Arthur's Last Christmas

Just before the Christmas holiday I dropped in to the Open Gate Brewery to see what the Guinness crew were offering for the season.

Paddle one began on a Chocolate Milk Stout, the sort of thing Guinness has produced from time to time but rarely to any great aplomb. This one is fine, but unremarkable. It has all the creamy Guinness texture but a little too much of the signature Guinness bitterness. I could barely taste the powdered chocolate behind this, nor did I get any of the vanilla effect which often results from lactose. Overall, it's maybe a smidge denser and sweeter than Draught Guinness, but little more different than that.

The next one gives this post its title: Arthur's Last Ale. The claim is that it's a recreation of the last batch of ale brewed by Guinness before it became an all-porter brewery in the late 18th century. My "beer specialist" server couldn't tell me what it's made from, but it's a dark garnet colour, so I'm guessing some combination of roasted malts is involved. The aroma gives little away but the flavour leaps in with Scotch-ale levels of sticky toffee. It's only 5% ABV but feels more, almost like a barley wine. The flavour finishes with a bite of burnt caramel. A very slight leafy green tang is all that the hops, presumably English, have to say. As historical recreation beers go, it's accessible and pleasant. I don't get the point of putting something like this out as a promotional piece for the brewery without making all the background information available, however.

Finally for this paddle, Plum Pudding Porter: not the most original idea, but nobody else around here is doing one, so why not? It's properly black and a sizeable 8.3% ABV. The spice and plum is immediately apparent from the aroma; enticingly so. The mouthfeel is surprisingly light, in that it's full but not heavy, and very drinkable. What also helps there is that the novelty flavours are restrained and quite balanced. You definitely know you have a novelty beer: its flavour is the gustatory equivalent of wearing a silly festive hat. But the clove, the cinnamon, nutmeg and sultana all taste like the real thing, not some homogenous sludge of industrial "Christmas pudding flavor". This is the classiest gimmick beer I've had in a while.

The second flight began with a palate cleanse called Lyre Lager, a bit stronger than your standard at 5.5% ABV. As is absolutely standard in this place, it's a flawless gold in the glass with a perfectly formed white head. The body is substantial but there isn't really the flavour to justify it. It tastes very generic, with only token hops -- all bittering -- and a sickly malt sweetness that's half way to tramps' brew. I have to wonder what the intention was. Regardless, this one isn't up to the usual high standard of Open Gate lager.

The final two are in those rare beer styles that make high turnover taprooms like this so much fun. Who else would be making 90 Shilling? Open Gate's is 6.8% ABV. This is a heavy fellow, dense with unfermented malt sugars, while also laced by bitterly vegetal hops: serious stuff. There's a definite Highland Toffee element to the centre, and it's enjoyably warming and chewable. On adjusting to the bitterness I found a more nuanced red-liquorice side to it. I'm no expert on what 90 Shilling is meant to taste like, either historically or whatever American homebrew culture has since turned it into, but this is quite a good beer, and was well suited to the cold and drizzly evening on which they served it to me.

Our big finish is Open Gate's Black IPA, brewed in collaboration with giant, mostly-independent, Kildare brewery Rye River. It's certainly black, showing only dark brown at the edges, and it's a sizeable 6% ABV. On the red cabbage to bath bomb scale of black IPA flavour profiles, this leans Lush, sparking with zesty lemon and oil of lavender. The bitterness is harder even than cabbage and spinach, heading for rubber and yeast dregs, but this isn't very prominent and can be ignored. Overall, it's a slightly off-kilter interpretation of black IPA, perhaps taking its cue from the current fashion for fruity ya-yas in IPA hopping, rather than a stern smack. It works, though. Black IPA being a wonderful and under-valued style doesn't mean they all have to taste the same.

Open Gate is closed at the moment but scheduled to reopen on 23rd January. I don't know if any of the above will survive the furlough.