long after swallowing. And despite this, it's still an accessible cask ale, and probably perfectly sessionable. For €2.60 a pint, it did very nicely indeed.

Over in Norwich, about which much more very soon, The Glass House had a great selection of festival specials on, and I started with Conwy's Born To Be Mild, a dark mild, of course. It's not a brilliant one, even though it has lots of the flavour elements I look for: sweet plums and dry toast. The problem is that there's not enough of either of them. It's all a bit too, well, mild. There was plenty of room for putting more character into this 3.8% ABV ale, and that they haven't is an opportunity lost.

I picked up another of the international collaborations here: Who Dat?, a golden ale created by Urban South of New Orleans and brewed at the generally-reliable Bateman's. Something had gone badly wrong here, and I assumed it was at dispense: a massive bleachy phenol kick making me think of glass washing fluid. On bringing it back to the bar it was replaced without fuss, though the beer wasn't taken off. I've subsequently had reports from drinkers in other pubs that this is just how the beer was. That can't be right. Did nobody taste it before it left the brewery?

The substitute was Sapphire Spoon, brewed by Titanic to toast 45 years of Wetherspoon pubs. This was an amber-coloured bitter, and rather a plain one, with basic honey and biscuit notes, but no real hop character. At least it's not sticky or gloopy, finishing nice clean with an almost lager-level of crispness. It's all of 4.7% ABV, which means it could easily have been oversweet with crystal malt, but it isn't. I don't think I've had many of their bitters, but I thought Titanic generally made better beer than this.

There's a vast multi-floor Wetherspoon at Stansted Airport, whence I flew home. On the day, it was serving the final international collaboration: All Dog Alert, an oatmeal stout by Yazoo of Nashville, here brewed by Oakham. At 5.5% ABV it's at the upper end of the strength scale, but it uses it well. Thanks to a big body, aided by the oatmeal, this is a rich and satisfying pint, with chewy, glutinous cereal and a sizeable dollop of chocolate sauce, plus some bonus soft caramel or sticky toffee. For all that dessert busyness, it's quite accessible and easy drinking. Vey much accessible enough to warrant a second pint before departure. It took long enough to find it, but this was the beer of the festival for me.

Unsurprisingly, stout and porter were the standouts. The cask format shines brightest in the dark. Plodding through all the cheap, samey bitters to find them is worthwhile to find the good stuff.