Sun spots

DOT Brew has its summer clothes on today, beginning on two recent releases, very much not the sort of heavy barrel-aged dark beers on which the brewer has built its reputation, before reverting to type for the finisher.

First up is a Radler which I'm guessing is based on a pale lager, diluted to 2.5% ABV and with orange and lemon listed in the ingredients. The former is most prominent in the aroma, giving me orangeade, or even a more concentrated cordial. I think I'm within my rights to have expected this to be fizzy, but it's a little flat, and thin with it. There's not much sign of the underlying beer, suggesting to me that it is indeed a very simply constructed lager, and that's not unusual for radler. What you get instead is the orange syrup, adding a sickly sweetness to the front, which fades mercifully quickly, but nothing much replaces it. There's a slight citric bitterness toward the end, which I guess is the lemon, tasting more real than the orange, but easily missed. Of course, this is designed for easy-drinking low-alcohol refreshment, and it does perform that role. I think I would prefer a fruit-based soft-drink, however. This isn't any more pleasurable by virtue of being a beer.

DOT is well used to collaborating with distilleries, usually whiskey, and usually Teeling, but the next beer bears the name of Kerry distillery Skellig Six18 and is invoking its gin. Pole Star claims 18 botanicals, but the only unusual ingredients listed are juniper, birch sap and bilberry. Maybe that's enough. It's a typical light sour fruit beer, 4.2% ABV and pouring a pale pink colour with no head. The aroma is slightly yoghurt-like and the texture very thin, as is generally the way with kettle-soured beers, which I'm guessing this is. I found the flavour rather generic, based on an indistinct hedgerow berry effect, where bilberry wouldn't be in my first ten guesses. Then there's the lactic sour tang and that's about it. A slight peppery quality from the juniper? Maybe. This is fine, though unexciting. If it genuinely does contain 18 different botanicals, they're not really pulling their weight. Maybe it was a fun recipe to put together but, from the drinking side, I'm not really feeling the benefit. It's fine, though: another light and fizzy thirst-quencher with a fruity twist.

In the run-up to Christmas last year, via Aldi, DOT put out a joint effort with Two Stacks: a can each of stout and whiskey (canned whiskey being Two Stacks's Whole Thing) in a giftable cardboard tube. We didn't have to wait long for the 2025 edition, which landed in June. The beer, 2025 Stacked, is a barrel-aged imperial stout, though only 7.5% ABV. An 8.2% ABV version was a standalone release back in 2021, and I'm guessing Aldi's price-point needs prompted the cut. Still, it's a dense-looking affair: properly black with a tobacco-stain head. That said, the former-bourbon Two Stacks casks aren't much in evidence in the beer, other than a hint of spirit and honey in the aroma. The flavour is simple and good, offering a serious tarry roasted bitterness set on a full and creamy body that is in full compliance with the requirements of imperial stout. I couldn't find the vanilla and oak spice promised on the tube, but did detect a kind of smoky complexity in the background as it warmed. Trying it in tandem with the whiskey didn't add anything new. The spirit has been aged in DOT's stout barrels but didn't have the same chocolatey air as, for example, the Jameson stout barrel Caskmates. It's good though, with lots of typically Irish honey and a dark seam of Oloroso richness. Putting the two together is a gimmick, but it's fun and, at €12, relatively inexpensive fun.

While it's nice to see DOT branching out stylistically, neither of the light and fruity efforts were any great shakes. Yes, it's hard to impress me with any radler, but the sour one wasn't done to the same distinctively high specification as the strong barrel-aged beers. Is it churlish of me to ask that a client brewer with its own ageing and blending facility might like to try something fun with wild fermentation cultures? I'll ask it anyway.